Public Housing on the Periphery: Vulnerable Residents and Depleted Resilience Reserves post-Hurricane Sandy

Abstract

Hurricane Sandy was the greatest natural disaster to ever impact public housing residents in New York City. It affected approximately 80,000 residents in 400 buildings in 33 developments throughout the city. The storm left residents without power, heat, or running water, yet many chose not to evacuate. This qualitative study was conducted to understand the impact of Sandy among this socially, physically, and geographically vulnerable population. It is the first known study to examine the impact of disasters in high-rise, high-density public housing as a unique risk environment. Findings demonstrate (1) broad impacts to homes, health and access to resources, (2) complex evacuation decision-making, (3) varied sources of support in the response and recovery phases, and (4) lessons learned in preparedness. Results are contextualized within an original conceptual framework-"resilience reserve"-that explains the phenomenon of delayed recovery stemming from enactments of resilience to manage chronic hardship leaving vulnerable populations without the requisite capacity to take protective action when facing acute adversity. We discuss recommendations to establish and replenish the resilience reserve that include personal, institutional, and structural facets.

Energy, Poverty, and Health in Climate Change: A Comprehensive Review of an Emerging Literature

“…Energy insecurity plays a role in depleting a person's resilience reserve (24). The resilience reserve framework offers a different lens than does past resilience research, which found that marginalized groups were less resilient because they had less social and material support and more life stressors (145).…”

“…The resilience reserve framework offers a different lens than does past resilience research, which found that marginalized groups were less resilient because they had less social and material support and more life stressors (145). The resilience reserve framework argues instead that marginalized groups that contend with social, economic, medical, physical, and geographic vulnerabilities expend resilience resources to manage everyday hardships, leaving less opportunity to accumulate the psychological and material means with which to respond to and recover from large shocks such as extreme climate events (24). Therefore, after a disaster, marginalized groups have greater difficulties coping and rebounding, because they have already depleted their reserves.…”

“…Fourth, we highlight the salience of coping strategies and behaviors enacted by households experiencing energy insecurity and describe the health effects of temperature extremes, high-effort coping, and the depletion of resilience reserves. The resilience reserve is a framework that describes how resilience that should be preserved for use in a specific event, such as in response to a natural disaster, becomes depleted due to constant use in response to a greater prevalence of chronic daily struggles (24). To conclude, we summarize the findings of our review and describe the cumulative hardships of energy insecurity.…”

“…Therefore, after a disaster, marginalized groups have greater difficulties coping and rebounding, because they have already depleted their reserves. For example, years after Hurricane Sandy, which occurred in 2012, low-income NYCHA residents reported longstanding physical and psychosocial difficulties, citing the Hurricane's exacerbation of existing hardships and emotional trauma (24). Specifically, NYCHA residents cited the lack of electricity, heat, and functional elevators as a source of struggle, not just after the Hurricane, but before it as well.…”

“…Specifically, NYCHA residents cited the lack of electricity, heat, and functional elevators as a source of struggle, not just after the Hurricane, but before it as well. Housing, economic, and energy-related hardships had long been a source of chronic stress, constantly gnawing at their resilience reserve before the hurricane hit (24). One risk of an increased frequency of extreme weather events is the potential to exacerbate existing hardships and deeply impact the resilience capacity of vulnerable populations as they confront a growing number of social, economic, health, and energy challenges on a normal basis.…”