FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program represents a critical stream of funding for communities that are trying to increase their capacity to withstand future climate risks. This money is crucial to our region, especially for our most environmentally overburdened neighborhoods. For the New York City metropolitan area, in particular, this program creates the potential for resilience building in response to the flood harm that threatens our coastal neighborhoods where thousands of homes, services, and communal amenities exist.
Regional Plan Association’s recent report, “Averting Crisis,” investigates the housing and climate adaptation needs borne out of coastal flooding hazards in New York City and its surrounding suburbs.
Our research has found that by 2040:
- New York City and its surrounding suburbs are estimated to lose up to 82,000 units of housing due to coastal flooding and sea level rise.
- An estimated 1.6 million people in these neighborhoods will live in an area that is exposed to flooding–and roughly 1 million of these residents will be living in the urban core and regional downtowns.
- And up to 77 thousand acres of residential-zoned land will be at risk of flooding.
One of many important recommendations coming out of this work is the need to make sustained investments that will enhance and expand the capacity of the infrastructure and services in our State’s at-risk areas.
Despite knowing of the risks ahead of time, without the funds to proactively plan and make these investments, New York communities will lack the support that they need to prepare against future flood exposure and loss.
RPA stands against the decision to halt this program’s funding, and we stand with our fellow advocates in calling for leadership at the City and State level to fight for this program to remain in place, and to distribute the funds that it has committed to the projects across our State and region.
