Helping Communities Respond to the Impact of Climate Change on Housing (Video)
Climate change is already affecting housing availability, affordability, quality, and safety. Impacts from related environmental hazards and severe weather like rising temperatures, flooding, droughts, and wildfires are projected to worsen in coming years as climate change advances. These climate hazards are threat multipliers for housing affordability and accessibility as they reduce the availability of housing; increase the cost of building, maintaining, and accessing housing; and threaten the overall stability of neighborhoods amid a scarcity of affordable housing nationwide. Low-income communities, communities of color, and historically marginalized neighborhoods are often hit first and worst by these impacts, compounding existing housing vulnerabilities and inequities.
Understanding these challenges—and developing effective, place-based solutions—requires access to timely, locally relevant data. These data can help identify patterns of vulnerability and inform proactive hazard mitigation and resilience efforts, short-term disaster response, and long-term recovery planning. As organizations that focus on providing communities the data they need and the help they need to use it, NNIP Partner organizations are well-positioned to surface these insights and support community-driven climate resilience, response, and recovery strategies.
At the 2025 NNIP Partners’ Meeting, we had the chance to hear about the unique role of local data organizations in helping communities navigate the intersections of housing and climate change from Partners in Los Angeles, Charlotte, and New Orleans. Sara McTarnaghan from the Urban Institute, kicked off the plenary to provide framing on the intersection of climate change and housing before turning it over to the three partners. Caroline Bhalla from Neighborhood Data for Social Change at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles) discussed the role of neighborhood data in short-term responses and early recovery work in the wake of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Katherine Idziorek from the University of North Carolina - Charlotte shared insights on citizen science programs to map the city’s heat island and the intersection of heat, public health, and housing. And Allison Plyer from The Data Center in New Orleans shared insights on the evolution of their work 20 years after Hurricane Katrina, offering an invaluable perspective on the role of neighborhood data in long-term disaster recovery and climate resilience planning.
Check out the recording here!