Topic:  Flood Recovery, Property Acquisition, and Equity: The Geography of Federal Disaster Aid

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ABSTRACT / BIO

Natural hazards and disasters often disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, but how do these communities recover? This research applies a distributive justice framework to analyze disaster recovery, specifically through the allocation of aid for property acquisition. Two research questions drive the analysis: (1) to what extent does recovery vary by federal program funding the acquisition, and (2) what is the relationship between recovery and vulnerable populations? After the 2008 Midwest floods, Iowa communities acquired over 1,000 properties, the study area. For each homeowner, recovery is defined as a relative measure of federal aid received from property acquisition normalized by the property’s pre-flood assessed value. A measure of one indicates 100% asset value recovery. This measure is compared across the two federal programs that funded a unique set of acquisitions and across sub-populations based on vulnerability indicators through a spatial econometric model.

The results indicate both distributive and temporal inequalities in the allocation of recovery aid. Accounting for the differences in property values, some homeowners only recovered 20% of their loss while others received four times more money than the value of their home. Overall, the most vulnerable, including Latino and elderly populations, had lower recovery rates. Factors underlining these disparities were distinguished between the federal program funding the acquisitions and the timing of distribution of aid which varied by many years. Future research should investigate how differences in property acquisition outcomes affect other aspects of recovery including relocation and securing a permanent home.