Co-authored by: Anushi Garg and Linda Shi
Anushi is the senior analyst for Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Resilient Coasts & Watersheds program in New York-New Jersey. Linda is the associate professor for Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University.
New York City, like many cities, is simultaneously facing a housing affordability crisis and the impacts of climate change. As the city responds to these complex, interlinked challenges, it is critical to find solutions that ensure all New Yorkers have access to housing that is affordable and adapted to a changing climate.
Unfortunately, cooperative housing, also known as co-ops, lacks access to many public sources of climate adaptation and disaster recovery funding, despite making up more than 12% of the city’s housing stock. Co-ops have a unique ownership model, one where residents have shares in a corporation that owns the building, as well as a proprietary lease tied to their unit, rather than a property title. This model helps preserve long-term affordability, but can also prevent co-ops from accessing resources geared towards housing that is owned by an individual.
To support affordable multi-family co-ops, Environmental Defense Fund, Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) and Cornell University released An Assessment of NYC Cooperative Housing’s Climate Vulnerability and Barriers to Adaptation. This report, based on a mapping assessment, a first-ever survey of co-ops and a policy review, looks at climate impacts on permanently affordable co-ops in New York City and encourages more responsive and equitable policies.
Top challenges for co-op communities
1. Increasing climate risks
Roughly 57% of the 115 co-ops that responded to the survey said that they’ve been impacted by extreme weather, such as wind damages, flooding or extreme temperatures. Additionally, 5% reported that residents endured illness, injury or death from these events.
Flood risks pose the greatest climate hazard for co-ops. In New York City, 2,040 co-op properties touch a flood risk zone and more than a third have 75-100% of the property within that zone.
As rainfall and stormwater flooding pose the biggest flood risk to these co-ops, research suggests infrastructure and building-level improvements should be implemented to enhance their long-term resilience.
2. Limited funding and technical assistance
To address growing climate risks, co-ops need funding and technical assistance. But historically, this housing type hasn’t been able to receive enough federal support.
The Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act), which FEMA refers to when providing disaster relief, does not mention or define co-ops. As a result, FEMA interpreted this omission to mean that co-ops are businesses, rather than residences, making them ineligible to receive most disaster aid. This also means a lack of public flood insurance for co-op common areas, such as utilities, foundation, basement and walls.
Many energy resilience and green infrastructure programs also only cater to buildings with fewer than five units of housing, which disqualifies most multi-family co-ops.
3. Mismatched policy priorities
Lastly, there is a mismatch between the public support available and co-op needs.
Our study shows that New York City’s co-ops are more exposed to flood risks than they are to extreme heat. Yet, most public funds accessible to co-ops are for energy efficiency programs rather than flood adaptation. Co-ops also need tailored support given their unique ownership structure, which requires collective decision-making. Without additional support, co-ops have to self-fund repairs or retrofits, which often means either raising rates on residents (who may be fixed or low-income) or incurring debt at a time when both borrowing rates and insurance costs are extremely high.
Impact of Hurricane Sandy, as seen from a co-op in lower Manhattan (Source: UHAB)
How can we address these challenges?
We need to address these challenges for New York’s co-op communities by building awareness among and about co-ops, changing existing policies and seeking opportunities for transformative change.
1. Extend flood insurance and adaptation programs to co-ops
In the near term, one way co-ops can access flood insurance is to purchase UHAB’s Fire and Liability Insurance Program, which covers flooding.
Long term, we need to advocate for FEMA to re-interpret the Stafford Act to include co-ops as an eligible housing type. This would allow co-ops to apply for funding from FEMA after a disaster hits and enhance their eligibility for national flood insurance.
2. Integrate energy efficiency and adaptation programs
Many federal and state home weatherization and energy efficiency programs, such as NYSERDA’s Affordable Multifamily Energy Efficiency Program and New York State’s Division of Homes and Community Renewal’s Weatherization Assistance Program, can also integrate climate resiliency opportunities or expand existing resilience funds to serve more multi-family building types. This could include moving utilities out of the basement when upgrading oil furnaces to electric, tying down roofs before adding solar panels or ensuring first floor doors and windows withstand flooding or high winds while sealing building envelopes.
These changes will help co-ops recieive funding for climate mitigation and adaptation, as well as reduce transaction costs.
3. Design for resilient neighborhoods anchored around co-ops
Finally, if we want to truly build resilience for New Yorkers, we need to focus on solutions that address the needs of vulnerable neighborhoods.
We suggest increased resources for stakeholders and city agencies, like the Departments of City Planning, Housing Preservation and Development and Environmental Protection (especially the Bureau of Coastal Resilience), to collaborate on strategic neighborhood planning efforts, like developing stormwater flooding strategies or implementing green infrastructure. These strategies could be anchored around clusters of multi-family co-op complexes that allow co-ops to have a seat at the decision-making table and be part of climate adaptation in their neighborhood.
By shining light on the challenges co-ops face and opportunities to build resilience, we can help ensure every New Yorker has access to affordable housing that is adapted to climate change. To learn more, check out the report here.