Renters vs Owners

Disasters indiscriminately destroy whatever is in their path; its unbiased destruction puts many on equal footing regardless of socioeconomic status. While it's true that vulnerable populations tend to be disproportionately impacted by disasters, a flood doesn't care how much money you make, and where a tornado touches down has nothing to do with the strength of your investment portfolio. So if the damage caused by these community altering events doesn't discriminate, why do we when we respond?

Look pretty similar to me

Once the dust settles, the rush is on to cleanup and get back to the new normal; however, it's during response/recovery activities that something strange happens, organizations will choose to help one family over another. Of course every organization has the right to determine how they prioritize need based on their mission, but the result is that some families don't receive assistance as quickly because they rent and don't own their homes.

Now when I say "help," I refer to the cleaning and debris removal that needs to be done following an event. I understand that renter's have every opportunity to buy insurance for their belongings, but because they don't own the property, they are seen differently in the eyes of some response organizations.

This differentiation has to do with three factors:

1. Liability. Finding the property owner to get a release signed so volunteer groups can safely and legally work on the property.
2. The perception that Rental Properties are Income Properties and as such it is the responsibility of the landlord to take care of their tenant needs--not voluntary resources.
3. Slumlords / Absentee Landlords. There is a general reluctance to help those individuals continue to profit from their questionable business practices.

Liability
There that word is again...who knew trying to help people could be so litigious. In order for groups to use Volunteers, they need to ensure that everyone on site has signed a release of liability and that the homeowner has signed one as well. Oftentimes trying to find and schedule a time when the landlord can meet to sign the necessary paperwork is difficult if not impossible, which is why many renter's are passed over.

Income Properties
Rental properties are income generating properties, this is true, and a myopic view in my opinion. Just like there are butcher's and accountants, there are landlords, people who make a living off renting property. When someone who has several rental properties in a community and all of them are impacted, two things happen: 1) The livelihood of the landlord is put at risk and 2) There are fewer housing units in that community for displaced people to go. 

Slumlords
This is a difficult situation; based on my experiences I've noticed that undocumented families tend to live in units where absentee landlordism is usually the case...as a result, a lot of help that could be given is not because of fear on part of the family and a reluctance on the part of organizations to help a landlord who clearly has no interest in upkeep on their properties.

While renter's are not completely without options, with SBA providing low interest rate loans up to $40,000 to help repair or replace damaged personal items, it still doesn't address the hurdles renter's face in order to receive assistance following disasters.

If a community has surplus rental units available, the issue of re-location for many renters can be dealt with; however, what happens to renters and homeowners in a community like Minot, ND? Minot suffered a critical housing shortage before flooding impacted their community in 2011 displacing the majority of the town. A real consequence of a scenario like this can be that the fabric of a community can dissolve due to families moving to other states and areas where housing stock is available. In the case of Minot, FEMA built temporary housing units, but the lack of housing in rapidly growing communities is a real concern given the challenges renters face when trying to recover from disaster.

I feel that this is something that communities don't realize will be an issue until it's too late, but am unaware of it being a part of the larger community resilience conversation. Regardless of who holds the deed, those four walls and a roof provided more than just shelter for a family, they provided stability and a base to grow this 'whole of community' movement. And while I don't have a clear idea of the steps that need to be taken to bring clarity to this issue, I hope that the groups who work in homes regardless of ownership status continue to do so, as they are providing a great service to help communities fully recover.

Preparedness is about more than having a kit

Having the physical resources to get through a disaster are important: food, water, flashlights, a radio, medicine, a means to charge your phone, etc...these are some of the components that make up the foundation of self-sufficiency that everyone should have in preparation for an event. Many of you probably know much of this because physical preparedness is drilled into our heads, because it's tangible; you can create simple messaging around it and it’s easy to quantify impact and evaluate results. The tougher side, the side that is often overlooked and far more difficult to quantify, is creating social value in learning and passing on the knowledge of relevant information pertinent to response outside of: Make a Plan, Build a Kit, Get Involved.

Make a Plan | Build a Kit | Get Involved

This is the message that gets pushed at all levels of government, simple and straightforward, yet translating awareness into action remains a challenge. In the Booz Allen Hamilton paper: Mitigating Our Nation's Risks: Calling upon the Whole Community an examination of the psychology of behavior and what needs to happen in order to turn awareness into action is discussed. As it turns out, we all think a disaster is going to happen to anyone but us, and as a result, we can be lax in our approach to preparing for an event. This delusion is what ends up hampering response and recovery efforts down the line because many don’t know what to do and more importantly, what to expect.

Teach Someone To Build a Kit and They’ll Know How to Build a Kit

Disaster Preparedness is not just about having a kit and a meeting point, although those are integral aspects to personal preparedness; it’s about education and the setting and managing of expectations in an effort to help mitigate some of the confusion of an overwhelming situation. While there are a host of resources out there that reference preparedness, here are few topics that I think individuals would benefit from if included in preparedness materials:

Topic	Info
Insurance: Knowing what you’re covered for and an idea of how the process works will save you time and frustration.	·     How to read your policy ·     What’re you covered for? ·     How do you file a claim? ·     Does an Adjuster have to        conduct a site visit before I        begin cleaning up? ·     In lieu of a site visit will          photos or a video suffice?
Roles & Responsibilities: Knowing who is supposed to do what will work to mitigate a lot of misdirected anger.	·     What is FEMA’s role in                 response? ·     What does the Red Cross         actually do? ·     An explanation of the FEMA        grant process
Timelines: Having a general idea on timing can help mitigate confusion and anger.	·     Search & Rescue ·     Response ·     Recovery
Long Term Recovery: What happens once everything is cleaned up?	·     Transition from cleanup to        Long Term Recovery ·     Long Term Recovery        Committee formation ·     Permitting process for        repairing and rebuilding

The point of the above is that there are more pieces of information out there that will help create a base level of understanding beyond existing messaging related to disaster preparedness.

So what do we do about it?

We need to approach this like any for profit enterprise would in an effort to try and change mindsets - use Marketing, PR, and Advertising and the many tools it has at its disposal. This is already happening and what's being produced is pretty cool...but in too much of an ad hoc manner. With operational budgets dwindling, finding room for advertising sounds ridiculous, and is. But there are people out there whose sole mission is to change the way we think about soap, toothbrushes, and dish detergent...why can't we hire those minds to help us think through how we can change mindsets around preparedness and do it in a way that will change behavior?

Let's Get Digital
Sites like Khan Academy and Ted Ed are examples of online education 2.0, they are places that people seek out to gain access to new ideas and perspectives...when was the last time you went to Ready.gov to do that or FEMA's Independent Study Website? The opportunity is there to create an online space that can act as a resource clearinghouse while providing access to tutorials, updates, and relevant content promoting preparedness.

or...

Let's Go Old Skool

I vividly remember Officer Grazonty standing in my Elementary School auditorium telling us about ‘Stranger Danger’ and how to be safe on Halloween 20+ years ago. I also remember D.A.R.E from high school, Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Of course we all made fun of it…but we remember it. And finally I remember P.A.S.S. from a safety lecture in reference to how to use a fire extinguisher. Maybe I'm Rainman and have a gift for remembering safety related information...or maybe I was in school and the confluence of age, environment, message, and speaker all worked to indelibly imprint these safety tips in my psyche. Based on that, I believe there are opportunities for integrating disaster preparedness into existing school curriculum: Earth Science, Health, Social Studies, etc...ways to illustrate a disasters' impact and what they can do and encourage their parents to do to help mitigate them.

If we are going to get serious about integrating disaster preparedness into a ‘whole of community’ paradigm, it can’t just be for senior level officers in Non-Profits and Emergency Management. Of course we want those people well versed in all things disaster, but the support of a community who has been involved in the planning will be a far greater asset than those who feel like they've been kept in the dark during response and recovery.

Looking to Avoid Disasters?

As a resident of Los Angeles county and doing what I do, I probably spend more time on the subject of "oh my god, what if there was an earthquake right now?!" than most. It's not the healthiest of things but having seen the terrible power and destruction force that's unleashed when the ground shakes, I feel justified in my paranoia.

Recently I traveled to the Pacific Northwest and came to the realization that I'm not white knuckling the steering wheel for fear of the San Andreas sending Southern California careening into the Ocean. Yes there are threats up there: lots of rain, anyone remember this?, fires, and don't forget about the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a fault line lurking off the coast of the Pacific Northwest that has inspired news articles and movies alike...but it got me thinking...where are the safest places in the US and where are the most disaster-prone?

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/01/weekinreview/01safe.html?hp

The NY Times ran what appears to be one of the more comprehensive yet easy to understand graphics illustrating where the hotspots are and where it's nice and quiet. And since its publishing there have been more debates and more events that may change the data somewhat, but overall I would say that much of the information is still valid.

However, if charts and maps aren't doing it for you and you have a few minutes may I suggest you check out Outside Magazine's article "Totally Psyched for the Full Nine Rip." Some call it disaster-porn and others take a more reserved approach in their view of it; I say that regardless of your feelings on the content, even though this article is a tad dated, it always sparks conversation around the what if scenarios it presents...and anything that gets people talking about personal preparedness and what they'd do is a good thing.

And I leave you with this, one of the most explosive film trailers in recent memory, Jeff Bridge's Brother and one of the guys from Psych in: 10.5...

Moving from managing Disasters, to managing Risks

The United Nation's Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has issued their 2013 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, a comprehensive report on...you guessed it, reducing disaster risk. Disaster Risk Reduction is essentially the International equivalent to community preparedness and resilience--working to integrate best practices and workable solutions into communities at risk.

If you've read more than a post or two you've seen the words "preparedness," "resilience," and 'community-based response" dot this blog and for good reason, these words are driving influences behind where and how Emergency Management dollars are allocated. However, transforming these words from rhetoric into action remains a challenge for local, state, and national agencies alike; and as we enter the eighth month of 2013, usually the most active month of hurricane season, 53 events have already been designated disasters by FEMA up from the yearly average of 19 during the 60's.

To be fair, the hard push towards whole of community disaster risk reduction is fairly new and will take time to yield tangible results; this newness coupled with the fact that it’s been non-stop disasters of some kind for as long as I can remember, and an argument for why more communities aren’t better prepared can be made. Then you read an article from Mother Jones where Superstorm Sandy is used as an example of how some of the damage from Sandy could have been avoided, and you begin to question whether that argument is valid. The article cites studies from early 01 and 09 that forecast exactly what happened in late Oct / early Nov of last year...in some cases studies that were commissioned by the city of New York but no action was taken as a result of the findings. 

We continue to hit on the points of: preparedness, resilience, and whole of community in an effort to help bolster preparedness and risk reduction at the local level, yet there seems to be a lack of any kind of political will to enact change. Who wants to spend money on levee re-construction when there hasn’t been a flood? Why shouldn’t we broaden our tax base and rezone riverfront land to build rental properties? Of course the Emergency Manager Position should be the fire or police chief, they have the expertise and the city doesn’t have to pay for another position. With cities going bankrupt, drastic times are calling for drastic measures, even if that means taking risks with lives and property.

It’s easy to say that it’s because programs lack proper funding that the recommendations of the studies conducted are not heeded, when in truth it ends up costing communities more in the long run to ignore them. There needs to be the will of those in power to make unpopular decisions and to do so in the name of preparing and protecting their community. As of July 3rd, Moore, Ok city's council had delayed their vote that would upgrade building codes to mandate that homes have construction techniques that make them more resistant to Tornadic winds, and earlier today, that same city council voted to approve the $32 Million dollar cleanup price tag that will be reimbursed by FEMA.

Maybe the federal government needs to re-evaluate the benchmarks used in determining what constitutes a federal declaration, maybe if communities knew that they’d be on their own unless it was a major event, stronger building codes would already be in place, and the time, energy, and attention needed would be paid to preparedness activities. If those draconian measures aren't politically palatable, then stipulating that in order to receive FEMA assistance, mitigation initiatives need to be a part of their recovery and rebuilding planning. This would send a message that the status quo is no longer acceptable when it comes to repair and rebuild following disasters and that by managing risks we can reduce their impacts.

Volunteers & Liability

Volunteers are the fuel that power many, if not all of the organizations and ad hoc groups that come together in the wake of disaster to aid a community in their recovery. Neighbor helping neighbor and strangers from around the state and country travel to disaster affected communities putting themselves in potentially dangerous situations to expedite a communities recovery. That speed is largely reliant on the productive use of the Volunteer interest while it's available, because once the disaster falls out of the news cycle (if it made it into the cycle) the Volunteer interest will drop and a community will be left to do it themselves.

The surge of Volunteer interest following disasters is nothing new, and Emergency Operation Plans reflect this in the annexes that have been created to help transform Volunteer interest into coordinated action. Even with plans in place and MOU's signed, the biggest challenge in capitalizing on Volunteer interest after a disaster has to do with Liability.

Sweet graphic huh?

I understand that Liability isn't sexy but it can be the single biggest hurdle a municipality faces when translating Volunteer interest into action, mainly because in our overly litigious society, the prospect of being sued when a city is facing the reality of paying for a disaster is the last thing they want to deal with.

One of the many reasons municipalities want as many people to pre-affiliate with an organization as possible is because it clears up the ambiguity around who is responsible for that individual when they're in the field. One of the challenges that spontaneous groups represent to the pre-affiliation model are the questions they bring: who's liable should one of their Volunteers slip and fall in a basement? Are things like workman's compensation something a Volunteer is eligible for? Who’s going to pay for it? What's the homeowners role in this equation? And in the eyes of the law, how do you define a Volunteer?

While the questions around Liability and Volunteers are fairly consistent from event to event, the way in which states interpret and set laws governing liability and Volunteer coverage varies widely.

Thankfully, the good people at nonprofitrisk.org have undertaken the herculean effort of amassing a comprehensive guide covering State Liability Laws for Charitable Organizations and Volunteers. This resource document provides a detailed look at how each state view the important role of Volunteers and Liability as it relates to Charitable organizations—if you utilize Volunteers in conjunction with non-profit activities, I recommend looking through this document.

If more local non-profits can gain a better understanding of what their exposure is by providing a platform for Volunteers to work in a community affected by disaster, then the necessary steps can be taken to ensure that more organizations can provide a structured opportunity for them that protects both Volunteer and Organization.

In addition to the benefits this guide can offer local non-profit organizations is the potential to incorporate this information into disaster preparedness literature; the goal would be to help set and manage expectations around Volunteer liability for those who would start spontaneous response efforts via facebook/etc. This one-sheet could be coupled with the necessary paperwork: homeowner and volunteer liability waivers, to ensure that all those who are active in the field have some level of protection—it would also be a way to standardize the language and coverage organizations provide.

The role Volunteers play in the recovery of a community following a disaster is undeniable; oftentimes their involvement can mean the difference between weeks and months of response efforts. As a community of practice who rely so heavily on these well intentioned individuals and groups to fuel our work, ensuring that we arm our Volunteers with as much information as possible will ensure that they are making informed decisions about how best they can contribute to response and recovery activities.

A Brave New World of Digital Volunteers

I just posted on the subject of Liability and Volunteers in disaster in an effort to provide a comprehensive resource that would hopefully add clarity to this complex and multi-faceted issue. In my continued exploration of the subject I came across the Commons Lab at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In a nutshell, the Commons Lab "seeks to advance research and independent policy analysis of emerging technologies, with an emphasis on their social, legal, and ethical implications." They have articles on:

The Power of Hackathons

Successful Government Crowdsourcing Efforts for Earthquake Monitoring

Privacy and Missing Persons after Natural Disasters

Basically, they have lots of interesting things to read that focus on the nexus of emerging technological platforms and their role in creating social change...but the article that caught my attention is this: Responding to Liability: Evaluating and Reducing Tort Liability for Digital Volunteers, apropos given Friday’s posting. 

Responding to Liability: Evaluating and Reducing Tort Liability for Digital Volunteers

Full Disclosure, I didn't know what a Tort was...so for those of you who aren't up on your legal terminology a Tort is:

A civil wrong which unfairly causes someone else to suffer loss or harm resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act, called a tortfeasor. (Thanks Wikipedia)

The article focuses on Digital Volunteers and the liability issues that come with engaging in this brave new digital world in a post-disaster context. Because of the application of Volunteers in this way is so new, courts are still evaluating the potential exposure individuals and groups face by engaging in these types of activities. In the absence of definitive guidance, the article outlines challenges and opportunities related to Liability and the innovative work being done along the digital frontier.

An aspect of the article that surprised me though is that it focuses on the group rather than the individual and encourages as a mitigation strategy the instituting and formalization of processes and procedures through incorporation. For some reason I see this strategy as running counter to what makes this form of Volunteering so attractive to so many: anonymity and autonomy. While it’s easier to plug in and help an already established structure that has definition than acting on your own, I feel that one of the aspects of virtual engagement that appeals to so many is the freedom to do and act how they see fit given the context. It’s with this belief that I find the focus on the group over the individual surprising.

As more discussion and opportunities to see firsthand how Virtual Volunteers engage in response, as both individuals and groups become available, the ability to forecast how best to indemnify these good Samaritans will become clearer.

Until then, if you are interested in lending a digital hand the hashtag #SMEM (Social Media Emergency Management) or groups like crisis mappers, Ushahidi, or VOSTs (Virtual Operation Support Teams) are good ways to learn more about the opportunities that exist.

One thing is for certain, the way in which Volunteers engage in response and recovery efforts are changing, and while it may be difficult to accurately foresee all the speed bumps along the way towards their seamless integration, the energy and desire to help those in need is always welcomed.

The Road to Recovery

An area where I believe significant benefit can be derived that would aid in the mitigation of the groundhogs day scenario many communities face when responding to and recovering from disasters, is to spend time looking at how other communities faced similar events and then adapt and evolve what they did to suit the idiosyncrasies of their community.

In an effort to see what's being done along those lines, I've made an effort to get my hands on more articles coming from the world of academia, to broaden and challenge my views on what can and should be done to promote resilience at a local level. I can't remember how I stumbled upon this one, but it comes to us from the 'Lincoln Institute of Land Policy' and is titled "The Road to Recovery."

https://www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/dl/2259_1598_The_Road_to_Recovery_0713LL.pdf

While any event adversely affecting individuals and families is unfortunate, it's good to know that there are people out there looking at and learning from previous disasters trying to find commonalities and lessons that can be shared. While it's good to know, I have a concern, with no disrespect to the good people at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, who's reading articles of this nature outside of the academic community and socially challenged individuals like me? How are we broadening the circle of knowledge and experience when articles that examine and try to synthesize what's worked and what hasn't, exist in obscure publications that no one outside the academic circles have heard of?

I say this because what this article covers is important; it examines the role of the various levels of government in recovery and rebuilding trying to find commonalities in "disparate environments" to help the recovery of future communities impacted by similar disasters. At a quick 8 pages you can consider this bathroom reading...but it wasn't the length that struck me though, it was what was said about Collaboration:

Supporting Collaboration: Building sustainable capacity and capability for long-term recovery through genuine collaboration and coordination, both horizontally among local groups and vertically among different levels of government. Vertically organized, hierarchical agencies—with clear organizational charts and streamlined channels of communication—are usually not well suited to manage disaster recovery, because the lack of “connecting flow” across vertical hierarchies limits collaboration as well as the flow of new and updated information among organizations. U.S. National agencies involved in recovery, for example, are more adept at administering individual programs than they are at solving complex problems that cut across governmental institutional boundaries. By contrast, horizontally organized agencies can promote interagency coordination and information sharing, allowing individual groups to adapt to new contexts and information while remaining responsible to their parent organization. 

(Pg 18)

And...
The reason I was struck was because it's brutally honest and makes sense given what I've seen during the transition from response to recovery. How this plays out at a local level is that Long Term Recovery Committees (LTRCs) are the horizontally organized representative coalitions of local organizations described above tasked with solving the complex problem of Long Term Community Recovery.

Quick sidebar: Long Term Recovery Committees are coalitions of local organizations and agencies established to administer the long term recovery of a community, allocating dollars to individuals and families who go through the unmet needs / case management process while organizing the voluntary workforce to stretch recovery dollars. For more information on LTRCs go here.

So if LTRCs, these horizontally organized coalitions are the right tool for the job and the research reinforces it, why aren't more communities being educated and walked through the formation of an LTRC before the next event as a part of resilience programming?

When LTRCs are setup after a disaster there is often considerable turbulence due to: the stress of going through response, the amount of money they are responsible for, the politics and influence at play, the newness of the relationships of the constituent members, and the fact that a community is looking to them for guidance and direction on how best to quickly and effectively put the pieces back together.

By proactively addressing this, we would give communities time to deal with the many challenges that come with LTRC formation without the pressure of an ongoing response effort. This luxury would expedite the organization of how monetary donations are handled as well as work to fast track the start of case management and ultimately the work of repair and rebuild.

Don't get me wrong, creating an LTRC is no small feat, but if the upsides are so great and every community impacted by a disaster will need to form one, why isn't more being done?

LTRC Resources
Church World Service leads the way with free LTRC training, and as linked above, National VOAD has a manual that outlines the processes and best practices that come with forming an LTRC. In addition to the material resources available, there are countless communities that have gone through this with just as many individuals to tap for advice and guidance.

Lets start building the foundations required for each aspect of disaster response and recovery now so that when something happens this isn't a surprise, this isn't the first time people are meeting and hearing about LTRCs. This is the low hanging fruit with a potential for significant impact...proactive education is free, resources are available, and yet we see the groundhogs day scenario play out again and again making the road to recovery a long one.