HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Alex Ghenis, a quadriplegic who uses a wheelchair for mobility, is an Oakland-based climate and disability justice advocate and disability rights consultant.

Ghenis said more than 1,000 new apartments with proximity to regional transit and myriad daily services would be ideal for people with disabilities.

Opposition to density means fewer units are being built, which drives up the cost of housing due to not enough supply to meet demand.

It limits housing for people with disabilities and senior citizens who could meet their daily needs via walking, rolling or transit.

Municipalities and states need to encourage Universal Design in new development, Ghenis said.

“Basic access could be codified.

Not everyone wants to take a sponge bath because they can’t access their tub.”

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Alex Ghenis, a quadriplegic who uses a wheelchair for mobility, is an Oakland-based climate and disability justice advocate and disability rights consultant.

He says public/private partnerships also must create accessible, affordable and attainable housing.

When Ghenis was the chair of the city of Berkeley’s Commission on Disability, he saw how opposition to density reduced the opportunity for affordable/accessible housing at a pair of sites by BART and Caltrain transit stations located near vital services.

One was adjacent to the Ed Roberts Campus, a Universal Design award-winning complex for independent living and other disability-positive nonprofits.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICE

Alex Ghenis, a quadriplegic who uses a wheelchair for mobility, is an Oakland-based climate and disability justice advocate and disability rights consultant.

“In California, where the housing crunch is awful, we do not have good accessible welcoming apartments and condos that seniors would want to downsize into or the kinds of apartments that people with disabilities can move into and automatically have a roll-in shower,” Ghenis observed, noting that the lack of accessible, aging-in-place housing is failing to put family-sized houses back on the market because seniors have a lack of accessible, small units to move to.

“I hope to address climate resilience and disability through land use and the built environment.

We have to be recognizing that we need to build up accessible housing in places that are hospitable to people with disabilities and have a certain amount of built-in climate resilience.”

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Alex Ghenis, a quadriplegic who uses a wheelchair for mobility, is an Oakland-based climate and disability justice advocate and disability rights consultant.

“There’s a huge benefit to developers to ensure that new apartment buildings have units with accessibility features.

Building can be done in a way that convenient features can easily become accessibility features.

A walk-in shower can be converted to an ideal roll-in shower.

Modified sinks can work well for wheelchair users and all residents,” said Ghenis, who publishes deep dive articles in accessibility and the environment.

“I think there is a market-based argument to developers having more accessible features — such as Universal Design throughout apartments,” he said, noting the huge demand for barrier-free and age-friendly units as the U.S. Census forecasts that by 2034 there will be more people 65 years and older than under the age of 18 for the first time in history.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Illya Azaroff, founder of +LAB Architect PLLC, president-elect of the American Institute of Architects, and professor at New York City College of Technology, advocates for Universal Design.

“Universal Design is a part of sustainability. Accessibility must be a part of all design projects, so people with disabilities can have quality of life and [the built environment] allows aging in place.

No one person or building is static. Architects are positioned as collaborators who can create buildings that can change use and function while accommodating all abilities.

It’s a part of sustainable, healthy building.”

Universal Design creates flexibility.

A dwelling unity can grow with the occupants and support aging in place.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICE

Universal Design is the practice of designing products and environments so that they can be used by as many people as possible, without the need for specialized adaptation.

That definition comes from the concept’s creator, the late architect, planner and leader Ron Mace, who used a wheelchair for mobility.

Universal Design can be used by all people without the need for specialized adaptation.

While communities build back from devastating wildfires, floods and hurricanes, many leading planners and architects suggest that the flexibility, durability and sustainability of Universal Design is the best approach for new commercial and residential buildings.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICE

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Floodplain Buyout Program understands there are variables, such as the cost of masonry work, but elevating a roughly 2,000-square-foot house cost the county about $150,000 in reimbursement.

For a total buyout, the total expense would have been $500,000. Since the program was launched, Mecklenburg has purchased about 500 properties in the flood plain, removed them and mitigated more than $50 million in future hazard losses.

Additionally, the buyout program has created 185 acres of undeveloped public space, enhancing community resilience and reducing flood risk.

Mecklenburg is working to prevent people from suffering great damage from a disaster.

“Never let a good crisis go to waste is attributed to Winston Churchill,” Beller said.

“We never want a disaster to go to waste, so we are working to prevent people from suffering great damage when a disaster hits.

After Helene, the program made buyout offers on 27 damaged homes and 15 in the flooded area are interested in being elevated.”

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Floodplain Buyout Program started in 1999 and first sought FEMA grants.

It also is paid for by the county’s stormwater utility funds billed to residential and commercial properties.

“Once we purchase the properties, we maintain them — keeping the grass mowed and planting some trees.

Some become park greenways or community gardens, a lot are one-offs,” said Jonathan Beller, who runs the program.

The county also funds elevating houses out of the flood plain.

Homeowners must get three bids for soil testing, engineering, mechanical/electrical/plumbing and the actual lifting of the home.

The county reimburses 75 percent of the cost.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

In North Carolina, which experienced massive flood damage from Hurricane Helene, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area has a Floodplain Buyout Program.

The buyouts are voluntary, no owners of homes or businesses are forced to sell.

Mecklenburg County states that “buying and removing buildings in the floodplain is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce long-term flood damage and create many other community benefits.”

“Local floodplains are meant to flood during heavy rains. It’s mother nature’s way of slowing down water to reduce damage caused by raging rivers.

Floodplains also filter stormwater pollutants by temporarily storing floodwater. 

However, many communities including Charlotte-Mecklenburg, have developed within the floodplain, putting homes, businesses and other property in areas meant to flood,” explains the program’s website.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

“Babcock Ranch was intentionally developed to include stewardship, sustainability, preservation and restoration as key design features.

More than 90 percent of the town is built on already impacted pasture, farm and rock-mined land.

Water conservation is woven into its green infrastructure, from landscaping with native, low-impact plants to construction of a weir [small dam] system to rehydrate surrounding wetlands.

“Sustainability has been a passion for me since college and developing Babcock Ranch has become a lifelong project that illustrates to the world that building with, not against, nature is possible, scalable, and financially accessible to all. I wanted to create a new city that works in harmony with nature.

Babcock Ranch serves as an inspiration for communities around the world seeking to leave a positive impact on the planet,” Said Syd Kitson, former NFL player and leader of Florida real estate development firm Kitson & Partners.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Syd Kitson, former NFL player and leader of Florida real estate development firm Kitson & Partners, stressed that land-use patterns that support walkability are also an important part of community sustainability.

He noted that Babcock residents can easily walk or bike to parks and shopping and dining destinations.

More than 50 percent of the development, which is still being built out, is dedicated to greenways, parks and lakes.

“While Babcock Ranch is designed uniquely to its location and ecosystem, we’re seeing consumers, counties and builders alike begin to take the progressive steps to adopting a new standard for climate resilience to meet their needs across the globe,” Syd Kitson, former NFL player and leader of Florida real estate development firm Kitson & Partners, said of Babcock’s exportable resilience model.

“From building codes to technology and other innovative adaptations.

Babcock Ranch might have been an early adopter, but the tides are changing, and builders/developers are reacting differently today than they did 10 years ago.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Heather McGowan, manager of Association Archives for the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), said being very intentional about master planning for sustainability and resiliency paid off for Babcock, while surrounding communities built to conventional subdivision standards suffered huge losses.

Babcock also proves that resilient design can be attainable for many people.

The median listing price for a resilient Babcock Ranch home is $415,000, while a conventional built home in nearby Fort Myers is listing for a median of $380,000.

“There was little evidence that Babcock had just spent eight hours under a hurricane.

Some newer trees had fallen over, some signs were damaged, and a few roof tiles had been dislodged, but the town was not flooded, native vegetation remained intact, and the electricity and water never went out,” McGown’s NAR report stated.

She encouraged communities to incorporate green building standards and to search for ways of funding part of that cost.

PROUD TO SPEAK ABOUT UNIVERSAL DESIGN AND INCLUSIVE MOBILITY

IN FRONT OF THE NATION’S TRANSPORTATION AND MOBILITY THOUGHT LEADERS AT THE 2025 JOINT ITE INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL MEETING

I was gratified to speak to the transportation, transit and mobility industry’s leaders – from the private, public, nonprofit and academic sectors – at the ITE International meeting this week in Orlando.

I spoke on: Creating Accessible, Healthy, and Smart Multimodal Communities Through Transportation.

I underscored design fails that make sidewalks, curbramps and crosswalks dangerous or impossible to use by people who use assistive mobility devices.

At the end of my presentation to a full ballroom, I implored those in attendance to get at the root of disability inclusion.

I challenged the nation’s leading mobility designers, builders and regulators to aggressively recruit, hire and retain people with various disabilities.

Without those personal insights, the most brilliant engineers and planners in the world are doomed to creating barriers that strip people with disabilities of independence, dignity and safety.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

As the first solar-powered community in the United States, Babcock Ranch uses more than 650,000 solar panels to power homes through underground power lines that are not susceptible to windstorm damage.

On-site water and wastewater utility facilities are elevated above the 100-year flood plain and underground fiber optic lines provide data connectivity during extreme weather events.

Heather McGowan, manager of Association Archives for the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), wrote about Babcock’s nature-based resilience in the report “A Case Study on Building Communities with Sustainability and Resiliency at the Forefront.”

Babcock Ranch was successful because it was designed and developed to work with the environment.

“Babcock Ranch was successful because they designed and developed to work with the environment.

They worked with canals, lakes and marshlands to absorb water when it could flood,” she said.

“It’s cool that they never brought in artificial fill.

That was environmentally sensitive and sustainable.”

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

“We carefully selected a team of homebuilders with a shared commitment to creating an innovative, responsibly developed hometown that exists in harmony with the environment," said Syd Kitson, former NFL player and leader of Florida real estate development firm Kitson & Partners.

Focusing on both resilience and sustainability, all homes in Babcock Ranch are built to minimum of Bronze level Certification by the Florida Green Building Coalition’s Green Home standards, meaning homes are not only more energy efficient, they are also designed to withstand 160-mph wind loads,” said Kitson.

Many things contributed to Babcock Ranch’s resilience. 

When Kitson negotiated for the massive site, it planned to sell 74,000 of its 91,000 acres to the state of Florida.

The sale created the largest conservation buy in state history. 

Stone quarries were tailored to blend with natural water features to create extensive water retaining ponds to handle storm surge.

It is located 30 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico and natural fill built it up to 30 feet above sea level to reduce the risk of flooding.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Florida’s Gulf Coast has been battered by multiple hurricanes. Babcock Ranch, in Charlotte and Lee Counties near Fort Myers, was designed to be a sustainable, environmentally friendly planned community hardened against crushing windstorms and floods.

Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm with wind gusts up to 150 mph, made a direct hit on Babcock’s 5,000 residents in September 2022.

It was the supreme test of a 27-square-mile community with a huge nature preserve, nature-based stormwater controls, buried electrical lines and solar electricity.

By the time Ian left Southwest Florida, 149 lives were lost and $112 billion in property damage was done.

Babcock Ranch, surrounded by disaster, was virtually unscathed.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

An Urban Land Institute report notes that the single-family rental and build-to-rent sectors are among the fastest growing segments of residential real estate.

They accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and show continuing signs of growth and demand.

Resilient buildings are more valuable buildings.

“This will be a big driver of real estate. Resilient buildings are more valuable buildings,” Augie Williams-Eynon, a manager with Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate, said.

“Resilient homes make securing financing easier; they attract a high-quality tenant and when a disaster strikes, they reduce losses.”

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Augie Williams-Eynon, a manager with Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate, hopes the lessons learned by large investors in single-family rentals can be passed on to individual homeowners — though individuals cannot match the economy of scale of building hundreds to thousands of units in the same phase.

“They are building a structure that’s well connected and fastened from room to floors to foundation.

They are designing roof and exterior walls to survive impact and not be ripped off in high winds,” he said.

They are building for floodproofing with elevated mechanicals. Single-family, build-to-rent developments have underground utility lines, which keep a property up and running after a severe storm.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Augie Williams-Eynon, a manager with Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate, was the lead author of ULI’s “Sustainability in Single-Family Rental and Build-to-Rent” study.

“The challenge for large portfolio owners — acquiring or building then managing tens of thousands of homes — is that each house faces a different risk profile.

They are not just looking at operating efficiencies through low-energy appliances, LED lights and better windows/insulation (for lower heating/cooling costs) — they are making sure these homes are built and [located] in places with reduction of risk to disaster,” Williams-Eynon said.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Austin Perez, a senior policy advisor for the National Association of REALTORS®,  explains that real estate markets function best when buyers have accurate information about the total cost of homeownership, including insurance.

“When buyers qualify for mortgages based on subsidized insurance rates, they face significant increases in insurance costs after a disaster,” Perez notes.

This hidden cost leads to buyer’s remorse and market instability.

Perez advocates for making homes safer rather than focusing on affordable insurance.

He suggests that federal and state mitigation grant programs and tax incentives can help reduce the risk and cost of insuring homes.

“Grants and tax incentives for elevating homes above flood levels, installing hurricane-resistant roofs, and community-wide wildfire building standards can help reduce insurance costs.”