September marks 20 years that National Preparedness Month has been observed in the United States. But just two decades ago, the disaster recovery landscape was very different, and the country has been impacted by several natural disasters since: Hurricane Katrina, wildfires, extreme cold, extreme heat, and many strong hurricanes. Climate change poses a very real threat to increased disaster, and people experiencing homelessness are often disproportionately impacted by recovery efforts or left out of the conversation entirely. During National Preparedness Month and beyond, it’s important for homeless service systems to ensure they have a plan should a natural disaster impact their area.
Based on a recent analysis from the Alliance’s Homelessness Research Institute, “there are no state response systems with the resources they need to keep everyone safe” from extreme temperatures. With an increase in extreme weather-related natural disasters, Continuums of Care (CoCs) must consider emergency preparedness and response with and for people experiencing homelessness on a year-round basis: not just when disasters occur. Further, we have had “20 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters that impacted the United States through August 2024,” according to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
“There is a distinction that needs to be made when it comes to the relationship between climate change and extreme environment events: Climate change has not been proven to directly cause individual extreme environmental events, but it has been shown to make these events more destructive, and likely happen more frequently, than they normally would be.”
Natural and public health disasters have devastating and often long-lasting consequences for communities. People experiencing homelessness are often forgotten during preparation and have a more difficult time recovering after disaster strikes.
Resources to Prepare for Disasters
Communities are encouraged to forge proactive connections among providers, the CoC, emergency response management, and culturally specific organizations to ensure people experiencing homelessness are included in any disaster preparedness plan, response, and recovery efforts. There are several resources to help CoCs at the different stages in a disaster:
The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness published Homelessness and Climate Change: A Roundup of Resources for Communities Before, During, and After Disasters to provide a summary of federal resources and contacts for coordination efforts.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Planning for Natural and Public Health Disasters: Forming an Emergency Response Committee of the CoC page offers guidance on how to establish a standing committee within the CoC, clarify roles and responsibilities, and develop an emergency plan before a disaster strikes. HUD has also made available a Disaster Recovery Homelessness Toolkit for communities in the response and recovery phases of a disaster.
Equitable Recovery
According to a 2024 research brief by the Consortium for Equitable Disaster Resilience, people of color, people with disabilities, people with limited English proficiency, and undocumented households are disproportionately impacted in recovery efforts and face additional barriers to recovery. Communities can share In the Eye of the Storm: A People’s Guide to Transforming Crisis & Advancing Equity in the Disaster Continuum published in 2021 by the NAACP with local and state emergency response management, to promote equity-based emergency management practices.
Conclusion
Both providers and system leaders should develop an emergency preparedness, response, and recovery plan to ensure people experiencing homelessness are prioritized in the event a disaster strikes. If you’re unsure where to get started, please reference the resources above or order free preparedness publications from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The 2024 theme for National Preparedness Month is “start a conversation;” in addition to starting the conversation, the Alliance urges you to keep the conversation going year-round.