HOUSING RECOVERY AND RISK-BASED LAND USE PLANNING AFTER HURRICANE SANDY

Elizabeth Maly 1） Tamiyo Kondo 2）

Abstract：In the United States, post-disaster land use planning is closely tied to flood insurance and disaster recovery assistance by government sector. The primary risk based policies that affect residents after disasters are the National Flood Insurance Program and the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which plays a key role within post-disaster recovery planning. The guiding focus is on preventing the loss of property, especially recurring losses. This report considers the ways that post-disaster land use management and recovery policies after Hurricane Sandy (2012) ,and what the impacts are for affected communities and survivors' housing recovery. keywords：Hurricane Sandy, Risk-based Land Use Planning, Housing Recovery 1. INTRODUCTION: HURRICANE SANDY In the United States, post-disaster land use planning is closely tied to flood insurance and disaster recovery assistance by government sector. The primary risk based policies that affect residents after disasters are the National Flood Insurance Program and the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which plays a key role within post-disaster recovery planning. The guiding focus is on preventing the loss of property, especially recurring losses. This articles considers the ways that post-disaster land use management and recovery policies after Hurricane Sandy (2012) ,and what the impacts are for affected communities and survivors' housing recovery. After passing through the Caribbean, causing heavy damage to Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Hurricane Sandy moved north through the Atlantic Ocean, making landfall in the United States on October2 9, 2012, causing storm surge, flooding, and power outages across a large areas of the East Coast of the United States. The largest housing damaged occurred in New York and New Jersey. 2. BACKGROUND OF SYSTEMS OF DISASTER RECOVERY FUNDING IN THE U.S The majority of funding for disaster recovery project in the United States is provided from the federal government in the form of Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR). Like basic CDBG funding, which is provided through HUD, the federal department of Housing and Urban Development, block grants allow for a flexibility of use. CDBG-DR funding, which is specifically for disaster recovery, as also flexible in terms of what kinds of projects it can be used for, as each jurisdiction can chose what kind of project they want to fund. Although CDBG-DR funding can be used for a wide variety of projects, the awarding of this funding is based on the disaster-affected jurisdiction completing a disaster recovery Action Plan, and having this plan approved. In this case of disaster recovery, the jurisdiction is question is the State level---after Hurricane Sandy, Action Plans were created by states in the disaster-affected affected area. For this report, the research focus is on clarifying the recovery plans and progress in 3 jurisdictions: New York State, New York City and New Jersey State. Although New York City is part of New York State, because of it's size and scale, New York City is managing their own recovery project, including their own CDBG-DR funding.

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The jurisdiction receiving the CDBG-DR then allocates the use of these funds to local municipalities, for specific projects, or in some cases directly to residents. For example, in the case of homeowners who suffered building damage to their houses, the funds that that receive for repairs, rebuilding, or in some cases buyouts, all come from the CDBG-DR funding, administered by the respective jurisdiction. Compared to Japan, where the funding for disaster recovery also comes from the national government, but the administration of the specific disaster recovery projects, as well as the responsibility of creating the recovery plan at the municipal level, 3. Actions Plans in the 3 Jurisdictions In April 2013, New York State prepared the State of New York Action Plan for Community Development Block Grant Program Disaster Recovery. There have been 9 subsequent amendments to New York State's Action. As of March 2015, the 9th amendment was in the period of accepting public comments. The Action Plan and amendments can be seen at: http://stormrecovery.ny.gov/action-plans-and-amendments. The Action Plan from the State of New Jersey was also approved in April 2013, and New Jersey's "Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Action Plan" and amendments can been view on the website of NJ Department of Community Affairs: http://www.renewjerseystronger.org/plans-policies-reports/ New York City's first action plan, called Partial Action Plan A, was approved by in May 2013, and has been amended 8 times as of March 2015. The current Action Plan, which includes amendments, can be accessed from the NYC recovery website: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/recovery/index.page. In terms of support for housing reconstruction, the basic aspects of housing recovery plans as explained in the Action Plans of the 3 respective jurisdictions, have very similar. In New York State, this program is called Recreate NY Smart Home Program, part of the "New York Rising" Recovery program. New York City's program is called "Build it Back," and New Jersey's program is "Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation, and Mitigation," abbreviated to RREM. They each include options targeting homeowners for repairs, rebuilding, and elevation. However, the City of New York is focusing on hiring contractors to do the building work directly, whereas New York State and New Jersey State provide money to residents, who hire the contractors. New Jersey has a program that is not provided in New York State or New York City, called the “Resettlement program”, which provides a case incentive for any residents who commit to stay within the state of New Jersey. In terms of residential buyouts or acquisitions for disaster mitigation, there are options for homeowners in each of the 3 jurisdictions who wish to avail themselves of this program, however there are some significant differences between the programs. Their targets, compensation, and implementation vary, but depending on their location, there are options for residents in each of the jurisdictions to see their property to the government, as will be explained in more detail in a following sections. The overall targets of the programs are showing in the following table 1. The role of the buyout and acquisition programs will be discussed in more detail later. Table 1. Housing recovery programs in the 3 jurisdictions. New York City: Build it Back

NY State: New York Rising-- Recreate NY Smart Home Program

New Jersey State: RREM (Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation, and Mitigation)

Repair Rebuild Rebuild and Elevate

Repair Rebuild Rebuild and Elevate

Repair Rebuild Elevate Resettlement program

Acquisition Buyout Acquisition

(Buyout available through other program, not RREM)

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3.1 NEW YORK CITY BUILD IT BACK New York City’s Build it Back Single Family Program’s main paths are support for: house repair, repair with elevation, or rebuilding a new house. In the case new housing construction with Build it Back, the program makes an agreement with one of three designated contractors directly to build a new house. An option was also added to provide partial reimbursement from repair expenses, and homeowners can also chose their own contractors for repairs. Originally the Build it Back program included a priority for lower income residents, to ensure that limited funding would be targeted to those who need it more, but after the 3rd tranche of CDBG-DR funding was assured in early 2015, the Build it Back program has gotten rid of the priority ranking for applicants, and committed to supporting all eligible applicants. Implementation of Build it Back got off to a slow start. It has been argued that the reason behind these delays was that the program was extremely careful to avoid the mistakes of fraud in the recovery after the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, and the result is that the program had such high requirements that made it very difficult to qualify1). In addition, the Build it Back program was slow to take action, not only because there was a change in City leadership, from former Mayor Bloomberg, who was in office when the BIB was created, to current Mayor DiBlasio, who has been making a vocal commitment to dealing with the caseload of residents waiting for support from the Build it Back program2). Construction on the first homes with Build it Back finally started in 2014. Until the registration ending in October 2013, 20,000 households applied for support through the Build it Back program; 6,000 of the have since dropped out of the program. As of March 2015, according to the Build it Back website, there were 1093 construction starts, 506 homes fully repaired, and 3022 reimbursement checks sent out3). 3.2 NEW YORK STATE’s NY RISING HOUSING RECOVERY PROGRAM The NY Rising Housing Recovery Program, called “Recreate NY Smart Home Program” provides grants to homeowners for home repair or rehabilitation. If damage was more than 50%, or for properties in the 100-year flood plain that were damaged by Sandy, the program also includes support for mitigation/elevation4). The standard maximum benefit available through this program is $300,000/households, with a potential additional $50,000 if elevation is required, and/or $50,000 for lower income households, so that in some cases the combined maximum can be increased to $400,0005). Based on information from the NY Rising 2012-2014 Report, published by the NY Governors Office of Storm Recovery, there have been 9554 households assisted with repairs through the program6). 3.3 New Jersey State-RREM New Jersey’s RREM program provides up to $150,000 in grants to eligible homeowners7). As of February 2015, 4,100 homes of the 8,800 houses that were accepted in to the program were under construction8). In addition, the Rental Assistance Program that were recently approved by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, were provide up to $825 /month for up to 3 months of rental assistance. Unique out of the jurisdictions under discussion, New Jersey provided Resettlement Grants in the amount of $10,000/household to those who stayed in New Jersey; these Grants have been awarded to 18,500 eligible households. 4. CONTEXT OF LAND USE IN DISASTER MITIGATION IN DISASTER RECOVERY IN THE U.S In areas at risk of flooding, the primary method of disaster mitigation is done by controlled how resident builds their house in designated flood zone: this control focuses mainly on elevation requirements, along with requirements for foundation types. Based on the designation of hazardous zone, the Base Flood Elevation (BFE), which is the number of feet the first floor of the house must be raised, is stipulated according to the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) prepared by FEMA. Local jurisdictions can require elevation heights that area the same as required by the FIRMs; they can also chose to make their regulations higher, for example requiring BFE plus foot, or BFE plus 2 feet, etc. As their name suggests, the FIRMs as the basis for the flood insurance, which is provided through the National Flood Insurance Program, a program which was set up by the federal government to provide insurance policies for people living in areas at risk for flood.

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4.1 NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was created to cover homeowners in flood risk areas that are not covered by private flood insurance. The cost of insurance premiums paid by homeowners is heavily subsidized through the NFIP—residents pay much less than the market rate for insurance. In addition, because it is providing insurance for ask risk areas, NFIP pays out for damages in the same areas again and again. After 2005 Hurricane Katrina, the NFIP was deeply in debt, and has been the subject of intense debate about how it should be reformed. 4.2 RELATIONSHIP OF NFIP and DISASTER RECOVERY For homeowners of buildings in the flood risk zones, as defined by the FIRMs, the purchase of flood insurance is mandatory, and required in order to get a government-backed mortgage, or to receive government support for reconstruction. For homes that are not located in the flood risk zone, there is no flood insurance available. In the case of disaster, homeowners who are in the hazard zone, and have the required flood insurance, can receive compensation from the NFIP, and then can also receive government support for housing reconstruction, such as the projects and types of support described in the earlier section. Homeowners who are not in the hazard zone, and therefore do not have and are not required for flood insurance, can also receive government support for housing construction. However, homeowners in the hazard areas who do not have the required flood insurance are also not eligible to receive government support for construction. 4.3 PROPOSED REFORMS OF THE NFIP To address the problems of the NFIP, namely the program’s budget deficit that results from insuring risky areas at highly subsidized rates, there were serious reforms proposed for the NFIP in the form of the Biggert-Waters Act. Biggert-Waters which was enacted by US Congress before Hurricane Sandy, and required a progressive increase of insurance premiums, that would have come into effect gradually over several years. However, after Hurricane Sandy, there was strong opposition to the implementation of Biggert-Waters, which would have resulted in Sandy-affected homeowners having to pay significantly higher premiums for flood insurance along with their housing reconstruction. Subsequent revisions to the NFIP removed the more significant changes to the program, and delayed the introduction of and limited increases in premiums. However, for residents in coastal areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, the flood insurance premiums will certainly increase, making rebuilding and living in these areas much less affordable and more difficult for many residents who are not wealthy. Flood insurance premiums are a large factor for residents’ decision-making process, and will have a signification impact on the future development in the coastal affected areas. 5. BUYOUTS and ACQUISITION Within the other options for reconstruction support, residential buyouts and acquisitions are the projects that employ land use strategies for disaster risk reduction in the affected areas. There is a precedent for using residential buyouts for disaster mitigation in the U.S., in the former of the Hazard Mitigation Great Program. After Hurricane Sandy, there are several buyout and/or acquisition programs being implemented in the different affected jurisdictions, as part of or along with other housing reconstructions. 5.1 The HAZARD MITIGATION GRANT PROGRAM The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) provides grants to states and local governments to implement long-term hazard mitigation measures after a major disaster declaration. Individual households can then apply to states or municipalities, who administer the residential buyouts, funded by the HMGP. The HMGP was authorized under Section 404 of the Stafford Act, and is administered by FEMA. HMGP was created to reduce the loss of life and property dues to

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natural disasters, specifically to reduce repetitive losses from the same area being struck by disaster repeatedly. Although the goal of the HMGP is to reduce future disaster damage, it requires a federal declaration of disaster, so it can only be used after a disaster has occurred9). Using the HMGP, FEMA can fund up to 75% of eligible costs of each project, and the state or grantee much provide a 25% match, which can also be provided through other recovery funding. HMGP can be used to elevate structures, or to acquire properties at risk. Once a property is acquired though HMGP, it cannot be redeveloped—future uses are limited to recreational/park, etc. In the last 22 years since 1990 (when the HMGP was first used at a large scale after the Great Midwest Floods), it has been used to acquire about 20,000 residential properties, mostly in riverine flood zones. All property acquisition for mitigation in the U.S. is voluntary, and homeowners are never required to sell their land. 5.2 BUYOUTS and ACQUISITIONS Although the meaning of the terms buyout and acquisition are almost the same, these terms are used to refer to different projects in the Sandy-affected jurisdiction. ‘Buyouts’ are used to refer projects in which the cost of the land purchased through the program is based on the pre-storm (higher) value, and redevelopment of the land is not an option in the future. These criteria are the same that govern the compensation for and future use of land acquired using the HMGP. As discussed in the following section, there are also “targeted buyouts” and “enhanced buyouts” in process within the Sandy-affected area. “Acquisition” on the other hand, is used for projects that to purchase land from homeowners at post-storm (lower) value, and allow for the future redevelopment. As shown in Table 2, there are various buyout and acquisition programs in New York City, New York State, and New Jersey State, respectively. Table 2. Residential buyout and acquisition programs in the 3 jurisdictions. New York City:

Build it Back NY State: New York Rising

New Jersey State: RREM

Buyouts Buyout are available in Staten Island (part of NYC) though NY State’s program, not NYC.

Enhanced Buyouts, in targeted areas.

Buyouts are available through the existing Blue Acres program, not RREM

Acquisition Acquisition for Redevelopment

Acquisition

5.3 NEW YORK CITY Buyouts are happening in Staten Island, which is part of New York City, but New York State, not New York City, administers this program. New York City’s recovery plan does not include buyouts, but does include acquisition for redevelopment. Through this program, NYC’s plan is to acquire land, carry out mitigation measures, and then redevelop the land for residential use once again. 5.4 NEW YORK STATE Though the NY Rising Program, New York State is implementing the largest number of buyouts and acquisitions in the disaster-affected area, including both programs of “Enhanced buyouts” in targeted areas, and property acquisition. The areas targeted for enhanced buyouts were selected based on their disaster risk, along with the interest expressed by residents of these areas to participate in the buyout program. Enhanced buyouts provided willing sellers with the pre-storm value of their house, plus a 10% bonus for those within the enhanced buyout areas, and an additional 5% to relocate within the same county. Properties acquired through this program will be permanently preserved as open space and a natural buffer. Most of the enhanced buyouts have occurred in Oakwood Beach, Ocean Beach and Graham Beach area of Staten Island, and in

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several clustered areas of Suffolk County, on Long Island: Lindenhurst, Oakdale, Sayville and Bayport, Patchogue and Mastic Beach, as well as the Flanders section of Riverhead10). In Staten Island, there were several more communities who expressed interested in participating in the buyout program who were eventually rejected, and participation rates within the target areas is very high. Demolition of these structures is continuing.

Figure 1. Left: Enhanced Buyout Areas: Staten Island in Dec. 2013 Figure 2. Right: Enhanced Buyout Areas: Staten Island in Dec. 2014 In the enhanced buyout areas in Long Island, there state designated which properties were eligible for buyout, but did not require that a certain level of participation. Direct observation of the areas selected for buyouts, such as parts of Lindenhurst, revealed that unlike in Staten Island, where the Recreate NY Smart Home Program clearly labeled the houses that were part of the buyout program, it is difficult to confirm by visual inspection alone which houses are participating in the buyout program. However there were 2 tendencies observed in these areas where properties have been targeting for buyouts: 1) small houses with unrepaired storm damage (Figure 3) and 2) now construction of large elevated houses on the coast (Figure 4). It can be assumed that the small houses are likely the participants in the buyout program, and the large new houses area not.

Figure 3. Left: Enhanced Buyout Areas: Lindenhurst in Dec. 2013 Figure 4. Right: Enhanced Buyout Areas: Staten Island in Dec. 2014 In addition, there were homes with for-sale signs, indicated that owners wished to sell their homes privately, but are not interested in participating in the buyout or acquisition program. Around 500 properties have been purchased through the buyout program in Staten Island and Suffolk County, Long Island. NY State’s Acquisition program purchases homes within the 100-year floodplain that suffered 50% or more damage11). About 700 properties have been purchased by NY State through this program. In March 2015, NY State announced that the first 150 of these properties will be auctioned off to private buyers in May 201512). According to building regulations and damages, buyers of these properties may be required to tear down the existing houses, or elevate if they chose to rebuild. 5.5 NEW JERSEY The RREM recovery program in New Jersey does not include any buyout or acquisition projects, but New Jersey residents

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can participate in residential buyouts through an existing program, call Blue Acres, which purchases and preserves land in coastal areas. Using New Jersey’s Department of Environment Protection (DEP) Superstore Sandy Blue Acres Program, houses in flood-prone areas can be acquired by the state for their pre-storm value. Like land acquired through the existing Blue Acres program, the land acquired through Sandy Blue Acres will be permanent preserved as open space, accessible to the public, for recreation or conservation, and serve as natural buffers against future storms and floods. Early on, New Jersey planned to acquire approximately 1000 properties in tidal areas affected by Sandy, and another 300 properties that have flooded repeatedly. Through November 2014, more than 200 homes had been purchased through this program, and more than 500 more offers had been made for others. More than 100 of the houses purchased through this program, in the flood prone areas of Sayreville, have been demolished.

REFERENCES: 1) Buettner, Russ and David W. Chensept. “Hurricane Sandy Recovery Program in New York City Was Mired by Its Design.” New York Times, Sept. 4, 2014. 2) Baker, Al. “De Blasio Sees Progress for Hurricane Sandy Victims Through a Program He Overhauled.” New York Times. Oct. 20, 2014 3) http://www.nyc.gov/html/recovery/html/home/home.shtml 4) NY Smart Home Rising factsheet: http://stormrecovery.ny.gov/sites/all/themes/ny_sandy_help/documents/smarthome-factsheet.pdf 5) NY Rising Housing Recovery Program Homeowner Guidebook. April 2014. http://stormrecovery.ny.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/homeowner_guidebook_040814.pdf 6) NY Rising 2012-2014 Report 7) New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Superstorm Sandy Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery. 8) Zimmer, Russ. "Sandy relief spending hits milestone in New Jersey."Ashbury Press, Feb. 2015 9) http://fema.gov/hazard-mitigation-grant-program 10) http://www.wnyc.org/story/cuomo-expands-sandy-buyouts-600-long-island/ 11) http://stormrecovery.ny.gov/ny-rising-buyout-and-acquisition-programs 12)http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/nyregion/battered-by-hurricane-sandy-bought-by-new-york-and-for-sale-for-a-song

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.html

Baker, Al. 2014 .“De Blasio Sees Progress for Hurricane Sandy Victims Through a Program He Overhauled.” New York Times. Oct. 20, 2014

Buettner, Russ and David W. Chensept. 2014. “Hurricane Sandy Recovery Program in New York City Was Mired by Its Design.” New York Times, Sept. 4, 2014.

Chabin, Matt A.V. "Battered by Hurricane Sandy, Bought by New York and for Sale for a Song ." New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/nyregion/battered-by-hurricane-sandy-bought-by-new-york-and-for-sale-for-a-song.html

FEMA. 2015. "Hazard Mitigation Grant Program." http://fema.gov/hazard-mitigation-grant-program. accessed 3/30/2015.

New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. 2013. Superstorm Sandy Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery.

New York City. 2015. NYC Build It Back website. http://www.nyc.gov/html/recovery/html/home/home.shtml accessed 3/30/2015.

New York City. 2015b. NYC Recovery Community Development Block Grant for Disaster Recovery: The City Of New York Action Plan Incorporating Amendments 1-8. http://www.nyc.gov/html/cdbg/html/home/home.shtml. accessed 3/30/2015.

New York State Governor's Office of Storm Recovery. 2013. NY Smart Home Rising Factsheet. http://stormrecovery.ny.gov/sites/all/themes/ny_sandy_help/documents/smarthome-factsheet.pdf. accessed 3/30/2015.

New York State Governor's Office of Storm Recovery. 2013b. NY Rising Buyout and Acquisition Programs. http://stormrecovery.ny.gov/ny-rising-buyout-and-acquisition-programs. accessed 3/30/2015.

New York State Governor's Office of Storm Recovery. 2014. NY Rising Housing Recovery Program Homeowner Guidebook. April 2014. http://stormrecovery.ny.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/homeowner_guidebook_040814.pdf. accessed 3/30/2015.

New York State Governor's Office of Storm Recovery. 2014b. NY Rising 2012-2014 Report.

New York State Governor's Office of Storm Recovery. 2015. State Of New York Action Plan For Community Development Block Grant Program Disaster Recovery. http://stormrecovery.ny.gov/action-plans-and-amendments. accessed 3/30/2015.

Schuerman, Matthew. 2013. "Cuomo Expands Sandy Buyouts to 600 on Long Island." WNYC News. http://www.wnyc.org/story/cuomo-expands-sandy-buyouts-600-long-island/ accessed 3/30/2015.

Zimmer, Russ. "Sandy relief spending hits milestone in New Jersey." Ashbury Press, Feb. 2015

Authors: 1) Elizabeth Maly, Assistance Professor, International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) Tohoku University; 2) Tamiyo Kondo, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Engineering Kobe University

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