What’s the most likely way to prevent public housing fire disasters? Consider the infamous 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, England, and two fires in January 2022, one in New York City and the other in Philadelphia1. Many lives have been lost — a seemingly inevitable fate in publicly owned cash-strapped rent-geared-to-income housing that accommodates vulnerable people.
What will end this on-going spate of murderous fires? Will it be the installation of fireproof building cladding, as in London’s Grenfell fire? The upgrade of safety systems that was not done in New York? Eliminating the overcrowding that led to deaths in Philadelphia?
Fire kills and injures. But so do other threats to tenant well-being, such as the mould that killed a two year-old public housing tenant in Rochdale, England2.
A disparity of causes may suggest there is no single solution to problems of injury and death in public housing. But Minneapolis, Minnesota may have found one ‘single answer’ that has a likelihood of succeeding, should it come into wider use.
Lawsuits. It may far cheaper to fix nagging safety problems before they become evidence of negligence, resulting in costly damages paid out to victims, their families, or other interested parities. Read more at KSTP.COM: Minneapolis Public Housing settles lawsuit for $1.5 million after high-rise fire killed 5
