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.

PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED A ROLE IN MAKING

LITTLE HAVANA’S CALLE OCHO

THE CROWN JEWEL OF AUTHENTIC MIAMI

It was an honor to work as the senior urban policy advisor for Miami District 3 City Commissioner Joe Sanchez.

Two decades ago, Calle Ocho was sleepy.

We worked to strengthen arts and culture.

Now millions visit annually.

Good Morning America broadcast from the Ball & Chain World Famous Bar and Lounge on Calle Ocho in the heart of Miami's Little Havana this week.

I was there to meet GMA Weather Anchor Sam Champion and to see the success story that has made the Ball & Chain Miami’s best location for live music, crafted drinks and elevated bar food.

https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/video/124408344

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.”

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Austin Perez, a senior policy advisor for the National Association of REALTORS®,  points out that the increasing frequency of natural disasters is driving up insurance costs and causing some insurers to exit the market in some high-risk areas.

“Many states have kept insurance costs low for decades, leading people to move to more affordable but riskier areas,” he says.

“This disconnect from true risk pricing has resulted in unexpected insurance cost increases that do not cover the full cost of rebuilding.”

Real estate markets function best when buyers have accurate information about the total cost of homeownership, including insurance.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Austin Perez, a senior policy advisor for the National Association of REALTORS®, emphasizes the importance of homeowners actively mitigating risks to make their homes insurable and to reduce insurance rates.

He notes that federal disaster aid programs offer limited assistance for basic needs immediately after a natural disaster.

“FEMA aid is not intended to make homeowners whole and is not a substitute for insurance,” Perez explains, citing examples where FEMA provided an average of $4,000 in disaster assistance, leaving households to rely on Small Business Administration loans with interest.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Ian Giammanco, Ph.D., the managing director of Standards & Data Analytics and lead research meteorologist at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), praised government grant programs.

The Strengthen Alabama Homes program that awards up to $10,000 to owners of existing homes to upgrade them with stronger roofs, windows, doors and other features to prevent wind and rain damage.

He said the program has resulted in huge insurance savings for those who have retrofitted their home—stabilizing the insurance market for tens of thousands of coastal dwellings.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

From a government standpoint, Ian Giammanco, Ph.D., the managing director of Standards & Data Analytics and lead research meteorologist at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), said stronger building codes are needed.

“During Hurricane Ian, we estimated the Florida building code saved $1 billion to $3 billion in structural damage avoidance alone.”

“For buying or selling a home in Florida, one of the most important things is looking at how resistant the house is to hurricanes and what insurance is required to cover it,” he said.

“Resilience is going to become a much more heightened asset for homeowners.”

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Ian Giammanco, Ph.D., the managing director of Standards & Data Analytics and lead research meteorologist at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), said the good news is IBHS and other research has found what materials and actions guard against a disaster.

He said the other good news is that some mitigation requires simple DIY—not a monumental project such as shoring up and elevating a home several feet above a flood plain.

“For wildfire mitigation, make sure the first five feet around the house does not have any combustible material.

For the house, a metal or tile roof or asphalt shingles works, along with the first six inches from the ground up made on noncombustible material,” he said.

“Metal mesh screens over attic and crawl space vents keep embers from getting inside your home.”

GRATIFIED TO BE A KEY SPEAKER AT THE 2025 JOINT ITE INTERNATIONAL

AND FLORIDA PUERTO RICO DISTRICT ANNUAL MEETING AND EXHIBITION

I am honored to bring my passionate speaking about the value of Universal Design and Inclusive Mobility to the International ITE meeting.

I will be joined by my friend and colleague David Haight and a host of other mobility planning industry giants.

Our topic: Creating Accessible, Healthy, and Smart Multimodal Communities Through Transportation

I proudly speak globally about a better built environment for people with disabilities.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

“People don’t realize… the devastation,” Ian Giammanco, Ph.D., the managing director of Standards & Data Analytics and lead research meteorologist at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), said, speaking in terms of loss of all household appliances, articles and one-of-a-kind mementos—along with living in cramped, substandard replacement housing because rebuilding can take many months.

“For those who don’t experience it, it’s out of sight, out of mind. 

But believe me, when you talk to people going through the trauma of losing your home, your neighbors, your community—you don’t want to go through what they have.”

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Ian Giammanco, Ph.D., the managing director of Standards & Data Analytics and lead research meteorologist at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) said, that while some areas grab headlines for being more prone to devastating wildfires and hurricanes, every region in the United States is vulnerable to some kind of natural disaster—be it caused by fire, wind, flood, hail or earthquake.

IBHS is the only lab in the world that can test full-scale one- and two-story residential and commercial buildings in a controlled, repeatable fashion for highly realistic windstorms, wind-driven rain, hailstorms and wildfire ember storms.

Giammanco said in many places, building codes have not kept up with the hazards homeowners face.

While the cost in dollars can wipe out savings and put people in debt who had paid off a home that now must be razed and rebuilt—the human toll is higher.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Architect Illya Azaroff, who has worked on post-disaster building efforts around the world, said rebuilding is a combination of innovation plus vernacular architecture that responds to regional wind, water and heat extremes. 

He said working with nature, not against it, also is a big part of creating resilient homes.

Azaroff’s +LAB studio combined resilience, environmental regeneration and Universal Design in its Cranberry House in Massachusetts with features that include:

A small building footprint that preserves and restores a wetland and wildlife area on the four-acre site; a fully accessible house that allows aging-in-place; a tornado safe room built to FEMA standards; rebuilding with harvested old timber on the foundation of an 18th-century building; solar power that allows the residence to be powered off the grid; and a system for harvesting rainwater.

 

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.”

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

While communities wrestle with how to rebuild better and how to avoid being the next victim of wildfires or wind and water, best practices are worth examining.

Illya Azaroff, FAIA, founding principal of +LAB Architect PLLC with offices in New York and Los Angeles, is a leader in climate adaptation, mitigation, resilient planning and regenerative design.

“The question we often hear is how can we afford to pay for resiliency? When the reality is we cannot afford not to,” he said.

Azaroff, the president-elect of the American Institute of Architects, worked on rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy. 

He said a lot of working-class people, with modest savings, never expected to be ravaged by the type of storm normally associated with the tropics, but Sandy devastated a lot of small 1950s and 1960s houses in the Far Rockaway neighborhood in Queens, N.Y.

HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICES

Experts from the fields of architecture, engineering, planning and insurance have figured out how to harden houses against the threat of myriad natural disasters including fire, wind and flood.

The issue is many communities are built out and retrofitting is very costly.

Many people are shocked to find out that there is little federal disaster aid to pay for temporary housing when a disaster makes the dwelling they own or rent uninhabitable for months, if not years.

In a political reality when programs are being cut or reduced and not that many people support paying more taxes to fund resiliency, many are searching for answers.

VENTANITAS -- STORIES ABOUT AND FROM LITTLE HAVANA

I WILL BE FEATURED IN THIS DOCUMENTARY PREMIERING THIS FALL

I can't wait for the fall premiere of Ventanitas -- Stories About and from Little by award-winning Miami documentarian Joe Cardona. 

I will appear on camara as a 20+ year LH resident, storyteller, activist & aplatanado.

Ventanitas are the windows where you buy Cuban coffee. 

But they are much more than a place to sip cafe Cubano con mucho azucar. 

There used to be dozens of ventanitas on Calle Ocho -- but the commercial success of a main street with upwards of four million visitors has reduced their numbers.

I’ve admired Joe’s work for years and it was a pleasure to show off my 100-year-old Shenandoah home (purchased from Santeros) and walk around my adopted hometown for half a day.

I told my stories from the heart.

Hopefully, I will come off as a protagonist when the film debuts in Little Havana.

Joe Cardona was honored with a National Emmy for his 2014 historic documentary “The day it snowed in Miami”, a film that he wrote, produced and directed for PBS national network.

He has made dozens of films covering culture, politics and the essence of 21^st century Miami.

IS TRAIN TRAVEL A WHEELCHAIR-FRIENDLY

ALTERNATIVE TO FLYING OR DRIVING?

Know Your Rights on Trains

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to trains and train stations. Here are a few key points.

Train cars

• Any train cars acquired after 1990 must be ADA-compliant, including designated wheelchair spaces and accessible bathrooms.
• Older train cars should be modified to improve accessibility but do not have to be fully retrofitted.
• Sleeper cars should have accessible bedrooms, restrooms, and access to dining and lounge areas.
• Service animals must be permitted on trains at no additional charge.

Train stations

• All intercity train stations are required to be ADA-compliant.
• Any new station or significant alteration to an existing one must comply with ADA standards, including ramps, elevators, and accessible ticket counters.
• Level boarding (when the boarding platform is level with the train floor) must be provided in new or altered stations, where feasible.
• Staff must assist with boarding and deboarding, using lifts or bridge plates for wheelchair users.

IS TRAIN TRAVEL A WHEELCHAIR-FRIENDLY

ALTERNATIVE TO FLYING OR DRIVING?

Leah and Bevi Zelaya praise the barrier-free restrooms aboard Amtrak trains they have taken in the Northeast.

Both noted that it is difficult to walk down a plane aisle to a restroom that is too tiny to fit a second person to assist.

“The Red Caps must have good training because they are polite, accommodating, and don’t look at you like you have three heads,” Leah says.

“Travel by train is very relaxed.”

Train travel does have some drawbacks: 

It can take more time than flying or driving, and service and accessibility are inconsistent nationally. 

However, in some cases, these disadvantages are outweighed by the opportunity to travel with greater access and dignity.

IS TRAIN TRAVEL A WHEELCHAIR-FRIENDLY

ALTERNATIVE TO FLYING OR DRIVING?

Even though the trip takes longer, Vanessa O’Connell says train travel takes the stress and hassles out of her regular trip.

She notes that Amtrak’s Red Caps help with her luggage on board the train and deliver a meal to her room.

“As a person with a disability, you have an accessible restroom right in your room,” Vanessa says.

“On a plane, the restrooms are typically extremely small.

Many people that I know must dehydrate for a few days before flying, as the restroom is not accessible or large enough to accommodate them.”