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From page 295... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 295 Justice40 Initiative The Justice40 Initiative is an unprecedented commitment by the federal government, established through Executive Order 14008 in 2021, to make "40 percent of overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution."43 As the committee heard during the study's workshops across the U.S. Gulf Coast, perhaps most starkly in Port Arthur, many of the communities facing environmental threats, such as increasingly destructive hurricanes, subsidence, and sea level rise, are also overburdened by industrial pollution (see Chapter 5) Read the entire page →
From page 296... ... 296 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION the time of this report's publication, FEMA was developing a method to identify these areas and determine the types of assistance it might provide. Federal Nonfinancial Technical Assistance for Flood Events In addition to funding, federal agencies provide important resources to state and localities before, during, and after flood events (Smith, 2011; Snel et al., 2020, 2021) Read the entire page →
From page 297... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 297 contribution, risks without context and optionality present more challenges for the very communities already facing those risks. Without more federal support to contextualize risk data, organizations seeing market demand for this information will continue to provide resources without federal or state coordination on the implications of those data. Read the entire page →
From page 298... ... 298 FIGURE 9-3 Impact of advisory base flood elevations on elevation requirements during post-disaster reconstruction of the Biloxi, Mississippi, peninsula. SOURCE: Gaspar, C Read the entire page →
From page 299... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 299 STATEWIDE RELOCATION AND PLANNING EFFORTS This section first looks across the United States at what several states have done to address the need for relocation in the face of climate change. It then discusses in detail a range of efforts in Texas. Read the entire page →
From page 300... ... 300 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION the case of Blue Acres) agencies and partnering with local organizations to address the numerous elements of relocation. Read the entire page →
From page 301... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 301 Most states have not historically planned for relocation, although this is slowly changing. Existing state plans tend to acknowledge the risks posed by climate change but offer limited funding and programmatic solutions to address the challenges. Read the entire page →
From page 302... ... 302 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION each county's Local Mitigation Strategy Working Group.55 However, there remains little transparency into how priorities are set and by whom, and the same types of information are not readily available in Alabama56 or Mississippi (although a direct contact with the Mitigation Officer is provided for both) Read the entire page →
From page 303... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 303 land suitability analysis to identify areas more appropriate for resettlement (see Chapter 8; Smith & Nguyen, 2021) Read the entire page →
From page 304... ... 304 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION program administered by TWDB is the Flood Infrastructure Fund, which offers funding for various flood management initiatives, including property acquisition.60 To implement buyouts in Harris County, TWDB collaborates directly with the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) , a local agency responsible for managing flood control infrastructure and drainage systems in the county. Read the entire page →
From page 305... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 305 Coast Regional Council63 (Northwest Florida) ; and similar entities in Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama. Read the entire page →
From page 306... ... 306 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION Several important lessons were learned following Tropical Storm Allison, which struck in 2001. TMC sought to retrofit several buildings and infrastructure that were hard hit by the flooding rains, which caused over 2 billion dollars in damages to the medical campus (Minemyer, 2017) Read the entire page →
From page 307... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 307 environmental hazards (more details in Chapter 8) Read the entire page →
From page 308... ... 308 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION Florida An example of a regional planning entity that could expand its focus to address community-driven relocation within Florida is the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council (TBRPC) , one of 10 regional councils in Florida, which covers six counties and multiple municipal governments. Read the entire page →
From page 309... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 309 SARPC 2022 comprehensive economic development strategy includes this recognition: [T] he 120-mile coastline of the Region's Coastline Warning Area (CWA) Read the entire page →
From page 310... ... 310 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION multi-parish planning and development districts and functions as a part of the New Orleans region's Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Read the entire page →
From page 311... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 311 per se, it does require "innovative adaptation strategies that help communities prepare for potential environmental changes, such as severe weather events and sea level rise" (Houston-Galveston Area Council , n.d., p. Read the entire page →
From page 312... ... 312 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION retention areas, and serve as environmental education venues for adjacent schools (Smith et al., 2023) Read the entire page →
From page 313... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 313 greater autonomy, and the states have limited power to interfere in local affairs. In other states, the legal principle known as "Dillon's Rule" limits the powers of local governments to what is expressly granted, implied, or essential by state legislatures or constitutions (Richardson et al., 2003) Read the entire page →
From page 314... ... 314 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION Land-use planning may also be required to qualify for -- or at a minimum increase a locality's competitiveness for -- federal funding. Whenever possible, FEMA advocates a consistent approach for hazard mitigation in a community, and it favors projects that are included in or closely align with, among others, the community's local HMP, comprehensive plan, transportation plan, stormwater management plan, and land-use plans, as applicable (FEMA, 2023e) Read the entire page →
From page 315... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 315 Case Study of Applying Land-Use Planning to Address Relocation: Norfolk, Virginia The city of Norfolk is one of the most vulnerable locations in the United States to the effects of rising sea level (Kramer, 2016) Read the entire page →
From page 316... ... 316 FIGURE 9-4 A community plan for reinvestment and disinvestment. SOURCE: City of Norfolk. Read the entire page →
From page 317... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 317 Following Hurricane Katrina, numerous philanthropies, including the Rockefeller Foundation, assisted the greater New Orleans metro area in its extended recovery effort. The foundation convened practitioners alongside financial resource providers to create a new type of coordinated conversation about recovery.90 These efforts evolved into 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) Read the entire page →
From page 318... ... 318 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION of the challenges the program faced was a timeline that did not allow for the realization of long-term resilience goals (McTarnaghan et al., 2022) ; however, many cities are still in the process of delivering actions identified in the program. Read the entire page →
From page 319... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 319 practitioners and community organizations to "co-create new communityled, safe and equitable models for assisted relocation."104 It organizes community dialogues and provides tools for community groups through its website. In addition, it offers small innovation grants to launch community-led projects to contend with questions surrounding relocation. Read the entire page →
From page 320... ... 320 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION onto contiguous buyout properties has proven beneficial in reducing flood risks to surrounding communities (Atoba et al., 2021; see Chapter 8) Read the entire page →
From page 321... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 321 increased awareness of risk and an enhanced willingness to consider relocation (though the opposite may also be true) , the compressed timeframe in which people are required to act often hampers effective community engagement, collective decision making, and the use of planning processes needed to address the myriad complexities tied to community-driven relocation. Read the entire page →
From page 322... ... 322 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION support needed to assist local governments and communities in addressing the complexities of relocation. Community-driven relocation will require land-use planning undertaken at multiple scales, from neighborhoods and cities to watersheds, states, and regions, underscoring the value of regional coordination. Read the entire page →
From page 323... ... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 323 SUMMARY This chapter provides an overview of the current framework of policy, funding, and planning as it relates to community-driven relocation. It highlights the limits of the traditional episodic, disaster-based approach to community resilience and the need for an integrated systems-based approach to supporting community relocation, where appropriate. Read the entire page →
From page 324... ... 324 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION Office of Community Development's involvement with Pecan Acres or Isle de Jean Charles) , no Gulf state has a comprehensive program to prioritize and serve all of the households and communities that poten tially are seeking to relocate. Read the entire page →
From page 325... ... 10 Challenges and Opportunities for Policy This chapter discusses the following: • Challenges of the existing approach to community-driven reloca tion related to • Communications and responsibilities relating especially to buyout programs and environmental hazard risk • The role of insurance in community-driven relocation • Issues related to household eligibility for existing buyout and relocation-related programs • Issues related to program complexity, buyout process dura tion, and post-buyout requirements • Economic justice issues including benefit-cost analysis (BCA) , outdated cost determinations, funding match require ments, and replacement housing costs and safety • Opportunities for innovations under the existing legal framework related to knowledge sharing and learning, reducing barriers to obtaining grants, addressing the cost-effectiveness criterion, and implementing other solutions that improve the fairness of current practices related to community-driven relocation • Lessons that can be learned from New Zealand and Fiji related to national policies that address relocation 325 Read the entire page →
From page 326... ... 326 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION INTRODUCTION In the previous chapter, the committee discussed the complex web of policies, programs, and funding involved in pursuing community-driven relocation. This chapter follows closely from the framework laid out in Chapter 9 to describe the challenges that arise as a result of this web and some potential solutions, which are further defined in recommendations made in Chapter 11. Read the entire page →
From page 327... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 327 Communication Challenges As discussed in Chapter 7, there is limited communication and transparency about the voluntary buyout process among agencies and between agencies, leaders, and residents. Sentiments from Kevin McKinney of Flood Victims of Richmond at the committee's first workshop in Houston, Texas,1 echoed this limited communication: I think that our government and elected officials need to educate the pub lic and we need to hold our elected officials accountable for this […] Read the entire page →
From page 328... ... 328 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION focus. And we need to consistently say that these buyout programs are community oriented. Read the entire page →
From page 329... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 329 ability to maintain coverage (Frank, 2023; Ubert, 2017) Read the entire page →
From page 330... ... 330 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION resilient standards -- examples of efforts to increase risk awareness from seller to buyer include New York State and Harris County, Texas, as described above. Other opportunities for the government to improve on flood risk communication can occur during the reclassification of regulatory floodplains. Read the entire page →
From page 331... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 331 may include a buyout option) that is tied to holding an insurance policy. Read the entire page →
From page 332... ... 332 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION Despite these barriers, there are promising practices using the National Flood Insurance Program's (NFIP's) Community Rating System (CRS) Read the entire page →
From page 333... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 333 "set the baseline for building and zoning ordinances" and are required for NFIP eligibility, haven't been updated since 1976 (Rush, 2022) Read the entire page →
From page 334... ... 334 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION minimums is underway (FEMA, 2023b) Read the entire page →
From page 335... ... Percent Change (Current to Risk Based Premiums) Plaquemines Parish, LA Current: $842 Risk: $5,431 546% increase Collier County, FL Current: $1,053 Risk: $3,980 278% increase Mingo County, WV Current: $927 Risk: $4,089 350% increase Data limited to counties with > 50 policies in-force FIGURE 10-1 Percent change in insurance premiums during year one of Risk Rating 2.0 (current to risk based) Read the entire page →
From page 336... ... 336 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION In addition to not being able to afford premiums, many households are not eligible for NFIP insurance (FEMA, 2018) , including those located in areas without the required zoning ordinances (FEMA, 2018) Read the entire page →
From page 337... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 337 for households but also for industries. For example, in the Caribbean, parametric insurance is in place for fisheries (World Bank, 2019a) Read the entire page →
From page 338... ... 338 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION Household Eligibility There is lack of transparency in eligibility criteria about who qualifies for a buyout (Siders, 2019) , and those who do not hold clear titles to their homes may not be eligible. Read the entire page →
From page 339... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 339 of the land on which the structure sits (Lubben, 2022) Read the entire page →
From page 340... ... 340 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION insurance coverage with the NFIP. At the community level, property may be determined eligible if there is the potential for it to be used for flood mitigation projects after acquisition (Siders, 2019, Table 3) Read the entire page →
From page 341... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 341 Methods of reducing checkerboarding include identifying priority areas for acquisition, as has been done by the Harris County Flood Control District (see Chapter 8) , and pre-approving contiguous properties for acquisition. Read the entire page →
From page 342... ... 342 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION This problem can be addressed in two ways. First, program complexity, particularly among FEMA's hazard mitigation and disaster recovery programs, needs to be reduced. Read the entire page →
From page 343... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 343 FEMA and HUD could streamline funding programs and make them more user-friendly. They could also support capacity building from the ground up to allow communities to meaningfully address their needs. Read the entire page →
From page 344... ... 344 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION a significant population of 60,000 people still living in these temporary homes two years following the disaster (Hany Abulnour, 2014) Read the entire page →
From page 345... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 345 availability of materials those entities or agencies that are left with implementing." 2. The inflexibility of agency program administrators limits oppor tunities: "Some of these tend to be very bureaucratic and what they know is what is familiar, not what is actually possible. Read the entire page →
From page 346... ... 346 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION New Jersey's Blue Acres program30 is an example of a program that reduces the timeframe by indicating that if a property floods up to a certain extent during a disaster, the owner will not be allowed to rebuild. It also stipulates that the owner can apply for a buyout at any time, including before the flood, and the buyout will immediately happen after the flood; in this case, the owner is allowed to stay in the home until the next flood. Read the entire page →
From page 347... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 347 Post-Buyout Requirements Once a FEMA buyout occurs, the home must be destroyed or relocated outside of the floodplain (42 U.S.C. Read the entire page →
From page 348... ... 348 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION other hand, has integrated more social and environmental factors into its decision-making process and has not relied so stringently on the BCA. While it is an important part of disaster response, the BCA process and methodology can be controversial (Institute of Medicine, 2013; Kind et al., 2017; Naussbam, 2000) Read the entire page →
From page 349... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 349 fit the appropriate timeframes. This means that cost determinations need to account for changes in the cost of acquisitions, demolitions, and other relocation processes between the time funds are applied for to when those actions will be carried out. Read the entire page →
From page 350... ... 350 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION funding for these programs through legislative action.37 The committee acknowledges the inequities among states with some having much more political will for and funding from the coast; therefore, they will be more likely to have or find the capital for these programs. However, this leaves the underlying problem of some communities not applying to federal grants in the first place due to a lack of capacity. Read the entire page →
From page 351... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 351 Garcia, a resident from Houston's Allen Field neighborhood and National Academies workshop participant,39 noted, Since the beginning, we have maintained that we will not sell to Harris County because we knew there were going to be many complications [...] They do not want to give enough of what is currently on the market for the properties […] Read the entire page →
From page 352... ... 352 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION lot, but if you have a damaged roof, if you get flooded and you need a new kitchen, or your flooring is damaged, the $50,000 goes really quickly. Research suggests that relocation for low-income communities after disasters happens less frequently than for upper- and middle-class communities, and is associated with reduced or inadequate support from federal programs (Muñoz & Tate, 2016; Rivera et al., 2022) Read the entire page →
From page 353... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 353 necessarily result in diminished flood risk, indicating a complex interplay of factors beyond flood risk in relocation decisions. Adding requirements to buyout funding that participants relocate to land outside of the flood hazard area can help to mitigate this problem. Read the entire page →
From page 354... ... 354 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION "borrow" workers from other agencies (e.g., Transportation, Interior) who were considered "on detail" for a certain period of time. Read the entire page →
From page 355... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 355 Reducing Barriers to Obtaining Grants Writing grants can require significant capacity and funding, and there are a handful of ongoing initiatives working to help communities overcome this barrier. In Alaska, the Denali Commission funded relocation coordinators to help communities apply for grants and coordinate relocation (Denali Commission, 2019) Read the entire page →
From page 357... ... CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR POLICY 357 Addressing the Cost-Effectiveness Criterion and Buyout Eligibility As discussed above in the challenges section, while BCA is important, a focus on improving overall spatial quality and environmental and social quality at larger scales would both reduce inequities in who is eligible for buyouts and increase the community-wide benefits. After Hurricane Floyd, North Carolina negotiated with FEMA to bypass the use of BCA (as discussed in the "Program Complexity" section) Read the entire page →
From page 358... ... 358 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN RELOCATION proposed updates notably include clear recommendations for the analysis of distributional impacts from federal regulations and spending, as well as the specific use of equity weights in BCA. Additionally, Clancy et al. Read the entire page →

From page 295...

... LANDSCAPE OF POLICY, FUNDING, AND PLANNING 295 Justice40 Initiative The Justice40 Initiative is an unprecedented commitment by the federal government, established through Executive Order 14008 in 2021, to make "40 percent of overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution."43 As the committee heard during the study's workshops across the U.S. Gulf Coast, perhaps most starkly in Port Arthur, many of the communities facing environmental threats, such as increasingly destructive hurricanes, subsidence, and sea level rise, are also overburdened by industrial pollution (see Chapter 5)