Memo: Public Housing at Risk - Adaptation Through a Green New Deal
By: Billy Fleming, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Nick Graetz, Katie Lample, Xan Lillehei, Kira Macdonald, Julian Brave NoiseCat
Key Findings:
Confronting climate change means more than just the aggressive abolition of carbon pollution. We must also adapt to extreme weather, sea level rise, and chronic effects from climate change like heat and drought that are already locked into projections of the near future.
As Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said repeatedly, public housing is infrastructure. And much of that infrastructure is more vulnerable than most experts. There is simply no better place to begin decarbonizing and adapting to climate change than in our public housing communities.
This memo seeks to illustrate the risks climate change poses to public housing communities and lays ways in which adaptation can mitigate the harm.
The Urban Institute and Furman Center estimate that at least 9% of the existing public housing units already rest in the floodplain—roughly 117,000 homes. We project an additional 2,056 units will be inundated by 3’ of sea level rise, an additional 34,476 by 7’ of sea level rise, and an additional 63,400 by 7’ of sea level rise—180,400 public housing units, or 13.8% of the existing stock in this country.
This does not account for the public housing units that will be lost to inland flooding, drought, wildfire, extreme heat, and other climate and development related pressures. This only underscores the need to build 12 million units in 10 years as described in Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Homes for All Act. We are going to lose much more than 13.8% of the public housing supply to climate change this century.
New units must be constructed outside of the risk areas.
Where resettlement is best, extensive wraparound services and one-for-one household relocation guarantees must be made before, during, and after moves to ensure that the most vulnerable residents’ needs are met.
