Disaster recoveryPlacing people in affordable homes within days, not years, after major storms
On Monday, Housing and Urban Developmentsecretary Julian Castro toured the core of a house in Brownsville, Texas, as part of the RAPIDO project, which local officials hope will one day become the model for housing recovery after a major storm. The house is part of a $2 million pilot project which relies on low construction expenses and affordable labor to get people in affordable homes within days of a major disaster instead of years. While hundreds of affordable homes have been built since Hurricane Dolly and Ike destroyed a vast portion of the Texas Gulf Coast in 2008, many residents are still waiting for houses already funded with federal disaster money.
On Monday, Housing and Urban Development secretary Julian Castro toured the core of a house in Brownsville, Texas, as part of the RAPIDO project, which local officials hope will one day become the model for housing recovery after a major storm. The house is part of a $2 million pilot project which relies on low construction expenses and affordable labor to get people in affordable homes within days of a major disaster instead of years. While hundreds of affordable homes have been built since Hurricane Dolly and Ike destroyed a vast portion of the Texas Gulf Coast in 2008, many residents are still waiting for houses already funded with federal disaster money.
The Houston Chronicle reports that the RAPIDO project will build twenty prefabricated homes in the Rio Grande Valley as the first part of two projects to revolutionize how housing is built after disasters, but its originators hope the project will also be a model for creating low-income housing throughout Texas. A $4 million project to build twenty homes in Harris and Galveston counties will also rely on the same model, with its first houses expected to be completed by March. The house Castro viewed was built by teenagers with no building experience, demonstrating the ease of construction.
Housing officials in Texas and hurricane prone areas claim that the biggest hurdle to rebuilding housing after a disaster is the series of federal, state, and local regulations that must be cleared even before construction begins. “Historically. it has not worked as efficiently as it should on any level,” said John Henneberger, the co-director of the Texas Low Income Information Housing Service. To eliminate red tape within all levels of government and quickly build the homes as needed, Nick Mitchell-Bennett, executive director of the Community Development Corp. of Brownsville, wants local officials in storm prone areas to have building requests and permits pre-approved so construction can begin shortly after a disaster.
Henneberger introduced the concept of the RAPIDO project after joining rebuilding efforts for low-income housing post-Hurricane Rita in 2005. His ideas won him a $625,000 MacArthur Foundation fellowship. The RAPIDO project requires the core unit of a home to be built with a kitchen, bathroom, living, and sleeping area within six days. Houses can be expanded as additional funding becomes available. A core unit in the Rio Grande Valley costs about $15,000, compared to the $60,000 to $70,000 spent on Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) temporary housings trailers. Henneberger wants FEMA to reduce funding for trailers and vouchers used for temporary housings and instead allocate money towards houses built in the RAPIDO project fashion. He stresses that his model allows people to remain in the community and provide the labor needed for rebuilding. “A big part of getting people back into housing is that they are the labor force we need,” Henneberger said.
