HUD Resilient Building Codes Toolkit

In June 2022, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in collaboration with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), published a toolkit guiding local governments, communities, and private sector stakeholders on all relevant information related to resilience and building codes. The stated purpose of the toolkit is to create a central repository of all relevant information about resilient building codes that would otherwise be challenging to find for stakeholders. The toolkit emphasizes building codes as integral to health and safety against the backdrop of climate change’s increasing impacts on individual and community resilience. 

The toolkit is structured around three key themes:

  1. The business case for improved building codes
  2. The governance of building codes
  3. A technical continuum of interventions (ranging from minimum code requirements to best-in-class)

The toolkit’s chapter on the business case of resilient building codes emphasizes the positive role effective building codes can play in helping maintain safe, secure, and up-to-date buildings. A “healthy building stock,” for example, is needed for municipalities to maintain strong, viable tax bases that can support local government activities and services. The toolkit details the different economic metrics that are important indicators of climate migration risk. It also emphasizes economic importance at the individual and community level; climate change impacts in areas with ineffective building codes can result in mortgage defaults, insurability considerations, credit rating implications, and climate migration.

The toolkit then discusses hazard-specific business considerations for specific climate impacts: wind, flood, wildfire, and extreme temperatures, detailing the importance of building codes under each extreme weather condition. In the final section, the toolkit elaborates on how building codes influence resilience. Notably, the toolkit emphasizes the interrelated role of effective building codes with other factors, policies, and incentives. 

To support effective building codes, the toolkit provides detailed information and resources for stakeholders. It identifies FORTIFIED Home, for example, a voluntary construction and re-roofing standard that encourages resilience beyond the minimum standard requirements. It also references effective building codes from New York City, Boston, and Miami Beach that encourage climate resilience through specific guidelines. The toolkit includes a checklist for individuals and organizations at the local level to understand the relevant stakeholders and decision-making processes involved in their local building codes. Finally, it includes several appendices that include information on the relevant list of code requirements by state, state-by-state amendment procedures, and a technical appendix for hazard-specific interventions.

Publication Date: June 2022

Related Organizations:

  • U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
  • Local Initiatives Support Corporation

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Resource Types:

  • Policy analysis/recommendations

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