As unprecedented flash flooding ran through our streets and rushed into below-ground homes across the region, tragically claiming more than 40 lives in New York and New Jersey alone, Hurricane Ida demonstrated that the climate crisis and housing crisis are colliding in devastating ways.
As these crises continue to overlap, homes in the path of floodwaters or baked by heat will become less and less inhabitable, increasing demand for affordable housing while threatening the health and well-being of more and more residents with limited wealth.
Out of this tragedy, however, emerges an opportunity and an obligation to find joint solutions for climate change and affordable housing, ensuring the outcomes of one are aligned with the other. This panel will identify bridges between these two issues and ask: What does it look like to simultaneously and equitably cut emissions, adapt communities, and create an abundance of affordable housing?
