November 04, 2021

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced it will distribute more than $2 billion in recovery and mitigation funds to nine states and Puerto Rico. The funds will be used for disaster relief, long-term recovery, restoration of infrastructure and housing, and economic revitalization. “With these allocations, we are addressing climate justice in hard-hit communities that can now begin the process of building back better from disasters and improving long-term, equitable resilience to future impacts of climate change,” said HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge.

Cities and counties in the West have put forward ballot initiatives that will address housing stock and affordability issues by taxing short-term rentals and imposing sales taxes in resort towns. Some critics of these initiatives think these initiatives fail to address root problems, like availability of buildable land, the current labor crunch, and zoning restrictions. “The fundamental problem of not having enough houses for the number of people who live in a region can’t be addressed without allowing more to be built,” said Emily Hamilton, the director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Late last week, Governor Larry Hogan announced the launch of a $10 million economic recovery initiative that will rehabilitate historic properties and create new properties in formerly vacant lots and provide homeowners with critical home repairs. It will focus on one urban and one rural community and is expected to benefit more than 100 Marylanders. “This new, targeted homeownership initiative will help fill that financial gap, creating new affordable homeownership opportunities, helping existing homeowners, and stabilizing irreplaceable historic communities,” said Secretary Kenneth C. Holt of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.

Natural disasters displace renters and homeowners and can price them out of their communities for years to come. An NBC News analysis of historical rental data found rental price spikes in small cities with fewer than 100,000 residents following natural disasters. Displacement compounds housing supply and affordability challenges and affects renters with low incomes most severely. “Many of our clients are or were employed. Poor and employed. When they are displaced, they are displaced from their jobs, communities, doctors, and their children’s schools,” said Lesley Albritton, disaster relief project manager at Legal Aid North Carolina.