Habitat for Humanity Strives to Increase Communities’ Resilience to Severe Weather Events

Here at EESI, increasing U.S. resilience to extreme weather events is a priority in our work to inform public policies, such as those related to infrastructure funding and building codes. As weather events increase in intensity and frequency as a result of climate change, the ability of communities to withstand and rebound from these events is ever more crucial. Many organizations are putting a heavier emphasis on resilience, working to strengthen communities and their defenses.

Credit: College of DuPage

Habitat for Humanity is one of these organizations. Well known for building affordable housing after severe weather events, Habitat for Humanity does more than construction work. They also work to prepare communities for an array of future severe weather events, including hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. In a webinar hosted by the Resilient Nation Partnership Network and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), representatives from Habitat for Humanity noted that making communities more resilient is one of their top priorities.

Increasing community resilience involves both structural upgrades and logistical planning, and Habitat for Humanity’s programs, Habitat Ready and Habitat Strong, address these issues.

Habitat Ready focuses on logistics and preparing households across the nation. Using Habitat for Humanity’s Natural Hazard Explorer, individuals can assess the risks of different natural hazards in their community, and can then use Habitat for Humanity’s online resources to develop disaster-specific preparedness and family communication plans. These resources provide information on developing plans that take into consideration the elderly, pets, and individuals with disabilities or special needs, groups that are often more vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters. Additionally, Habitat for Humanity has a preparedness program for their affiliates to determine how they will continue to operate if a disaster occurs. These risk-reduction logistics are key for keeping people safe during and directly after a disaster.

Habitat for Humanity’s other resilience program, Habitat Strong, focuses on constructing stronger, more resilient buildings and homes. The goal is to minimize damages and expenses for homeowners so they can afford necessary repairs and more quickly return to their homes after disasters because less time is needed to complete those repairs. To implement this program, Habitat for Humanity uses the Fortified Home program by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS). This program, which has gone through scientific and real-world testing to determine which materials and construction techniques make houses stronger, ensures that Habitat for Humanity homes meet standardized requirements. These requirements, which depend on the level of Fortified certification a home receives, include stronger roofs; reinforced door, window, and garage frames; continuous load paths that tie roofs directly to houses’ foundations; and safe rooms. The certification process allows homeowners and contractors to feel confident their homes will actually be able to better withstand severe weather events, and the program's reliability has led it to be implemented in more locations as IBHS partners with other organizations.

However, a common concern of stronger construction is that it will cost more up front (even if it saves money in the long term). Additionally, affordable housing for low-income families is in even shorter supply after disasters because such housing is often the last to be repaired, leaving under-resourced and underserved populations in worse-off positions than other populations in a community. In an effort to make their Habitat Strong program affordable and accessible, Habitat for Humanity partners with affiliate organizations and uses corporate donations and grants to fund the building of Habitat Strong homes. This way, an extra few thousand dollars can be invested in homes to make them more resilient to severe weather events, even if the eventual homeowner cannot personally afford the upgrades. This allows Habitat Strong to be implemented in homes it could not have reached otherwise, increasing the resilience of whole communities.

Resilience efforts like these are crucial as we prepare for a future of severe weather events. While there are a variety of innovative ways to make our homes stronger and protect our communities, the “whole community” approach Habitat for Humanity is taking is important. As they work to expand their Habitat Strong program to communities in which they do not have affiliates or partnerships, often rural and Native American communities, they are making an effort to protect the livelihoods of individuals and communities around the country.

Author: Heather Luedke