Designing Climate Policy to Ensure Housing Affordability

How can governments adapt to meet affordable housing needs after disasters?

• As severe disasters increase and intensify, federal, state, and local governments are continuing to adapt their responses.  The needs of low-income renters are particularly acute.
• This project analyzes the intersection of environmental disasters and the shortage of affordable housing in the United States, investigating in particular the effect of flooding disasters on low-income renters.
• It will demonstrate what is at stake when gaps between need and public programs persist, creating barriers to post-disaster recovery for low-income renters that exacerbates wealth and racial inequality.
• By outlining these policy gaps and their urgent consequences, this project charts a path for future research and policy debate about how federal, state and local government can best support those vulnerable to disasters.