The “Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act of 2022” was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives following a vote of 333-92. The bill was passed by the U.S. Senate during the summer. The bill would create a hazard assessment rating system for census tracts across the country and designate the area in each state with the highest hazard rating as a community disaster resilience zone, allowing for greater technical, planning, and financial assistance for disaster resilience and mitigation projects in such areas. The bill has been endorsed by NLIHC and its Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC), a group of nearly 900 local, state, and national organizations working to ensure that all disaster survivors receive the assistance they need to fully recover.
NLIHC and DHRC members, including the Fair Share Housing Center, worked with bill sponsors to ensure that any households displaced due to mitigation or resilience projects within community disaster resilience zones would be able to relocate to affordable, permanent, accessible, housing within their communities, which would guarantee that efforts to protect communities from disasters would not come at the expense of permanent displacement. Language protecting these households was included in the final version of the bill. Such language could also be used as a model for language in other bills dealing with resilience or mitigation projects that could result in displacement or relocation.
The passage of the bill would not have been possible without the expertise and advocacy of DHRC members and partners and the efforts of NLIHC’s congressional partners. The bill will now be sent to the President for his signature.
Read the text of the Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act at: https://bit.ly/3BmJT88