"We were given the commandment early on not to design anything that looks weird," said Jeffrey Fugate. "We have tried very hard to create something that is culturally appropriate."
In collaboration with Oxfam America, MIT graduate students in Reinhard Goethert's class have come up with a plan that does a whole lot more than meet that rural aesthetic. Goethert and his students worked closely with Oxfam partner organization TRAC, the Terrebonne Readiness and Assistance Coalition, to learn how their ideas could be matched with needs in the local community.
What sets the Lift House apart from other housing programs is that it attempts to combine a concern for affordability with hurricane-ready sturdiness, and ease of construction—easy enough to turn a crew of hammer-swinging volunteers loose on the project.
Volunteers serve another purpose besides making the Lift House affordable. Their energy and enthusiasm also help strengthen a community's foundation.
"You can make this a festival of rebuilding the community," said Reinhard Goethert, director of MIT's SIGUS, or the Special Interest Group in Urban Settlement. "It's not just a physical house. You're stabilizing and rebuilding the community. People want to help. I think this is a good way to do it."
With an above normal hurricane season forecast for this year, and weather patterns that could produce storms of increased frequency and intensity for years to come, the Lift House approach may offer a sustainable housing approach to communities throughout the Gulf Coast.
Last January, when Fugate visited Dulac, Louisiana, a poor bayou community in Terrebonne Parish, he was struck by how precarious the setting was for homes—low, muddy, and not far from the wind-whipped waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
"It's a beautiful but not a gentle landscape," said Fugate.
The students' objective was to design a bayou home that would neither flood nor get blown away. They had to take into account the corrosive salt water, soggy ground, and winds tearing across the flatlands at hurricane speed—all the while remembering the admonition that "weirdness" could sink even the best of ideas.
Coupled with that warning was the students' recognition that regardless of how hard they studied the place, they would never know it as well as the locals. When Fugate suggested that carpeting would make a good floor cover for a house lifted high above flood waters, he found himself corrected: In the muddy bayou, shoes caked with muck are a fact of life. Better to install easy-to-clean tiling than carpets.
"It's a two-way learning street," said Fugate.
Among the design features the SIGUS group did settle on was a hipped roof—"it's sloped on all four sides, like a pyramid, it's more aerodynamic and less prone to lift," said Fugate, "and it has a 'floating foundation,' meaning a concrete slab that can move with the shifting soils that are a reality in low-lying bayous." Pilings through the foundation anchor the home and are deep enough to support a house lashed by fierce winds and storm surges.
"If you're going to splurge a little, splurge on the roof and foundations," said Fugate. "If you can keep your house from floating away or leaking, that's half the battle."
The design calls for volunteers to build homes that eventually stand high above the ground—a place most workers are wary of going.
"Our idea is to build the house low and then lift it onto pilings when it's completed. Volunteers—and professionals—get nervous when they have to work on a platform," said Fugate. "To my knowledge, no one who uses volunteers has looked at stilt housing before. The big idea of building it on the ground and lifting it on stilts is our solution."
The students are still exploring the most efficient—and most affordable—means of lifting the house once it is built. One technique student Matt Hodge finds compelling is a chain hoist, which uses a pulley set on top of the pilings to hoist the house with chains.
"It's potentially safer because you don't have anyone under the house while you're lifting," said Hodge, whose background is in civil engineering.
With the design 98 percent complete, the next stage of the effort calls for the SIGUS group to work with local engineers to approve the concept and create a set of drawings that meet local building codes, said Goethert.
"When you talk about new ways of doing things, it takes a lot of talk," said Goethert. "You've got to change mindsets."
SIGUS and MIT are planning a two-week program in July for MIT volunteers interested in helping TRAC move forward in the realization of the first of these homes and to help repair damaged houses in the bayou. In the first house to test and design, contractors will set the pilings and build the bulk of the homes themselves, with volunteers being used to help with the finish work inside.
Once the design and construction kinks are ironed out, Oxfam and MIT hope to see other volunteers and local community groups pick up the design, enlist an army of helpers, and begin to build affordable, storm-resistant houses wherever people need them.
To help those crews avoid potential pitfalls in the process, SIGUS students are also developing a hands-on guide for the aid groups. Called "Going Up?" it will be chockfull of tips on smart ways to work with coastal communities and on coordinating all the different elements—supplies, engineering, design, construction, finance—needed to get the project accomplished.
"All too often, academics' great ideas never have the opportunity to be tested in the real world, while local community groups rarely have the resources to tap the best and the brightest or apply innovative concepts born in the classroom to their local realities," said Bernadette Orr, Oxfam's Gulf Coast emergency program manager.
"The Lift House project will be an opportunity for MIT and TRAC to bring those two worlds together in a way that will create tangible benefits all around. We know that the Lift House is going to attract a lot of attention and, we hope, replication once it goes up.
"We plan to help promote the manual with local groups working on affordable housing all along the Gulf Coast, so there could be many Lift Houses that eventually get constructed from Mississippi west to Lake Charles."
]]>But now Hanshaw, and a growing number of other women in the Gulf Coast community, have a new foundation from which to begin rebuilding part of their lives: Coastal Women for Change, or CWC, a fledgling group of newborn activists determined have a say in the recovery of their neighborhoods.
Whatever the 2006 hurricane season brings, CWC may serve as a buffer to additional hardship. It has taught many of the women that each of them has a voice, and those voices count—individually and collectively.
"Our mission is to empower these women with knowledge of what they can do," said Hanshaw, the group's new director. "It's unlimited. You can build. You can go back to school. You can call your local officials. You can talk to them. They're there for us."
Now numbering about 25 regular members, with a core group of 10, CWC was launched with the help of Safiya Daniels, a community development specialist for Oxfam America, who has been working chiefly in Biloxi and Gulfport.
"One big difference that I saw between these two cities was the existence of organized community groups," said Daniels. "I realized that outside of the churches, Biloxi had none. I also noticed there was very little institutionalized female leadership in Biloxi."
Daniels also worried that there seemed to be few community gatherings in Biloxi to discuss what direction the city was taking as it began recovering from Katrina. Long-range community planning was not on anyone's neighborhood radar screen.
"This was a dangerous situation," said Daniels. "Everyone else was making a plan: casino developers, condo developers, and the city, but there was very little evidence of broad community participation."
She knew the concern was there—"in every community there are lots of concerned women who want a vibrant, healthy, and safe community for their families to live in"—but how to turn that interest into action was the missing piece. So, Daniels called a meeting.
"I brought a group of women together to talk about what was happening in their community, what issues and problems they faced, and how these could be addressed," said Daniels.
That first meeting grew into a series of sessions which blossomed into action, spawned weekly gatherings, attracted new members, and finally gave birth to an official group with a name and stated mission. Its goal is this: "to make a difference in our communities through securing and revitalizing our neighborhoods." Information sharing is the critical tool in achieving that end.
"I don't want people to be left out," said Hanshaw. "I want to give them knowledge. Knowledge is power."
Knowledge starts with asking questions, and one of the first events CWC sponsored was a Biloxi community forum to which it invited the mayor, city councilors, and members of the city planning department. Questions abounded—about flood elevations mapped out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), about affordable housing, about displaced people. Nearly 200 residents showed up for the forum.
Attendees not only got some answers, some of them learned a deeper lesson as well.
"Democracy works only if people make it work," said Daniels. "And we do that by holding people accountable. There possibly has never been a time during the mayor's 13-year tenure that he found himself in such a position, being watched and held accountable by this particular community, and in such a public way."
Asking questions is the first step. Having a say in the answers is the next step. Right away, CWC members sought seats on a planning commission formed by Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway. Called Reviving the Renaissance Committee, it was given 90 days to come up with a plan for the city's recovery.
Five CWC members have been weighing in on matters of finance, education, land use, and affordable housing—the subcommittees for which they signed up. And people are beginning to listen to CWC's opinions.
"We are in the paper every week," said Hanshaw, adding that she gets the sense she is even making some of the powerbrokers nervous.
"They try to turn their heads when I come up," she said. "Especially the developers. They don't want to talk to me. They know where I stand."
For Cass Woods, working with CWC has given her a direct link to her community, and that link is allowing her to make things better all around.
"It makes me feel good to help someone," said Woods, who has been living in a government issue trailer—the size of a matchbox, she said—parked in her back yard for months. "That's what has helped me get through my loss."
With a $30,000 seed grant from the 21st Century Foundation, CWC will be able to pay Hanshaw a salary, purchase office supplies, and begin to look ahead at how to fund itself into the future.
Meanwhile, the organization is undertaking a new task: a survey of East Biloxi to find out the childcare needs of the community's residents. To renew its license, a local day care organization is being required to assess the need for its services in the area.
"This is our first project," said Hanshaw. "Another accomplishment under our belts."
And it's just the kind of project Daniels had a hunch a group like CWC could offer the community.
"The needs of the community will drive what CWC takes on," said Daniels. With those needs being constant—as they are in every community—Daniels expects the new organization to have a long and productive life.
"It's going to stand on its own. I am confident of that," she said. "I could see it truly growing into a coastwide organization."
]]>Drought-related risks are a primary concern throughout Ethiopia where 85% of the population is dependent on smallholder, rain-fed agriculture. Adi Ha is a drought-prone community that has expressed strong interest in incorporating insurance into its risk management strategy.
The pilot will adopt a holistic approach to risk management, examining the suitability of weather insurance and risk reduction measures such as seasonal forecasting and improved agricultural practices. All efforts will be undertaken in close collaboration with the local farming community with the overall objective of alleviating poverty.
The efforts will be funded by Swiss Re and Oxfam America, with primary technical support being provided by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University. Ivo Menzinger, Head of Sustainability & Emerging Risk Management, commented, "Swiss Re is delighted to support Oxfam in implementing this fundamental and important work in the Tigray Province. In particular, we can combine our commitment to corporate citizenship with providing consulting support to the project on risk transfer issues."
Swiss Re has pioneered weather risk transfer instruments in developing countries, starting in India in 2004 with a program reaching over 350,000 smallholder farmers. In 2007, Swiss Re introduced the Climate Adaptation Development Programme (CADP). The goal of the CADP partnership is to develop and implement weather risk transfer solutions in non-OECD countries.
Oxfam America President Raymond C. Offenheiser said: "This pilot offers a chance for smallholder farmers to become more resilient to changing weather patterns. It's an opportunity to increase the impact of Oxfam's risk reduction programs and explore exciting innovations in weather-based microinsurance..."
Over the last 35+ years, Oxfam America has worked to bolster the capacity of poor communities around the world to reduce vulnerability. Nevertheless, climate change is dramatically increasing the level of risk faced by the poor across the planet. For this reason, Oxfam America is interested in developing new mechanisms to address risk for poor farmers.
]]>President Bush?s visit to Mississippi and Louisiana, days before the third anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, comes as a new report from Oxfam America reveals how little progress has been made and what still remains to be done to restore the region and repair the communities affected three years ago.
?If the history of the Katrina recovery were written today, it would be a tragedy. Far too little progress has been made despite the remarkable effort and ingenuity of the people of the region who are fighting to restore their homes and their lives,? said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. ?Much of the progress has come at the hands of Gulf Coast residents - in spite of significant hurdles placed in front of them by the federal government. The next administration must act quickly to remove those hurdles so Gulf Coast residents can truly and finally recover from the storms.?
Oxfam?s report, Mirror on America, which will be released Tuesday, reveals just how much work remains to be done, and provides recommendations to speed an equitable recovery, including:
President Bush rightly commended many who have worked hard to rebuild their homes and their lives. Unfortunately, so many have done so on their own, with less help than they could have used from the federal government.
Rebuilding the region has proved to be difficult. Many living along the Gulf Coast have been hit by a double injustice. On one hand they can?t afford the rising costs of rent, housing, insurance and utilities. On the other, they can?t find the kind of jobs they need to offset those increased expenses. It is not too late, however, for the many thousands who still need help.
?A new administration will face the challenge of correcting the mistakes of its predecessor and a critical opportunity to rebuild the Gulf Coast better and stronger,? said Rhonda Jackson, Louisiana State Policy Specialist for Oxfam America. ?The time is now to renew our promise and commit to a full Gulf Coast recovery.?
]]>Oxfam?s report, "Mirror on America: How the state of Gulf Coast recovery reflects on us all," comes just days before the anniversary of one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history and a week before a September 5 deadline for Louisiana residents to apply to the state?s Road Home program for assistance. With the passing of this deadline, thousands of residents in that state will no longer be able to receive needed assistance so that they can return home.
?The uneven and inequitable state of recovery of the Gulf Coast is a national embarrassment,? said Oxfam America President Raymond C. Offenheiser. ?Although the force of the storms was an act of nature, the failures of the recovery are an act of our government. If we refuse to address this as a nation, it will go down in history not only as a failure of leadership, but also as a failure to hold our government accountable.?
The barriers to a complete recovery are most apparent in the housing and jobs sectors.. More than 35,000 individuals still living in FEMA trailers in the Gulf Coast, according to Oxfam?s report. In Louisiana, 82,000 apartments were damaged or destroyed by Katrina and Rita, but the highest official estimate proposes to replace only about 25,000 affordable units. In Mississippi, federal money that was mandated for use in rebuilding low income housing was, instead, diverted to improving the shipyards in Biloxi.
Workers living along the Gulf Coast have been hit by a double injustice. On one hand they can?t afford the rising costs of rent, housing, insurance and utilities. On the other, they can?t find the kind of jobs they need to offset those increased expenses. Only 12 percent of African-American evacuees who returned to New Orleans after the hurricanes were able to find work, compared with 45 percent of white evacuees, according to the report. Compliance with federal labor laws has been ignored with frequent occurrences of safety and health violations, wage theft and exploitative treatment of immigrant workers.
?It was the perfect storm of worker exploitation and wage suppression,? said Tracie L. Washington, president and CEO of the Louisiana Justice Institute in the report. ?We should have found ourselves in a situation where, because of the dearth of employees, workers could have found wages that equaled or exceeded those of workers in places like New York and New Jersey. But instead you had people brought in, trafficked in, through artificial government support.?
Oxfam?s is calling on national leadership to convert this national tragedy into an opportunity to ensure the security and prosperity of the Gulf Coast region, urging the next administration to create an Office for Gulf Coast Recovery headed by a federal coordinator; to make sure all federally subsidized housing destroyed in the storms is reopened or replaced; to require states Gulf Coast states that receive federal recovery dollars to provide regular reports on the use of those funds; and to ensure compliance with labor laws.
?The transition to a new administration is a critical opportunity to rebuild the Gulf Coast better and stronger,? said Offenheiser. ?Not only can we help the Gulf Coast recover, we can take the opportunity of the rebuilding effort to address the long-standing root causes of poverty and vulnerability that existed in these two states long before the storms of 2005.?
?This is our community, we want it back the way it was—or better,? said Sharon Hanshaw, Executive Director of Coastal Women for Change in Biloxi, MS. ?You take care of where you live.?
]]>The housing crisis on the Gulf Coast persists. Homeowners are still waiting for financial assistance sufficient to rebuild, repair or relocate their homes. At least 60,000 pre-disaster low-income renters remain displaced. In recent weeks, advocates from the Gulf Coast have been testifying at hearings, lobbying in Washington DC, and rallying their networks all over the country to shape and support this bill to ensure that it helps low-income communities.
“This bill is a critical step to making sure low-income survivors are no longer left behind in the recovery,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. “Reports are that ‘Katrina Fatigue’ is setting in on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers need to know that the continuing crisis in the Gulf Coast is not yesterday’s news, but a test of our commitment to address the needs of our most vulnerable citizens.”
Key measures in HR1227 include:
Oxfam America is collaborating with over 20 organizations in hurricane-impacted communities in Mississippi and Louisiana. In communities that have been bypassed by federal recovery dollars, our partner organizations are working with impacted families, volunteers and donated materials to help families get back into homes—and to advocate for a fair share of the funding.
]]>"We at Oxfam join housing advocates across the Gulf Coast region in commending the House for its bi-partisan vote,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. “This milestone legislation takes steps to help ensure the most vulnerable survivors are not left behind in the region’s recovery. We urge the Senate to follow suit and prioritize swift passage of the Housing Recovery Act to help Gulf Coast residents who have already waited too long.”
Housing advocates throughout the Gulf Coast region celebrated a major victory yesterday, having played a key role in bringing the continuing housing crisis in the Gulf to federal lawmakers’ attention.
“Groups on the coast rallied in favor of this bill because we know what a difference it could make in steering the recovery in a more equitable direction. We are grateful to the congressional representatives who heard our voices and voted to support this”, said Natalie Presley of Mississippi’s Back Bay Mission. “We call on the Senate to follow the example of the House and pass this legislation swiftly.”
In early March, Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee Chair Rep. Maxine Waters (D. - CA) and other members visited Gulfport, MS and New Orleans, LA to learn more about the rebuilding challenges faced by Coast residents. The Committee heard testimony from a host of community advocates, including members of the Mississippi Steps Coalition (an alliance of organizations serving hurricane survivors), as well as from elected officials such as Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.
Upon their return to Washington, Waters and the House Financial Services Committee moved rapidly to craft a bill responsive to the needs identified by Gulf Coast residents. The new legislation includes measures that will protect rights of public housing residents—including the right to return—and restore some rental housing for disabled, homeless, and the elderly. Importantly, it also increases oversight over hurricane recovery spending in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, requiring regular progress reports from the states and initiating a GAO study.
Phone calls and letters to elected officials poured in from throughout the Gulf Coast to express support for the bill and a few strategic amendments. A last minute push by members of the Steps Coalition helped solidify support for an important amendment offered by Texas Congressman Al Green to extend FEMA trailers and disaster vouchers through the end of 2007. Residents who are eligible for Section 8 assistance, either in trailers or apartments, can transition to a Section 8 apartment after the deadline is up.
]]>These funds will be used over a three-year period to provide support, technical assistance, and information to organizations working to ensure affordable housing is available for those who have been displaced and to protect workers’ rights for those participating in the rebuilding effort, including many migrant, minority, and low-income laborers. A significant portion of the funds will be distributed to local organizations to strengthen their advocacy and service efforts on behalf of Gulf Coast residents.
“Residents in these coastal regions need more help to get their lives back on track,” said Joseph Williams, president of the board of the Steps Coalition, a group of 45 nonprofit organizations advocating for affordable housing, community preservation, human rights, economic and environmental justice, and an equitable recovery for residents and communities in southern Mississippi. "A deeper partnership with Oxfam will help us to more effectively monitor reconstruction and strengthen commitments by state and regional leaders to help all residents—especially those in at-risk communities—on the road to recovery.”
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Hurricanes Katrina and Rita severely damaged or destroyed nearly 300,000 residences on the Gulf Coast, leaving nearly one million people without the homes they need to resume their normal daily lives. While the storms were indiscriminate, assistance has not been. Those who most need assistance to rebuild or start over, including low-income renters and homeowners, have been largely bypassed by the housing aid flowing into the region. In addition, the estimated tens of thousands of low-wage, mostly immigrant workers who are vital to the region’s rebuilding efforts have endured widespread abuse, including unacceptable living conditions, unpaid wages, and dangerous work environments.
“During the past year and a half, we have seen how many of the Gulf Coast’s neediest residents have been denied the resources they need to rebuild their lives—and how the low-wage workers who are making the rebuilding effort possible have been exploited,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. “Oxfam is proud to support the local community leaders who are pushing hard to change this, and to help reach the many people who are still not being served.”
Since the 2005 storms, Oxfam’s work has reached several dozen Gulf Coast organizations in both Louisiana and Mississippi. Beginning with the provision of emergency grants to local partners to distribute relief goods, Oxfam has moved to address long-term needs for community recovery, including support for new coalitions that have formed in both states to advocate for the most vulnerable groups. Oxfam worked with leaders in Biloxi, Mississippi to establish a critical coordination center in a low-income section of the city and helped fund a local organizer for a statewide immigrant rights group that has recovered more than $1 million in unpaid wages. In Louisiana, Oxfam reached out to coastal communities outside New Orleans to ensure their needs would not be forgotten. Oxfam’s support for local organizations has enabled thousands of families in coastal areas across the region to begin rebuilding and repairing their homes and to access essential government assistance.
However, a tremendous need for public resources continues. Some recovery funds in Mississippi have not yet been allocated or distributed, and Louisiana is now facing a potential $3 billion shortfall in the $7.5 billion allocated for The Road Home—the state’s housing recovery program. Effective advocacy will help ensure these monies address critical needs such as affordable rental housing and assistance for the lowest income homeowners without insurance.
“Inequities that existed before the devastating hurricanes of 2005 have become even more pronounced and new ones have arisen,” said Hilary Pennington, director of Special Initiatives for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “This investment, although outside the scope of our usual giving, reflects the enormity of the crisis and our desire to support local organizations so they can grow in expertise and influence.”
Since 2005, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided support for the region’s recovery efforts, including investments to support displaced students affected by the hurricanes, help refurbish and rebuild libraries along the Gulf Coast, and support recovery activities in New Orleans.
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