HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

After Hurricane Sandy devastated the community of Breezy Point in Queens, N.Y., architect Illya Azaroff designed a home built specifically to stand up to hurricanes and related hazards in the oceanfront neighborhood.

For the same cost as conventional building, you could rebuild a complete resilient home.

“Existing federal guidelines for replacement housing following disasters does not focus on building back better to address the future shocks and stressors of climate changes,” he said.

“But we wanted to prove that for the same cost as conventional building, you could rebuild a completely resilient home.

In one place, we saved 83 percent of the insurance costs — because the home was built to withstand disasters.

That is a lot for an area with retirees and modest incomes.”