Affordable Housing Flood Risk Is Expected to Triple by 2050

The study, from Climate Central and the National Housing Trust and published in Environmental Research Letters, examined risk posed not just by extreme events like hurricanes, but also at the increasingly common threat of “sunny-day” flooding caused by sea level rise.

The threats driven by the climate crisis exacerbate the underlying affordable housing crisis — the study identified communities in which up to ninety percent of affordable housing is being put at risk.

The U.S. already lacks sufficient affordable housing, and “low-income renters typically have very few alternative housing options if a disaster damages their homes,” Andrew Aurand, VP of research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, told Thomson Reuters.

“When affordable rental housing is significantly damaged, the private market provides little incentive to repair or rebuild that housing to keep it affordable,” he added.