Community Land Trusts Build Climate-Resilient Affordable Housing

Young Power in Social Action helps families displaced by extreme weather, like hurricanes, by building weather-proof homes and helping those who lost their jobs find new work by providing them with goats or sewing machines to help them create a new livelihood. The group has already helped rehome eight families and plans to rehouse eight more families by April 2024.

Neighbors around the country are forming grassroots community groups to prepare for, and respond to, extreme weather and disasters. These groups organize aid and supplies, participate in reconstruction, and help others find shelter amidst the storms.

Community land trusts, like the Florida Keys Community Land Trust (FKCLT) help people access affordable housing and aid in disaster recovery by stopping land from entering the real estate market and increasing in price. FKCLT rents land trust units to families earning 80% or less of the local median income at about $1,000 per month.

Groups like the Mutual Aid – New Orleans Facebook group take a community-focused approach to disaster response and gather volunteers to deliver supplies to those in need in the aftermath of disasters like hurricanes and flooding. Frustrated by slow and oftentimes nonexistent government aid, these communities are taking matters into their own hands to effectively provide relief to fellow residents when disaster strikes.

After the Camp Fire that destroyed several homes and misplaced residents, the U.S. Department of Agriculture offered low-interest home loans and payment assistance for low-income families who wished to rebuild or repair a home after a wildfire. Several other organizations and agencies also emerged with solutions and research studies that present ways to reshape how Californians rebuild after wildfires, with attention paid to mitigating future fires and the destruction they cause.

After 15 years of fortifying the electric grid with swaps like concrete and steel electric poles and underground power lines, Florida utility companies were able to restore power to residents after Hurricane Ian faster than any previous storm.

The people in a neighborhood in Mexico City are coming up with innovative solutions to handle climate-related disasters like flood. They use an early warning system that uses a radio signal and WhatsApp to warn residents of environmental dangers. However, the app does not always work. And a mobile classroom offers simulations about how government decisions are made when deciding danger levels of disasters. While thousands of residents had been trained, the classroom is usually only in the neighborhood for a day. Yet, these solutions based on education and communication could be applied to other communities.

Coastal cities across South and North Carolina are considering the benefits of underground power lines. With hurricane winds doing major damage to above-ground lines, buried lines often go unharmed, leaving residents with power during such storms. Those in the field note that the cost of rerouting power underground is substantial, and something that residents must cover themselves.

Designing room for rivers and coastlines can mitigate catastrophe. Following a massive flood in 1953, the Dutch government reallocated its resources toward disaster prevention and mitigation. Through measures like building surge barriers and reservoirs into recreational spaces, the Dutch have moved implemented defensive design methods. Additionally, by lowering some dykes, practices have moved from flood control to controlled flooding. The Dutch Water Ambassador serves a global role advising the UN and other countries about the Dutch engineering and design methods.

The city of Houston is changing its approach to measuring the full scope of damage from Hurricane Harvey so it can get help where it is most needed and improve future flood mitigation. Using data from numerous sources, Civis Analytics found unmet housing needs were far greater than initially recorded and low-income areas were hit disproportionately harder, even though recovery funding often goes to areas with higher housing values. Now city officials are working to implement solutions based on the data in order to allocate limited funds where they will be most effective.