“Hurricane Sandy was the greatest natural disaster to ever impact public housing residents in New York City”. So begins the abstract of Public Housing on the Periphery: Vulnerable Residents and Depleted Resilience Reserves post-Hurricane Sandy, a report, due to be released on the first of next month (October 1, 2019).
It reflects the unintended impact of the 2011 hurricane, thanks to decisions made decades ago to locate public housing in inexpensive low-lying areas prone to flooding.
The Hurricane Sandy experience becomes ever more relevant to the fate of affordable housing, both public housing and “naturally occurring” affordable housing. It is increasingly threatened by a succession of climate/weather events such as the record breaking Hurricane Dorian, now bearing down on Florida.
The immediate impact will be displacement as well as loss of housing for individuals in, or close to, Dorian’s path. Each of these climate and weather disasters contribute either directly or indirectly to the ongoing erosion of truly affordable housing in America.
Read more in USA Today: Climate Change, Hurricanes Make The Affordable Housing Crisis Even Worse
