It struck Texas with a 132 mph haymaker on a late Friday night.
Instead of rumbling inland and fading, this Category 4 hurricane did something odd, wholly unexpected: It stopped. Not for a day or even two. For five days in August 2017 Hurricane Harvey raged and raged, soaking the Houston area with up to 5 feet of rain.
For each of the past three years, the U.S. has faced an average of 15 billion-dollar disasters. In contrast, the average number of billion-dollar wildfires, droughts, hail storms, tornados, blizzards, earthquakes, and, yes, hurricanes in the preceding 17 years was just 6.2 per year. Yes, fewer than half.
What can you as an affordable housing owner, operator, or investor, do to safeguard your residents, assets, and business from this ominous trend?
It turns out quite a bit.
Challenge and Opportunity
Just ask Laurie Schoeman, senior national program director-resilience and disaster recovery for Enterprise Community Partners. Enterprise, nearly 40-years-old, is a national nonprofit organization that works to promote, preserve, and build affordable housing. Schoeman leads efforts across the nation to build resilient housing and communities that can adapt to and mitigate risks from natural hazards.
“It’s so difficult to build affordable housing. It can take years, if not decades, to finish a project. Rebuilding after a disaster is tough, often costing much more than what the project originally cost,” says Schoeman. “Investing in resiliency and mitigation is a much more cost effective and prudent approach.”
“The risks of not investing have never been higher. In 2020, our communities are denser, the property risk higher. Our infrastructure is in poor shape, including the electrical grid, water, and transportation systems. Now, with COVID-19, millions of Americans are unemployed, leaving far too many burdened with high housing costs at a time when it’s critical to shelter in place,” Schoeman says.
Expert Help
The good news is rebuilding after a climate event provides an opportunity to reimagine the community in a way that makes it stronger and more likely to withstand future events. Schoeman promotes and facilitates a robust portfolio of solutions that can help affordable housing owners, developers, and operators take sensible, confident steps to mitigate risk. A few examples:
- Ready to Respond-Disaster Staffing Toolkit. Designed to help affordable housing organizations make their buildings resilient, prepare their staff to handle emergencies, and ensure their residents remain safe.
- Strategies for Multifamily Building Resilience. Nineteen practical strategies from 50 top industry experts to make properties more resilient.
- Keep Safe: Resilient Housing Design in Island Communities. A guide to help shape housing construction in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Florida Keys to better sustain the impacts of hurricanes, earthquakes, and flooding.
- Multifamily Housing Resilience Training Videos. Over 100 training videos on disaster preparedness, building infrastructure, resident engagement, and more.
- Portfolio Protect-Affordable Housing Risk Assessment Tool. What is the risk to your properties? Enter an address and learn your property’s risk rating, an objective way to prioritize resilience investments.
Mini-Playbook
Schoeman also advises affordable housing owners and operators take four immediate steps:
- Develop your business continuity plan. Contact Enterprise. They have a tool that can help.
- Talk to your insurance agent. Your agent has ideas on how to reduce your premiums.
- Set expectations with residents. Let them know what you can and cannot do during an emergency.
- Have at least one staff member CERT-certified (Certified Emergency Response Training). It’s free.
“Let’s be prepared for the upcoming season of storms, fires, and floods,” Schoeman says. “It’s time to get our tool belts on.”
Learn more about how you can respond to extreme natural hazards with resilience.
