If you made a daily donation of $10,000, it would take nearly three centuries for your generosity to reach $1 billion. Yet insured losses alone from last fall’s Hurricane Francine on the Gulf Coast totaled nearly $1.5 billion. Planning can go a long way toward mitigating costly damages and protecting homes and residents. That’s the impetus behind Enterprise’s Climate Resilience Academy.
Capacity building is a key component of the Resilience Academy – even for seasoned housing leaders. “The organizations we work with through our resilience academies are experts in housing and community development,” said Enterprise VP of Building Resilient Futures Krista Egger. “But planning for climate change events requires essential skills, tools, and knowledge. That’s what we aim to provide through these one-of-a-kind learning opportunities.”
To date, Enterprise has held seven resilience academies for affordable housing owners, operators, and developers in multiple regions from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast to the Mid-Atlantic. These unique cohort-based training opportunities feature an eight-week series offering five virtual sessions led by national and regional experts, plus access to technical assistance from the Institute for Building Technology and Safety.
Taking the support one step further, in 2023 Enterprise invited academy participants to compete for small grants of $25,000 to help advance their resilience efforts. Grant recipients included six Gulf Coast housing organizations: Bogalusa Rebirth, Fifth Ward, Gulf Coast Housing Partnership (GCHP), People’s Housing+ (PH+), Providence Community Housing, and Renaissance Community Loan Fund.
While one of the organizations, PH+, developed a resilient housing prototype, five of the six organizations created business continuity plans. The foundation of any successful recovery effort, the plans are an essential tool to help ensure uninterrupted operations during severe weather events. They position organizations to be ready to respond when climate disasters strike.
Continuity is Resilience
Bogalusa Rebirth in Louisiana used its grant dollars to create several business continuity plans, including succession and emergency response plans, according to Assistant Executive Director Breanna Caves, a certified HUD Housing Counselor.
Launched in 2007 to address blight and poverty in Bogalusa the organization has developed and sold 11 HUD-assisted single-family homes, has one home under contract, and is currently completing construction on four additional homes.
“Many organizations plummet because they do not have these planning documents in place,” said Caves. “We can now navigate unforeseen circumstances.”
Fortifying Affordable Homes
Navigating the insurance crisis, PH+ used its resilience grant from Enterprise to develop two prototypes for single-family affordable homes that meet both Fortified Gold and Energy Star 3.1 standards. The organization has begun construction on four affordable homes that employ the newly developed prototypes, which they plan to build in 100 days.
“We’re in the midst of an insurance crisis because of the sheer number of named storms that have hit this area,” said PH+ CEO Oji Alexander. “With more storm-resistant homes, residents often qualify for discounted housing insurance rates because we’re creating stronger buildings.”
PH+ was created through the strategic merger of three New Orleans-based community development corporations to promote multi-generational wealth building. To date, PH+ and its predecessors have provided affordable housing to over 250 families, along with more than 1,000 financial wellness and homebuyer counseling sessions.
The resilience grant also allowed PH+ to install green infrastructure on five of their affordable homes that provide critical stormwater mitigation, including rain gardens, infiltration trenches, and French drains. Alexander says these features are key to managing stormwater and protecting low- and moderate-income communities from the impact of climate change.
“We have a commitment that every home we build includes green infrastructure and there is a cost associated with that. This is where the grant was really beneficial,” said Alexander.
Robust Planning and IT Systems
GCHP used its resilience grant to update an existing business continuity plan, while also enhancing their technology and creating IT emergency plans.
The organization's footprint extends across parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas – all states with a tropical storm risk. Since 2006, GCHP and its partners have invested $918 million to preserve or develop over 4,500 affordable housing units and more than 1 million square feet in commercial space. They also manage more than 2,900 apartment homes.
Meagan Whittey, former IT support and systems manager at GCHP, said that immediately after finalizing their work on the grant, including the emergency plans, a hurricane struck. Having the plans in place, said Whittey, “allowed us to continue working and serving our residents with little to no downtime.”
Enterprise organized a monthly cohort call for resilience grantees working on business continuity planning. As a result, grantees encountered new ideas and approaches by engaging with other housing leaders doing similar planning work across different geographies. Whittey said she recalled thinking, “There are so many people who can help you. You don’t have to know it all.”
No organization – no matter how accomplished – will ever know it all – or have experienced every kind of climate event. But shared insights from a community of practitioners, plus a little extra financial support, can go a long way toward ensuring housing organizations and the residents and communities they serve are more resilient against natural disasters.
Brigitta Kral is a freelance writer and high school English teacher in Arlington, Virginia. She is a former communications manager at Enterprise.