Green Infrastructure and Houselessness: A Blog Series
By Jessie McGinley, Water Policy Intern
A homeless encampment in Santa Cruz, California in December 2021. The Guardian Article: ‘Like a nightmare’: major rainstorm floods Santa Cruz homeless community by Gabrielle Canon (Photograph: Nic Coury/AP)
Just last week, Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc on Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, while Alaska recovered from a recent storm that was declared a “major disaster.” The climate crisis is increasing the intensity and frequency of storms, hurricanes, and flooding. The need to reduce the carbon footprint and adapt to the changing climate is urgent. Green infrastructure–stormwater infrastructure that replicates the natural environment–has immense potential to both mitigate the effects of climate change and adapt environments to the changing climate.
The goal of this blog series is to analyze the impact that green infrastructure projects may have on the oftentimes overlooked, but important, community members who are not housed. The research for this blog included interviews with many important green infrastructure and environmental justice experts. After my time working with houselessness in Berkeley, CA, I realized that this intersection of climate change and houselessness is not often discussed. This is also true for the green infrastructure space, as many green infrastructure experts that I interviewed expressed the same concerns about how nature based stormwater management can cause great harm to the houseless population. Although I have not experienced houselessness myself, this topic is at an intersection of my greatest passions and deserves more attention than it receives.
Green infrastructure, like rain gardens and green roofs, can be a powerful tool used to alleviate the effects of flooding catastrophes, but it can also negatively impact unsheltered communities. When it comes to the climate crisis, in particular storms and floods, people who are unsheltered are most vulnerable because of the lack of access to the level of protection and safety that is provided from a shelter. In circumstances with extreme flooding, the health, safety, property, well-being, and lives of people who are unsheltered are at great risk. Are there ways to implement green infrastructure in urban areas that helps and does not harm unsheltered communities?
This blog series will consist of three blogs. The first blog, Green Infrastructure and Houselessness: Part 1 - An Introduction, will introduce the intersection of green infrastructure and houselessness and why this is an important intersection to be talking about. The second blog, Green Infrastructure and Houselessness: Part 2 - Potential Harms and Benefits, will discuss the ways that green infrastructure could have positive and negative effects on people experiencing homelessness. The final blog, Green Infrastructure and Houselessness: Part 3 -Recommendations and Projects to Look at for Inspiration, will explore some general recommendations intended to be starting points for equitable approaches to community-led green infrastructure projects that include and prioritize people who are unsheltered within the community as well as describe some projects that have done this successfully. Keep an eye out for the blogs this month as they will all be released by the end of October 2022.