RAPID: Exploring the Design and Implementation of Buyout Programs in Post-Disaster Settings

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This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project examines how local government agencies develop, design, and implement home buyout programs in the United States. Home buyout programs are intended to permanently reduce vulnerability from disasters by relocating residents away from areas that are prone to repeated hurricanes, flooding, or other hazards. Buyouts are typically funded by the federal government but implemented by state, county, or municipal agencies. How these programs are designed, communicated to the public, and carried out determines whether they achieve their purpose of mitigating against future disasters. Currently, however, local government agencies frequently struggle to implement buyouts because guidelines are unclear and there is an absence of agreed, well-founded practices for this type of program. Even with this limitation, buyouts are increasingly considered the best solution for improving the future for communities that experience repeated disasters. This scientific research contribution thus supports NSF's mission to promote the progress of science and to advance our national welfare with benefits that will inform planning to improve the resilience of United States communities, in particular to flooding. This project is funded through the RAPID grant mechanism to examine the home buyout program currently in process following the severe 2017 flooding in Harris County, Texas, which includes the city of Houston. This project examines at the micro level, the critical processes in the initial phases of post-disaster home buyout programs, examining decisions and outcomes in Harris County, Texas. This project uses semi-structured, qualitative interviews with government stakeholders and affected residents, observational data, and content analysis of internal and public program documents to address two key theoretical questions identified in the literature. First, it will further the understanding of the nature of buyout programs, as they are designed as mitigation programs and perceived as such by government agencies, but implemented in the time-compressed recovery period and viewed by residents as vehicles of recovery. Secondly, it will contribute to the literature on post-buyout land use and management by examining how implementing agencies plan to reintegrate buyout properties into public ownership and use.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.