Two hurricanes lay bare the vulnerability of America's poor

By Zack Colman and Daniel Cusick

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About 10 percent of North Carolina’s public housing units are in the known floodplain, making it emblematic of the U.S., according to New York University’s Furman Center. Altogether, 9 percent of U.S. public housing units—104,497 total—and 8 percent of privately owned, federally subsidized rental housing—343,351 units—are in the combined 100- and 500-year floodplain.

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Many federal programs for low-income people don’t work—or aren’t being used by the Trump administration, said Mickelson of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

President Trump did not activate FEMA’s disaster housing assistance program after Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria last year. The program provides direct rental assistance and case managers for low-income residents displaced by disasters. FEMA’s transitional housing program—essentially, setting people up in hotels—has requirements that the poorest of Americans can’t meet, like putting down a credit card.

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That public housing ended up in the floodplain is an extension of those policies, said Andrew Kahrl, a historian and professor of African-American studies at the University of Virginia. Wealthier white residents didn’t want public housing in their communities. Nor did the real estate industry, which worried that those facilities would depress home values.

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“The pattern of movement in metropolitan areas is that in white communities they mostly move north to higher ground and downtown communities become further integrated,” said Legerton, who is the executive director of the Center for Community Action. “That’s happened in Lumberton. The wealthier people moved out of downtown to higher ground.”

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