The following commentary was written by Kelley Trombley, senior manager of state policy at Ceres. See our commentary guidelines for more information.

With housing prices skyrocketing, far too many Colorado workers can’t afford homes. Traffic, already slowing down commutes and deliveries, is getting worse. And a warming planet is already hurting iconic Colorado industries, from farmlands to mountaintops. 

These are some of the major challenges keeping the state’s business leaders up at night — a sort of three-legged crisis with each individual prong presenting a real threat to the state’s economy. 

Make no mistake: Colorado is a great place to live and work. The state’s population growth in recent years is proof of its allure. But growing economies risk falling victim to their own success, as new challenges threaten to limit further growth. Right now, you can find those exact types of challenges in the housing market and on the roads. 

Home prices across the state have spiked by about 50% over the last five years, making it increasingly difficult for young workers and families to stick around at a time when the state’s workforce is rapidly aging. Meanwhile, around Denver, commuters now spend 54 hours a year stuck in traffic, making it the 17th most congested city in the country and slowing down workers, vendors, and really anybody who needs to get anywhere. 

Even more challenging: these problems risk building upon one another. If the only affordable places to live are further and further away from the places where people tend to work, that means people must drive even more. More traffic means slower commutes, delayed deliveries, and a less productive economy. 

And more traffic — as well as sprawling housing development that has greater energy needs — also means more pollution, which in turn causes the climate to warm. That is no longer a distant risk: Colorado’s mountain resorts, breweries, and other companies have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the impacts from climate change on their businesses and the broader economy. 

The good news is that for such a complex and interwoven set of challenges, there is a simple and low-cost solution that could go a long way toward resolving them — and it’s in front of state lawmakers as we speak. HB1313 would make it easier to put housing where people drive the least by removing burdensome red tape that makes it more difficult to build near public transit. As part of the legislation, cities, towns, and counties would gain access to new affordable housing tax credits and infrastructure grants to support the new development. 

Just judging by how hard it is to get it, there is plenty of demand to live near transit and jobs. Housing builders want to make more homes there but are restricted by regulations that limit how much housing can go anywhere. If those restrictions are softened, it’s all but certain that more housing will be built to meet that growing demand and ensure people can afford to live closer to work. And when people live closer to transit, they drive less because they have other options to get around — meaning less traffic and less pollution. Moreover, HB1313 would come at a time when the federal government has significantly increased infrastructure spending, which would help the state improve transit options to further bolster this policy. 

Like I said, it’s a simple change — but one with profound effects for taking on that three-headed monster of housing, transportation, and climate risks. In fact, if passed, this legislation will cut down on household driving by an estimated 13%, reduce climate-warming pollution by 8%, and have major positive impacts on land conservation and building energy usage. 

With public policy to unlock housing development near where people want to live, Colorado can make real progress against the housing and transportation challenges that are confronting so many American cities right now, while further brandishing its role as a leader in the fight against climate change. Since each of these challenges tends to get worse the longer it goes unaddressed, it is critical that action be taken quickly soon. I strongly encourage Colorado lawmakers to pass HB1313 this spring to ensure another generation of growth for the state and its key industries while protecting the resources that have made it so attractive to so many. 

Commentary: A business-friendly plan to confront some of Colorado’s greatest challenges  is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

This story was produced in partnership with Planet Detroit.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated a home project used hempcrete as a substitute for fiberglass insulation. That product is called hempwool. The story has been updated.

Seasoned housepainter Kim Croes had a big problem — increasingly, the fumes from the paint she used in her work were making her sick. 

She often experienced headaches, nosebleeds, and coughing during and after a job. Croes, who lives in Detroit and works all over the region, knew that most conventional paints contain harmful chemicals and frequent exposure to paint fumes is a real cause for health concerns. 

So a few years ago, she began researching healthier options for paint, wall surfaces and insulation. That’s when she stumbled on hempcrete — a mix of hemp hurd, lime and water. 

While it can’t replace traditional concrete in load-bearing applications, hempcrete can be used for insulation, walls and flooring. It is biodegradable and non-toxic. 

When she first heard about hempcrete, Croes was skeptical. But she came to believe in it so much that she started her company, FiberFort, in 2021 with a mission of offering healthier building options like hempcrete, other hemp products, and non-toxic mineral-based and limewash paints for her clients. In 2022, developers of Michigan’s first hemp-based house in Chelsea chose FiberFort to install spray hempcrete insulation.

“The whole intention of starting this company is to make a healthier environment for people and myself,” said Croes, who has begun a hempcrete-based bathroom retrofit in her older Detroit home. “Homeowners and builders should consider using eco-friendly materials.”

A nascent but growing movement of builders like Croes across Michigan is starting to experiment with hemp building materials. Backers say it is safer and more sustainable than foam and fiberglass insulation. Skeptics point out its high costs and a lack of access to the product. But proponents hope these challenges will be overcome as the hemp industry grows and matures.

Hope for a better health 

In 2020, Jessie DeDecker of Hastings, Michigan, received a devastating diagnosis: mast cell activation syndrome, sometimes called multiple chemical sensitivities disorder. Those with the condition experience repeated episodes of allergic symptoms like migraine headaches, whole-body inflammation, muscle weakness, low blood pressure, breathing challenges, and stomach ailments.

“It makes me extremely sensitive to the point of being allergic to a whole bunch of chemicals,” DeDecker said. 

The apartment she lived in, over 150 years old, contained mold and triggered her illness, forcing the 29-year-old to move back in with her parents. The ordeal prompted DeDecker and her family to search for a solution to her housing dilemma. 

Jessie’s mom, Laurie DeDecker, told Planet Detroit that it all started with an internet search for alternative building materials. She came across an article about hempcrete, learned that it was mold-resistant, and thought, “What the heck is this?”

“We knew we would have to build something because there was literally nothing in our area that would be safe for her,” Laurie DeDecker said. 

“In Barry County, where I live, it’s old houses or brand new construction,” Jessie DeDecker told Planet Detroit, noting that she is allergic to paint, vinyl flooring, adhesives, and other materials used in new buildings. “Most low-income housing is built from very inexpensive thin materials. You get a lot of off-gassing and it’s not durable,” she said.

DeDecker soon connected with Blain Becktold, one of the founding members of the nonprofit organization iHemp Michigan, and Cody Ley, founder of Hemp 4 Humanity and a regional representative of the U.S. Hemp Building Association. Now they are on a journey to build a safe home for Jessie, with plans to break ground in 2024.

“Our goal is to build her house as our first proof of concept and then look for funding and support to build future homes for others like Jessie,” Laurie DeDecker said. 

Building a modern hemp industry

Ken and Pat Kucab of Beverly Hills, Michigan, used a different hemp-based material – called hempwool – in a home project in Trout Lake. They sought natural, biodegradable insulation and wanted to avoid the hard-to-handle fiberglass batt insulation. 

The hempwool “provided the same R-factor as regular fiberglass insulation, and it was a good DIY contribution to the project,” Ken Kucab said. The R-factor is a measure of insulation performance.

For Kucab, the benefits of using hemp include avoiding exposure to chemicals and the material’s biodegradability. “We were able to install it ourselves. It was relatively easy but more time-consuming than fiberglass or spray-on foam insulation,” he said. “The hemp plant and its usefulness in building, insulating, clothing and a myriad of other products should be one of the sources to assist in cleaning up the environment and reduce our need for oil and the plastics that come with it.”

But he acknowledged the material has its limitations, including availability and cost. “Product distribution was limited when we purchased the hemp batts, so our cost for the hemp was higher,” he said.

In a future project, Kucab plans to use hemp blocks or hempcrete walls to provide added comfort.

“We bought it when it was not cost justifiable, but the price is moving closer to a similarly performing fiberglass batt,” he said. “Hempcrete walls replacing fiberglass insulated walls would be a huge move to provide better interior environments and great insulation.”

One possible factor contributing to the market’s slow growth is the 80-year federal ban on hemp cultivation. It’s only been legal to grow hemp since 2018, when the Farm Bill authorized its production and removed hemp and hemp seeds from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s schedule of controlled substances. It will take some time to build up the industrial hemp supply chain in Michigan since there are no processing facilities in the state. 

Becktold, who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 27 years, would like to see the same incentives for farmers growing hemp as are offered for other crops. Most federal funding for hemp has gone to research, market development, and animal feed.

One bright spot: in 2024, the International Residential Code, which establishes minimum regulations for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses, will include hempcrete and hemp lime.

Advocates point out that places like Detroit could benefit from hempcrete, where unhealthy housing is an environmental justice issue contributing to the city’s high asthma prevalence.

“This could be proof of concept for chemically sensitive housing but also start showing the wider community of builders and government, especially community projects for low-income housing, that this is a really good choice,” Jessie DeDecker said. “The more people who know about this, the more it will help beyond me. There are so many people of all demographics and all walks of life that could really really benefit.”

Hempcrete shows promise for healthy housing rehabilitation is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Maine’s deepening housing crisis is colliding with the global climate crisis. 

The state’s population is growing faster than its housing supply — and that growth is driven in part by people seeking out temperate locations to call home in a rapidly warming world. 

Some advocates see an opportunity in tackling these two crises at the same time, if state leaders can steer new construction toward the type of denser, all-electric, energy efficient housing that can help bring down living costs and carbon emissions. 

Maine Conservation Voters policy director Kathleen Meil is part of the buildings working group of the Maine Climate Council, which is preparing to update its ambitious, four-year 2020 climate plan this fall. She hopes the next phase of their work will dig deeper into this intersection. 

“It’s one of the things that I actually find really exciting about this work and about everything related to climate action,” Meil said. “It feels much better than being overwhelmed with, like, ‘Oh, no, we have to accomplish all of these things at the same time.’ It’s like, ‘No, we get to tackle all of the most important problems that people face at the same time. How cool is that?’”

A snapshot of a deepening housing crisis

Maine’s population of nearly 1.4 million people grew as much as 5.9% in the more densely developed southern counties last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Overall, more than 30,000 new residents arrived in Maine from other states and nearly 3,600 emigrated from abroad between July 2020 and the end of 2022. 

It’s putting a strain on Maine’s already overstretched housing stock, which had a vacancy rate of 4% for rentals and just 0.4% for homeownership last year, according to the Census Bureau. 

Data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows Maine lacks more than 22,000 housing units that are affordable for the lowest-income people — those who make under $26,500 a year in a four-person household, which covers 30% of Maine renters, per the coalition.

“The waitlists are in the thousands — we’ve got a 12,000-plus waitlist for housing vouchers to help support people’s rent. We’ve got people living in unsafe housing,” said Maine Affordable Housing Coalition executive director Laura Mitchell. “We’re seeing the need everywhere.”

Meanwhile, the state has struggled to shelter thousands of unhoused people, including many in the Portland area whose encampments have been repeatedly razed by the city. And hundreds of incoming asylum-seekers are being temporarily housed in local hotels and at the Portland Expo. Conditions at the Expo sparked a protest in June and deadlines to move out are looming as local officials scramble to stand up new shelters and find other solutions. 

“Regardless of where they’re coming from, they need a place to live,” said Ruben Torres, the communication and policy lead with the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. 

Climate change poised to bring more residents

The new arrivals are likely only to increase as the climate warms. Northern New England states have been called potential “climate havens,” despite facing climate change impacts of their own — such as historically unheard-of levels of extreme heat, coastal sea level rise, and devastating inland flash flooding, as seen in Vermont in recent weeks. 

But experts say this region’s ultimately temperate and relatively wildfire- and hurricane-free climate is still poised to be a draw for those fleeing worse situations in the U.S. and abroad. 

“The pandemic may in fact be a snapshot of what climate migration will look like in the decades to come,” said Hans Carlson, the executive director for Maine’s Blue Hill Heritage Trust, at an annual statewide sustainability research conference in April, according to The Maine Monitor. 

Torres said people emigrating to Maine, lately from countries including Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, may not cite climate change as the topline reason they moved — but dig a little deeper and its signature can be seen throughout migration patterns worldwide. 

Historic drought and more sporadic rainfall are disrupting the food and farming systems in countries like these, creating economic disruption, social conflicts and new threats of violence that are pushing people to leave. 

“We certainly expect, as time moves on, to see more and more folks be displaced,” domestically and abroad, said Tobin Williamson, the immigrant rights coalition’s advocacy manager. “What we’re trying to do now is kind of just help our policymakers be prepared for that. If you’re going to have thousands of people moving into Maine, you know, now’s the time to build housing for them.”

This preparation also means infrastructure upgrades and other community planning improvements, he said. Groups like the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition supported a bill passed last year that will allow denser housing development in Maine, creating more places in which to build with access to existing utilities, transit and other social services, and with a smaller environmental footprint. 

Dwindling fossil fuel needs in new homes 

But in order to meet state goals for lowering emissions and to help combat the climate changes that are helping fuel this migration, the homes that Maine adds to meet the needs of new and existing residents will need to be built differently from those of the past. 

Maine relies more than any other on pricey, carbon-intensive heating oil to keep warm in frigid winters. Though electric heat pumps are increasingly efficient in cold temperatures, these and other climate-friendly upgrades can make for complicated retrofits in older, less weatherized homes — the kind that pervades Maine’s existing housing stock.

Maine has been pushing hard to overcome this challenge. The state announced in late July that it has already met an initial target in its climate plan for installing 100,000 new heat pumps by 2025. More aggressive heat pump goals for future years are based around reducing specific, computer-modeled levels of emissions from Maine’s homes and buildings, officials have said.

If putting upgrades like heat pumps and better energy efficiency is possible in existing homes, it’s perhaps “the single biggest no-brainer in the field” for new construction, said Matt Rusteika, the director of market transformation for the Building Decarbonization Coalition.

The big potential users of fossil fuel power in most homes are the space heating and cooling systems, water heating, stove and oven, and washer and dryer, plus potentially a generator, Rusteika said. Natural or methane gas is low-hanging fruit to power these features. But Maine has less home gas access than nearly any other state, especially outside its southern tip. 

“Maine’s lack of gas service puts it ahead on decarbonizing its homes,” Rusteika said. 

The upgrades to ducts or pipes involved in electrifying an existing home can be big cost drivers, he said, but “in new construction, that’s not an issue. So it can actually be cheaper to build a new home or a new building with electrification … than it is build something with fossil fuels.”

Requiring efficiency for affordable housing

This runs counter to some developers’ longtime claims that energy efficient building techniques and electric home infrastructure are uneconomical.

In fact, a 2022 law in Maine mandates that new construction funded by the state Housing Authority must meet a high-level energy efficiency standard, such as the Passive House certification or something similar. 

These approaches emphasize electrification, insulation and overall low energy needs, helping create healthy air quality and very low, predictable energy costs, said Naomi Beal, who leads passivhausMAINE. 

“We can’t afford” to continue installing fossil fuel-powered systems in Maine homes, she said — “like in a climate way.”

“And also, it’s not necessary,” she added. “It’s dirty, it’s expensive and volatile. … The value of a Passive House-level approach is that the costs are small and super predictable.”

She said these efficient, electrified building techniques are especially economical for larger multifamily developments — such as the new University of Southern Maine dormitory that’s set to be one of the largest Passive House residence halls in the country. 

‘What’s perfect’ vs. ‘what’s productive’

But regulations to help decarbonize in new housing must strike a tricky balance, said the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition’s Mitchell — improving housing quality, sustainability and affordability, without making projects too expensive to build or otherwise slowing the pace of development to house those most in need.

“There’s kind of that sweet spot, because there’s also a social equity issue involved in this,” Mitchell said. “The cost of energy efficiency and addressing climate change shouldn’t fully fall on the backs of people in need of affordable housing.”

She mentioned electric vehicle chargers in single-family affordable housing as an example of a potentially unproductive requirement. Maine’s new law requiring high efficiency standards in state-funded affordable housing projects includes charging access as one way for builders to comply. 

“It increases [construction] costs,” Mitchell said, “and when you think about the likelihood of those [chargers] being used, particularly over the short term, you do have to kind of think about what’s perfect and what’s productive.”

Maine is far behind on its electric vehicle adoption goals, which reflect the fact that transportation is the state’s biggest source of emissions — though carmakers are adding more affordable models, and electric vehicles’ lifetime costs tend to be lower than those of gas-powered cars. 

Encouraging community-scale change

The Building Decarbonization Coalition’s Rusteika said regulatory requirements can give developers more certainty, but aren’t always needed at a time when climate-friendly building alternatives are becoming cost-competitive. 

“There’s not necessarily the need for a blunt regulatory instrument,” he said. “A lot of people choose electrification on the merits. It’s not an ‘eat your vegetables’ thing.”

But he points to building codes as an unsung, community-scale tool in this effort. Maine has only had a statewide building energy code since the late 2000s — it currently uses the 2015 international code, and is now working on updating to the 2021 edition, according to the Fire Marshal’s office. 

The cities of Portland and South Portland are using that 2021 code as an optional “stretch code,” which the state says does more to encourage efficiency, carbon reduction and resiliency. 

“The question is,” Rusteika said, “what’s the best thing for the state to do, the most cost-effective thing for the state to do, to achieve that” emissions reduction goal? “I think we know it’s not to put the onus of achieving the goal on the most vulnerable people in the state.”

Progress with limitations

The West End Apartments, an affordable housing complex in South Portland, Maine, is an example of what’s possible and what kinds of compromises are still required. It was built to a near-Passive House standard with almost no fossil fuel utilities, said architect Jesse Thompson, mainly to lower operating costs for the buildings’ owner long-term. 

West End opened its first building in 2021 and its second earlier this year. Some of the 116 total units were set aside to house local asylum-seekers. The apartments have all electric heating, cooling, washers, dryers and stoves, plus robust insulation and a central ventilation system that captures and filters waste heat and recycles fresh air into the apartments. 

With construction costs still elevated since the pandemic, the price tag of electric or efficient upgrades can still be tough to fit into a tight budget. The West End buildings have heat pumps in their corridors and lobbies, but not in each unit. Thompson said they had to go with the cheaper option, electric baseboard heaters, instead. 

Electric baseboards are generally the most expensive way to heat in Maine. But Thompson said the hallway heat pumps and other design choices mean the baseboards don’t have to work too hard. The buildings’ owner, affordable housing developer Avesta, also opts to cover residents’ electric bills under tax credit rules for buildings like this. 

“If we built a ton of big buildings with electric resistance heat, it would tax the grid,” Thompson said. “The heat pumps are good because they sip electricity” — slowly and gradually — “so we can do a lot more buildings.”

There are two fossil fuel-powered features left in the complex. One is the gas-powered generator required to run the buildings’ elevator in an outage. Future developments might be able to use a battery — that will be the case in at least one new affordable housing in Boston, which also has Passive House construction and a rooftop solar array.

The other fossil fuel user is the buildings’ water heaters, which run on gas. It was the cheapest option for the West End project, Thompson said, but it might not be for the next one like it.

“It’s changing really, really rapidly,” Thompson said. “We started designing this building six years ago. [Electric hot water heaters] didn’t feel affordable then. But the buildings we’re designing right now, we’re looking at it. … The machinery’s getting less expensive; the state is pushing much harder to do it.”

This story was supported by the MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship. See more reporting from this project at The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit newsroom.

Making Maine’s next generation of housing fossil-free — and affordable is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

The following commentary was submitted by Jesse Cohen. Cohen is a graduate student at the Yale School of the Environment, where he studies energy policy. He has worked for the Brattle Group as a senior research analyst, RMI as a graduate student intern, and the City of Ithaca’s Sustainability Office as a graduate student consultant. See our commentary guidelines for more information.

As we enter 2023, Gallup pollsters report the economy — inflation, in particular — remains America’s self-perceived “most important problem.” 2022 was a historic year for inflation. In June, inflation reached 40 year highs. And while inflation shows signs of slowing, the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report still shows a 6.5% annual price growth across consumer goods. Energy and housing prices are particularly volatile, growing at 7.3% and 7.5% respectively over the past 12 months. 

Inflation hits low-income Americans the hardest. The lowest-income American families are most vulnerable to inflation because they spend the greatest portions of their budgets – upwards of 80% – on essentials. For energy, the gap is particularly striking: low-income Americans spend three times as much of their incomes on energy bills as middle- and upper-income Americans. 

High quality affordable housing, powered by efficient, clean energy, can help fight inflation and more. Affordable housing provides economic relief to low-income families while reducing crime and increasing property values. Home energy efficiency cuts monthly bills and offers numerous health benefits. Clean energy-powered buildings mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and can help keep the lights on during extreme weather emergencies.  

Current U.S. policy leaves too many of these benefits on the table. The original Build Back Better (BBB) Act legislation, passed by the House of Representatives in November 2021 but unsupported by the Senate, included $150 billion in funding for affordable housing. The Biden Administration expected this money to lead to the construction and improvement of over a million affordable housing units. Combined with historic funding for clean energy, BBB promised to simultaneously address the dual crises of U.S. housing unaffordability and climate change, paving the way for an equitable, inclusive transition to an affordable, clean energy future. But the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law in August 2022 in place of BBB, removed the $150 billion dedicated to affordable housing, instead addressing housing indirectly through energy investments and incentives. 

The IRA’s most impactful housing provisions are likely to be the expanded tax credits for homeowners, builders, and commercial property owners undergoing energy efficiency upgrades and installing clean energy resources such as rooftop solar. However, the majority of low-income American families rent their homes and pay their own utility bills. Renters often cannot afford to undertake tax credit-eligible energy upgrades on homes they do not own, and landlords have little incentive to invest in energy improvements if they are not the ones paying the utility bills. The result is that IRA benefits are largely inaccessible to low-income renters. Existing inequalities are exacerbated and climate progress is inhibited because tens of millions of Americans remain unable to decarbonize their homes. 

To unlock the full potential of the IRA, we need to include low-income renters. To do so, policymakers should prioritize three actions in 2023: 

1. States and local governments should utilize the $1.2 billion in funding to upgrade building codes from the IRA and the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to aggressively implement energy efficiency standards that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, reduce unhealthy indoor air pollution, and lower monthly bills for all buildings—including rentals.  
2. Under the IRA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing $41.5 billion for tools to address climate change and advance environmental justice. $15 billion of this funding is earmarked for low-income and disadvantaged communities. Policymakers should ensure that as much of this funding as possible goes to projects that benefit not just climate, but also community health and housing affordability. Furthermore, in defining disadvantaged communities, policymakers should consider the proportion of households that are renters.  
3. Lawmakers should continue to promote new legislation prioritizing low-income renters. Examples include the development of new public housing, powered by efficient, clean tax-credit eligible energy technologies; expansion of the IRA’s $1 billion efficiency upgrade grant to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s assisted multifamily housing programs; and increased funding for utility bill relief and weatherization of low-income housing, as envisioned in the Markey/Bowman Heating and Cooling Act introduced last Congress. 

Together, these three actions would strengthen the IRA, driving a future where affordable, healthy, climate-friendly housing is accessible not just to homeowners, but to every American.

Commentary: To unlock the IRA’s full potential, we need to include low-income renters is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

This story was republished from Borderless Magazine. It’s part of a collaborative series, from the Institute for Nonprofit News, the Energy News Network and four other news partners, examining climate resilience across the Great Lakes. This reporting was made possible with support from the Joyce Foundation.

Daniela* was relieved when she finally got an apartment on the North Side of Chicago in 2017. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, she had been homeless for two years, and had worked with a case manager from a mental health nonprofit for a long time to find a landlord that would accept her Section 8 housing vouchers.

But when her basement apartment started regularly flooding, her dream home suddenly became a nightmare. Almost every time it rained, she was up to her knees in water.

“I had to use buckets to throw the water out of my apartment,” said Daniela.

With warming temperatures due to climate change, Chicago has experienced more frequent and severe storms in recent decades, leaving Chicagoans at increased risk of flooding. A 2019 study from the National Academy of Sciences showed that Chicago ranked high in total federal payouts and loans to address flooding and flood damage. Despite Chicago’s inland status, the area’s spending was surpassed only by coastal regions that regularly experience hurricanes.

Chicagoans who live in basement apartments, like Daniela, are particularly at risk of losing their valuables and having health issues due to flooding. Basement apartments, which are not always legal, are popular options for lower income residents and people from immigrant communities in Chicago.

“We consider our city to be a sanctuary city, but at the same time, a lot of the living conditions don’t hold up,” Daniela said.

Now, Chicago aldermen and housing advocates are working to change laws to protect these vulnerable residents.

September supercell storm highlights dangers

As climate change intensifies, existing infrastructure in Chicago is being taxed beyond the limits of what it was originally designed to handle. Not just rainfall, but increased precipitation in the form of storms, snowfall and lake-related flooding will continue to pose a threat to people’s homes.

While flooding has increasingly been a problem for Chicagoans for several decades now, this September’s supercell storm made the dangers of flooding very apparent.

A supercell storm is a unique kind of thunderstorm which can persist for hours and cause extreme conditions like flash flooding and 100 mph winds. These storms are the precursors to tornadoes, and climate change is increasing the chances that weather events like September’s storm can occur.

Chicago’s September storm flooded streets, caused sewers to back up and manhole covers to blow off of their positioned spots. After the city received nearly 5 inches of rain in a matter of hours, 2,500 residents in the North Side neighborhoods of Portage Park, Edgewater, Rogers Park, West Ridge and Albany Park reported basement flooding. The storm’s impact lasted far longer than the initial downpour, straining resources and creating problems in these communities.

Carina Hoyer, who lives in a rowhouse in Albany Park, said the rate at which the flooding happened was unlike anything she’d seen before.

“The water was coming out of our floor drains so fast, it was like, we just walked back upstairs. There was literally nothing that we possibly could have done to even slow down or mitigate [the flooding] at that point, it was just chaos,” said Hoyer.

Adding to the challenge of flooding, the neighborhoods hit by September’s storm are home to large populations of immigrants and non-English speaking residents. In Albany Park, for example, 60% of residents do not speak English at home, making receiving information about the danger of flooding and what to do afterwards more difficult.

Who is most at risk?

Immigrants in Chicago and beyond who continually have issues trying to secure and keep long-term housing tend to be drawn to basement apartments because they are less expensive and usually have landlords who have minimal requirements to rent the apartments.

“Generally the housing situation in Chicago is difficult. Immigrants especially face a difficult time because they lack the credit history to be able to choose what housing situation suits them most, added on top are the issues related to price and availability,” said Maya Atassi, director of operations at the Syrian Community Network, which helps newly arrived immigrants and refugees find housing.

Often, the number of people living in basement apartments is well above any occupancy limits, but apartments like these are part of a larger informal housing market that spans numerous large cities like Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. In each case, most of these arrangements are utilized by immigrants with few affordable choices for housing who are forced to make do.

“[Basement apartments] tend to be focused in areas that have a high number of immigrants whether they be from Asia or Latin America or other countries,” said Laura Garcia from the Metropolitan Tenant Organization. Outside of Chicago, an NBC News report found that nearly all of the people who died in basements after Hurricane Ida were Asian immigrants to the U.S.

Garcia’s organization fields calls from residents who are having trouble with their housing and says that flooding “is a constant issue, even before the supercell.”

“We do get calls about basements flooding [or] their sewage backup,” Garcia said. “When there’s severe snowfall, sometimes that water will come in right into the unit as it’s melting.”

What are some of the risks?

Flooding isn’t just a hazard when water first enters the apartment. In the aftermath of a storm, one of the most common hazards that pops up after flooding is mold, according to Emma Anselin, a pediatrician at Lurie Children’s Hospital. Not only is the presence of mold problematic, but many people may be allergic to mold and not even realize it. Mold has been linked to increased chances of asthma developing in children and can agitate existing respiratory issues.

“After flooding, when there’s water damage to the home, and then mold grows on top of that water damage, [people] may notice chronic cough and congestion and difficulty breathing [and] headaches, all because they’re allergic,” said Anselin.

Both Hoyer and Daniela dealt with mold after flooding. Daniela remembers her brother, who has asthma, having trouble breathing whenever he visited.

“When he would come to visit, he would be like ‘it just feels stuffy in here,’ even though I would have all the windows open,” Daniela said.

Navigating challenges

It can be daunting to try to navigate housing situations with a basement apartment, especially because the folks that live there are usually low-income and rent-burdened.

Certain organizations are trying to tackle the issue from several angles. Doctors are attempting to provide notes to landlords to help fix the issue of mold. And legislators in Chicago, New York and other cities are working to legalize basement apartments in an effort to regulate them.

In 2020, Ald. Michael Rodriguez, whose ward covers Archer Heights, Little Village and North Lawndale, introduced the Additional Dwelling Unit Ordinance, which helps homeowners bring their homes up to code so they can rent out the basement units and supplement their income. While the program launched in five pilot areas in May 2021, legislators are now looking to expand throughout Chicago. The ordinance is set to be discussed at a future joint session of the City Council’s zoning and housing committees.

Current legislation doesn’t address flooding in basement apartments, but it does provide funding for landlords to help bring their apartments up to code, which helps renters live in safe apartments, according to Rodriguez. Some improvements to help prevent damage during and after a flood are a sump pump, risers for furniture and waterproof drywall.

Flooding occurs in the basement of Camila Pechous’ home in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago, Ill., Sept. 11, 2022. The family spent about $20k to hire a flood cleanup service, and to replace the furnace, carpet, furniture and personal belongings. “I’m an immigrant but I didn’t grow up in the area,” Pechous said, “I moved back from the west coast and chose Portage Park specifically for its diversity and potential. We’re now moving to the suburbs and making plans to put in a flood control system and sell the Portage Park house. It’s sad how that area is neglected.”Photo courtesy of Camila Pechous

“The program allows for these units to — and there’s funding to — bring these [apartments] up to code in compliance with the city law,” Rodriguez said.

Housing advocates are also trying to increase accessibility to resources and information on what to do if your home floods.

“I think there always can be better dissemination of information around what to do in these types of situations. Especially in different languages,” said Scott Jaburek from the Albany Park Defense Network, which helps immigrants on the North Side of Chicago.

Jaburek said that the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the city’s Water Management Department both have a role to play in the interim, by helping to educate renters about practical ways they can manage flooding in the aftermath of a storm, such as how to clear water from a basement apartment, how to navigate electrical appliances and outlets, and what to watch out for after the water is gone.

How can we prepare?

Jaburek also said it is important for renters to know their rights and seek out help from tenants’ rights organizations to see what their landlord owes them in the wake of a storm.

Renters should also should try to call 311 to clear out their sewer line prior to any storms and try to purchase renter’s insurance, if possible, since it might be the best way to ensure their property inside the apartment can be accounted for and they can be compensated in the wake of an extreme weather event.

If a renter has renters’ insurance a loss of use policy can help them recover funds to stay in another place and additionally recover from any damage flooding does, and any damage should be thoroughly documented. Local neighborhood groups or their alderman’s office can help neighbors get their landlord’s attention to help fix any issues after flooding.

Basement apartment residents should pay close attention to their health after the flooding and also pay close attention if they have asthma and go see a health care provider if they experience symptoms. Health care providers can also play another important role in advocating for improving their patients’ living circumstances. Doctors can provide letters to their patients’ landlords if they feel the problem is stemming from the patients’ home and this solution has proven effective. A 2021 study found that of people who submitted doctor’s letters to their landlords stemming from poor housing conditions, 89% of landlords took action to fix the problem and 74% of landlords fixed the issue after receiving the letter.

As government officials and community organizers try to tackle the problem, MTO’s Garcia stresses that the underlying issue is ensuring that immigrant communities have access to safe and affordable housing which can bolster their health instead of endangering it.

“Everyone, regardless of immigration status, regardless of income levels, deserves to live in safe and decent housing. There’s no reason that folks should be living in subpar conditions because we know that housing is directly correlated to health,” said Garcia.

Lost memories

For Daniela, the impact of years of flooding has been devastating.

The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Daniela treasured the photos and trinkets that had been passed on through the generations but lost them in one of the many flooding events that her apartment experienced from 2017 to 2019.

“Those could not be replaced. Or, you know, refurbished or fixed,” said Daniela.

Daniela repeatedly contacted her landlord to address the damage. It was only after her caseworker got involved that her landlord took action to hire a cleaning crew to deep clean the apartment, which had mud and debris after the flood waters subsided.

Now that she’s in a different apartment, she hopes that no one else has to go through what she experienced.

“How can someone get ahead if they’re dealing with flooding issues, year after year?” said Daniela.

*Daniela’s name has been changed to protect her safety and privacy.

As flooding increases, Chicago looks to make basement housing safer is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.