Stronger Housing, Safer Communities: Strategies for Seismic and Flood Risks

From the Association of Bay Area Governments, and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), this report describes the characteristics of housing and communities vulnerable to earthquakes and sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Recommended strategies are provided with a focus on reducing housing and community vulnerability to help the region meet its resilience, sustainability, prosperity, and equity goals.



Apply the key considerations San Francisco looked at to understand the vulnerability of housing in your own community. 

The report begins by assessing and mapping the seismic and flood risks to homes in the Bay Area. The types of housing that are most vulnerable to different types of hazards related to seismic activity and flooding associated with sea level rise are described. This includes home with unreinforced walls, unstable foundation soils, and homes with critical equipment at below-grade. With respect to community-wide vulnerability, the report looks at areas where age, language, ethnicity, housing cost-burden, and access to resources compound to make natural disasters more threatening. It finds that housing affordability is a significant risk, which will likely worsen after a natural disaster.

 

This plan seeks to improve resilience by addressing the intersection between fragile housing and community vulnerability. The report includes a Housing and Community Risk map of groups within the Bay Area that are likely to be exposed to hazards and also have housing and community characteristics that indicate higher vulnerability, 

or are more likely to be affected to the degree that residents will have trouble preparing for, responding to, and recovering from a major disaster. Key themes of the community vulnerability analysis include age-related vulnerabilities, language- and ethnicity-related vulnerabilities, cost burdens on residents, housing tenure issues, and access to resources.

Examples of strategies to reduce vulnerabilities include:

  • Protect affordable housing during recovery
  • Improve the resilience of rental units
  • Reduce or prohibit development in the most hazardous areas while ensuring equity and beneficial use of these areas
  • Advocate for changes to federal and state programs to improve multi-family rebuilding efforts
  • Establish a cooperative shoreline management program

 

This 'Safe, Smart Growth Strategies' section lists strategies for reducing vulnerability. These strategies are grouped based on who should make the reform:

  • State-led Strategies:  The report suggests improving state standards for mapping risks, creating education programs to encourage homeowners and renters to purchase hazard insurance, and developing retrofitting licenses for contractors.
  • Region-led Strategies; The report suggests establishing a cooperative shoreline management program, creating guidelines for transit-oriented development, working with state and federal partners to explore insurance solutions and improve multi-family rebuilding policies, decreasing reliance on grid-supplied power, and incentivizing smart growth design through a regional competition.
  • Locally-led Strategies: The report recommends reducing development in the highest hazard areas, establishing an overlay zoning district to support safe development, establishing a transfer of development rights program to redirect development to safer areas, increasing building standards for new construction, requiring hazard disclosure to renters,  participating in FEMA’s community rating system, reducing flood risk through integrated watershed management, requiring flood proof construction methods, revising minimum building elevation, creating hazard mitigation and resiliency funds, and improving partnerships with non-profits, among others.

The report also outlines potential financing mechanism to support the policy recommendations it makes, including various taxes, fee-based special districts, infrastructure financing districts, revolving loan funds, and grant programs.

This report was funded by the USGS, the US EPA, FEMA, California Strategic Growth Council, the Association of Bay Area Governments, and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

Publication Date: March 2015

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  • Policy analysis/recommendations

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