An Ecological Assessment of New York's Home Buyout Program: Exploring Lived Experiences and Implications for Affected Households and Communities

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After a natural disaster, residents may find their homes damaged or destroyed. When this happens, they sometimes choose or are forced to permanently move to new communities. In some cases people relocate with help from home buyout programs, which allow homeowners to sell their homes to the state. By moving residents out of areas that are at risk for disasters, buyout programs may improve the safety, health, and well-being of communities. They may also guard against expensive losses from future disasters. But as of now, it is not clear if buyout programs reduce risk or improve the well-being of residents in the long run. There may even be negative consequences for residents who participate in a buyout program. For example, moving away from your community, friends, and family can be stressful, and can have long-term social and health consequences. Because more communities in areas that are at risk for floods, hurricanes, and other disasters will be faced with relocation decisions, it will be important to make the process as effective and efficient as possible. By comparing how residents were affected by a home buyout program in three communities in New York after Hurricane Sandy, this research project will create new knowledge about how home buyout programs impact people and communities over time. Results will be used to develop recommendations for how these programs can protect communities, aid in the recovery process, and make communities more resilient to disasters and other crises. This project will move the field forward by supporting and training students and early career researchers in disaster policy and planning. Results and recommendations will be shared with communities, researchers, and policymakers.Using an ecological, comparative approach, this research project employs mixed-methods to explore processes and impacts related to home buyouts over time and at multiple levels. Residents of three communities with distinctive buyout experiences (one community where most residents chose to accept a buyout, one where most chose to reject a buyout, and one non-participating community adjacent to the relocated community) will be invited to participate. Specifically, this project will examine three key dimensions of the post-disaster home buyout experience: heterogeneity of buyout decision-making within communities, lived experiences of relocation and rebuilding over time, and secondary impacts of buyouts on affected, non-participating households and communities. Participants will be asked to complete in-depth interviews (designed to gather data on the lived experiences and perceived impacts of the buyout or rebuilding process) and surveys (designed to examine indicators related to social capital and place attachment comparatively and longitudinally). Data will be analyzed to examine with whom and in what contexts home buyout programs are beneficial. Results will inform current theory on post-disaster relocation and contribute to the development and implementation of effective buyout policies and programs.