Virtual Hearing - Built to Last: Examining Housing Resilience in the Face of... (EventID=112576)

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On Tuesday, May 4, 2021, at 12:00 p.m. (ET) Housing, Community Development, and Insurance Subcommittee Chairman Cleaver and Ranking Member Stivers will host a virtual hearing entitled, “Built to Last: Examining Housing Resilience in the Face of Climate Change."

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Witnesses for this one-panel hearing will be:

• Rodney Ellis, Commissioner, Harris County, Texas

• Ariadna M. Godreau-Aubert, Executive Director, Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico

• Andrew N. Mais, Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Insurance, , on behalf of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners

• Shelley Poticha, Chief Climate Strategist, Natural Resources Defense Council

• *Additional witness may be added*
Overview

America’s housing infrastructure is vulnerable to the growing costs of climate and weather disasters, which may accelerate the need for maintenance and repair, or render units of housing infrastructure uninhabitable. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, increases in global average temperature are linked to “widespread changes in weather patterns,” and scientific studies have shown that climate change caused by humans will likely lead to more frequent and intense extreme weather events. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Centers for Environmental Information reported that 2020 set a new annual record with 22 weather/climate disaster events that caused over $1 billion in damage, the sixth year in a row the U.S. has experienced ten or more such events. While a comprehensive federal data set specific to the number of units of housing lost to climate and weather events does not exist, the destructive impacts on the nation’s housing stock have been profound both in terms of financial and human costs. Between 2016 and 2020, weather and climate disasters have cost $615.9 billion in damages4 and have displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes.

Climate Change and Environmental Injustice

Prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, housing policies, such as redlining and zoning, were used to overtly segregate low-income people and people of color into less desirable areas that were susceptible to flooding, located in close proximity to industrial districts, lacked adequate infrastructure, and were systemically disinvested in. Due to historic and ongoing socioeconomic segregation, the current effects of climate change and weather events are concentrated among low-income communities and communities of color.

At present, formerly redlined areas suffer from hotter temperatures and their homes are 25% more likely to experience damage due to flooding compared to non-redlined areas. Meanwhile, some formerly redlined communities face displacement as a result of climate gentrification. In Florida’s Miami-Dade County, for example, rising sea levels are driving wealthier White residents to leave their beach-front properties in search of homes in higher elevation areas, like Little Haiti, which is a historically Black, formerly redlined community, from which families are now being priced out of due to the influx of wealthier White residents. 10

Many homes in disaster-stricken areas are lost due to a lack of resilient design and poor structural siting. Leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 800,000 homes in Puerto Rico had been damaged by Hurricane Maria. Last year, in the middle of the pandemic, Georgia and Tennessee experienced deadly tornados that damaged and demolished more than 2,000 homes. In the wake of California’s 2018 wildfires—the deadliest in the state’s history—51% of homes that were built to higher standard codes established in 2008 went undamaged compared to only 18% of homes built to pre-2008 standards.

Similarly, homes in historically disinvested communities, including in Native communities and the territories, are also more likely to be demolished in the aftermath of disasters. Accordingly, advocates have urged policymakers to “be diligent in building more resilient and prepared communities” nationwide, while targeting efforts in low-income areas and communities of color that face disproportionate climate risk and often lack the institutional capacity and monetary resources needed to prepare for and recover from disaster.

Biden Administration and Executive Actions on Climate Change

On his first day in office, President Biden re-joined the Paris agreement, re-committing the United States to the goal of limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial averages. President Biden also issued an executive order on climate, which includes....

Hearing page: https://financialservices.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=407747

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