New study finds U.S. homes in U.S. more prone to flooding

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In the early part of the 20th century, U.S. consumer banks routinely engaged in a systemic lending practice known as redlining, which denied loans to people of color seeking to purchase homes outside of city areas deemed “undesirable.” “, in part because they were built in areas with a higher risk of flooding.

Today, as a result, homes with a total value of $ 107 billion are now 25% more likely to be flooded than unredigned homes, according to researchers at real estate brokerage firm Redfin. The firm released the results of its analysis of highlighted and unannotated communities facing flood risk from climate change on Monday morning.

The report, which examined floodplain data from 38 major metropolitan areas in the United States, noted that modern maps of flood risk in the United States closely resemble the redlining maps of the 1930s.

In recent years, sea level rise caused by climate change has increased the number of areas at risk of flooding across the country.

Some of these places already face flooding every year. Black Chicago homeowners, for example, have complained about increased precipitation fueled by climate change that is overwhelming the city’s sewage system and causing flood damage to homes that lacked the necessary same flooding problems ten years ago, according to the Chicago Tribune.

“The discrimination that has occurred in the past may appear to have happened a long time ago, but it is getting worse,” Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather told CNN Business. “It’s not as if the historical practices that were discriminatory are actually decreasing. It does appear to be actually increasing.”

Redfin researchers determined that areas of the cities they examined that had not been removed were at risk of seeing $ 85 billion in homes damaged or destroyed by climate change-related flooding – $ 22 billion less than neighborhoods that have been removed.

In their report, the company’s researchers said that more than 58% “of households in neighborhoods that were once considered unwanted for mortgages are not white” and “history has shown that when storms strike, communities of color in these once red areas often suffer the most. “

“[More than] 600,000 properties have faced a 100-year flood risk, which is the risk of one of these truly catastrophic floods hitting them, ”said Fairweather.

S Telemachus Street in New Orleans is flooded after flash floods hit the area in early July 10, 2019.

Fairweather noted the disproportionate impact of Hurricane Katrina on people of color in New Orleans in 2005 and Hurricane Harvey on black and brown residents of Houston in 2017 to illustrate his point.

Four of the seven zip codes that suffered the worst damage from the Katrina flooding had black populations of at least 75%, according to government documents cited by Scientific American.

A 2017 Think Progress analysis found that Houston’s disproportionately black and brown low-income neighborhoods were more damaged by Harvey than richer, whiter communities.

Without public and private intervention, Fairweather said the damage future flooding could cause to reported areas across the country could further widen the already huge racial wealth gap that exists between most white Americans and their black and Latino neighbors. .

“It would bring us back for sure,” Fairweather said. “It really depends on the political response.”

To help tackle the problem, the study authors recommend that the federal government provide funds to some reported homeowners to protect their homes from the elements and offer moving assistance to homeowners in areas where weather protection could. not be sufficient.

“When we help people get around, we should encourage or insist that they move to places that will not be as affected by climate change,” Fairweather said.

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