The Florida Neighborhood Hurricanes Can't Gentrify

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.

Affordable housing for Florida Keys residents is often vulnerable to damage or destruction by extreme weather. The Monroe County Land Trust has created housing that is both affordable for county residents and built to withstand floods and wind.

As flood risk and severity increase, homeowners are lifting their houses to avoid catastrophic damage. Hydraulic lifts raise the structure several feet up in the air, though it’s an expensive process, costing $75 to $200 per square foot. For some eligible families, low-interest disaster loans from FEMA are available to cover 75-100% of the costs. The organization has already raised nearly 22,000 homes nationwide since 1999.

The Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville, North Carolina, is providing rent assistance, including same-day eviction protection, for people impacted by Hurricane Helene.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s disaster recovery program provides federal funding to build affordable apartments in areas that have lost significant housing stock to disasters such as hurricanes. But due to the required congressional approval process and complex regulations, projects funded by the program often take so long to complete that people affected by the disaster are not able to benefit from the housing. In North Carolina, one such development opened to tenants more than five years after Hurricane Florence struck the area.

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.

Affordable housing communities serve various low-income populations from seniors to veterans to minorities and families. Gaining a safe and affordable place to live — with rent capped at 30% of their gross income — can help turn people’s lives around as affordable housing communities like Hope Cooperative connects residents with services like healthcare, job, and life skills to get back on their feet.

Homestead Community Land Trust and the local Habitat for Humanity specialize in helping lower-income residents become homeowners. They have portfolios of homes available to lower-income residents who make less than 80% of the area median income. To date, the community land trust model has been implemented at a small scale relative to the need and Habitat plans to build almost 300 new homes in the coming years.

The Sacramento Community Land Trust helps people gain more access to permanently affordable housing while simultaneously working to prevent displacement. Through its work, the Community Land Trust preserves affordability and stability, expands home ownership, and grows community wealth.

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.