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.