The climate emergency

Climate change presents significant threats to housing; it can reconfigure the comfort, cost, and safety of dwellings, and can damage housing on massive scales, causing widespread displacement. This displacement may be temporary, or it may be permanent, and places increased demand on housing in areas less immediately affected by the impacts of climate change. The impacts of climate change on housing unfold unevenly, with those who are already vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and/or already experiencing precarious, inadequate, and/or unsafe housing facing a disproportionate degree of risk. Housing, therefore, is an important site for both climate action and climate justice. This chapter explores housing vulnerability in the context of climate change through the (overlapping) lenses of physical, legal, and social vulnerability. It goes on to explore ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change through housing, including the opportunities for and constraints on meaningful climate action. Finally, the chapter explores patterns in housing recovery after a climate change-induced disaster, the unevenness of recovery and proliferation of displacement. Indeed, vulnerable people who are displaced by climate change tend to be made permanently worse off and may wind up in housing that exacerbates existing inequalities and exposes the inhabitants still further to the impacts of climate change. Throughout the chapter, particular attention is paid to the barriers to climate justice presented by the commodification of housing, landlordism, and individualistic notions of home and housing grounded in colonial capitalism. Ultimately, the conditions of climate justice, and humane and equitable recovery in the aftermath of climate disasters, seem inconsistent with a commodified housing system oriented towards private profit.