Measures look to help New Yorkers most vulnerable to rising flood risks due to increased extreme weather events
Elmhurst, Queens – As the tri-state region prepares for another hurricane season on the one-year and ten-year anniversaries of Hurricane Ida and Superstorm Sandy, respectively, a new Regional Plan Association (RPA) report outlines how New York City and State should address the growing flood risks facing thousands of New Yorkers, especially those living in basement apartments.
The report, titled Preventing Another Ida: Stormwater Management and Basement Apartments in Central Queens, explores the intersection between housing affordability, climate change, and health. The report finds that the study area in Central Queens would need approximately 40 times more green infrastructure capacity to manage stormwater associated with weather-related threats, and that such threats are made worse for many low-income and immigrant residents by the city’s housing crisis.
Central Queens, which encompasses the neighborhoods of Jackson Heights, Woodside, Elmhurst, and Corona, is one of the few areas left in New York City where low and middle-income households can afford places to live. Too often, however, these residences are unregulated, illegal basement apartments. Consequently, Central Queens saw some of the worst flooding impacts in the region from the remnants of Hurricane Ida less than a year ago.
“New York City is dealing with two simultaneous crises: the extreme lack of affordable housing and climate change-fueled weather events,” said Tom Wright, President & CEO, Regional Plan Association “Our research indicates that increased investments in green, flood-proofing infrastructure, in combination with easing restrictions on ADUs in New York and providing funding to bring them up to code, can lead to safer homes for folks living in basement apartments. We need to start viewing extreme weather events not only as climate change issues, but also as public health crises that most severely impact low-income communities.”
The report finds that approximately 31,000 of Central Queens’ low-density residential buildings have below-grade basements, which property owners frequently convert into unlicensed apartments. Due to the lack of regulation and licensing from the City, thousands of these apartments are at high-risk of flooding during extreme rainfall or cloudbursts.
The report also finds only three acres of land in Central Queens are currently devoted to flood mitigation, and that the capacity of green infrastructure in the area would need to expand 40 times over in order to completely manage the volume of stormwater associated with flood loss risk in the area. The city could potentially achieve this by converting just 5% of the total right-of-way space within the study area for stormwater management infrastructure. New York City does have a Green Infrastructure program charged with meeting some of this need, but the program is considerably behind on its goal of managing 1.7 billion gallons a year by 2030.
This report lays out several recommendations for the City to combat the rising flood risks for basement apartment residents in Central Queens and citywide, including:
Addressing flooding and cloudbursts as a health equity issue: Addressing flooding from extreme precipitation and delivering cloudburst solutions should be understood as a health equity issue. Studies of stormwater management and cloudburst strategies should also be evaluated and prioritized based on potential health equity outcomes.
Increasing stormwater management capacity: Local, state, and federal governments should provide the funding and planning of infrastructure to increase stormwater management design capacity, and prioritize flash flood management in highly populated vulnerable areas, such as Central Queens.
Legalizing and Supporting Accessory Dwelling Units: Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and basement apartments themselves should be made safer wherever possible, including through programs that offer technical assistance and amnesties to legalize safe ADUs.
Improving information about ADU locations and flood risk: The City must develop reliable sources of information and data on where each ADU and basement dwelling is located. Similarly, existing stormwater flood risk maps should be improved and updated to model “extreme scenarios” that assume at least five-inches of precipitation per hour.
“This report emphasizes the need for some of what many Queens community members have called on the city to seriously invest in for years: Green infrastructure to mitigate storm damage and the legalization of basement apartments to bring them up to code,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. “If we’re serious about preventing the devastating loss we saw a year ago with Hurricane Ida and ten years ago with Hurricane Sandy, we must act now and implement the solutions in this report and put our most at risk communities first.”
“This thoughtful report rightly recognizes unregulated basement apartments as a health, economic, and housing justice issue that must be addressed in concert with stormwater management and climate resiliency. I look forward to working with my colleagues, the Mayor, RPA and more to ensure that the City has the tools to protect the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers that live in basement apartments as well as first responders,” said New York State Assemblymember Harvey Epstein.
