COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – According to a Texas A&M University researcher, flooding hits low-income families harder than higher-income households, and the gap comes down to three factors: insurance, savings and the ability to relocate.
Ivis Garcia, an associate professor in landscape architecture and urban planning at Texas A&M University, studies how flooding affects communities with the fewest resources. She said for many of those families, flooding is not a rare catastrophe but rather an annual reality.
Insurance costs put coverage out of reach
Federal flood insurance is available to low-income households, but Garcia said many families make the calculation that they cannot afford it. The average policy costs about $900 a year.
“That might not sound like a lot, but for a lower-income family, when you have to decide on whether or not to pay for car insurance or even your home insurance, you might choose that instead of paying for the flood insurance, even though it’s subsidized,” Garcia said. “It’s just you cannot afford it.”
Garcia said about 90% of households without flood coverage are low-income. Without a policy, families have no financial mechanism to repair or rebuild after a storm, leaving them to rely on whatever savings they have.
Recurring floods drain resources year after year
Garcia said her research in Puerto Rico and Houston found that residents in flood-prone neighborhoods often experience flooding every year, not just during major storms.
“Oftentimes, they do not have to wait for, like, a hundred-year event, like Hurricane Harvey or, like, Maria, and they might flood every year,” Garcia said.
She said those families spend significant resources each time they temporarily relocate to stay with family members, clean out homes, and make repairs on their own, often using Social Security income or limited savings.
Garcia said the residents most likely to live in repeatedly flooded neighborhoods are older adults and parents with young children; people who have the hardest time setting aside money for repairs.
Families feel stuck without relocation options
Garcia said many residents in flood-prone areas want to leave but cannot.
“They’re stuck,” Garcia said. “They do not have the resources to be able to relocate somewhere else. So they just decide to take that burden on their own.”
Researchers call for land management, policy changes
Garcia said cities and policymakers can act before the next flood rather than after. She said smarter land management, including decisions about where future development is placed, is a critical first step.
“I think that land management is something that the public should consider, especially cities and governments, and just thinking about where development should be placed in the future, even before any person moves in there,” Garcia said.
For communities already in flood-prone areas, Garcia said policymakers and the public can support planning efforts that bring people together to reduce risk at the community level. She said that could include the canalization of bodies of water or the construction of infrastructure to reduce flooding and lower costs over time.
Garcia also said policymakers need to reconsider how to make flood insurance more affordable for low-income households.
She said flooding will keep happening and the families with the fewest resources are the ones most likely to face it again.
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Alice J. Roden started working for Trending Insurance News at the end of 2021. Alice grew up in Salt Lake City, UT. A writer with a vast insurance industry background Alice has help with several of the biggest insurance companies. Before joining Trending Insurance News, Alice briefly worked as a freelance journalist for several radio stations. She covers home, renters and other property insurance stories.