How renters often get left behind in disaster recovery

As Florida residents start to recover from the damage wrought by Hurricanes Milton and Helene, the challenge of disaster recovery is particularly acute for renters, who often fall through the cracks of federal assistance and are likely to see increased rent costs in the months and years after a disaster.

About half of residents in Tampa, Florida rent their homes; more than half of those renters were spending more than 30% of their income on housing even before the storms, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. After this fall, there’s a good chance those renters will see an even larger share of their incomes going toward housing.

Rent Increases

On average, rents increase 4% to 6% after a disaster and remain elevated for years, according to a 2023 Brookings Institution Report in ZIP codes that are often hit with multiple bouts of extreme weather, that figure jumps to 12%.

The post-disaster rent increase is primarily driven by two factors, according to Carlos Martín, one of the report’s authors. First, there are fewer units available because of the disaster’s destruction, further worsening any housing shortages. Second, there are more people competing for housing. Not only are displaced renters trying to return to their communities, but homeowners of damaged units and aid workers are also seeking rental accommodations. 

Many states enact price gouging rules after disasters to prevent landlords from sharply raising rents after a disaster, but those rules typically only apply for a few months, Martín said. Once they expire, property owners are likely to increase rent to match the market demand. 

“If there aren't those tenant protections in those places that keep rents from rising at such extreme levels, especially because the stock has been wiped out because of a disaster, then those tenants are going to be—to use the official term—screwed, ” Martín said.

Rising insurance costs also inflate housing costs, especially after a disaster, said Rachel Drew, senior research director for Enterprise Community Partners, a national housing nonprofit. In Florida, insurance rates climbed to four times the national average after hurricanes Ian and Nicole in 2022. In several parts of the country, some insurance companies have pulled out of markets altogether, saying it’s now too expensive to insure residents living in areas increasingly devastated by natural disasters. 

Increasing insurance costs can cut into the already slim profit margins for multifamily housing operators. And operators pressed by rising insurance costs aren’t always aware of incentives or resources that can help cover the costs of disaster mitigation measures—like installing fire-resistant roofing, for example, or updating windows and doors to withstand strong winds— that could ultimately reduce insurance claims, Drew said.” Many cities and states offer resources and assistance in improving multifamily housing disaster resilience, but learning about these programs can be challenging, especially as they vary across localities Drew said. 

Evictions

Renters are more likely than homeowners to be low-income. In combination with the potential disruption to employment a disaster might cause and increased housing costs, that can make it extremely difficult for residents to afford rent, leading to evictions. A 2019 MIT study found that evictions nearly doubled after disasters. 

That’s why eviction moratoria are “the number one thing” states can do to assist renters after disasters, said Noah Patton, manager of disaster recovery for the National Low Income Housing Coalition. A bill introduced in Congress last year, the Federal Disaster Housing Stability Act, would institute a 120-day eviction moratorium in places subject to a national emergency declaration. But at least one community is not waiting on Congress to approve the measure: just last month, Sonoma County in California became the first jurisdiction in the country to establish an eviction moratorium that is immediately triggered by a disaster declaration, Bloomberg reported.

Rental Assistance

To help with housing costs immediately after a disaster, survivors can apply for rental assistance to cover rent and utilities through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But that aid lasts only a few months, and the application process can be burdensome and confusing, Patton said. Not all renters have formal written leases that FEMA requires, for example, and residents who don’t speak English can wait long periods to work with a translator. 

However, Patton said he sees growing public support for fixing the gaps in disaster recovery systems and ensuring all survivors get the assistance they need. 

“I think there is a broader acknowledgement of the fact that—at least among the advocacy community and the organizing community—that disasters are going to be coming to where we live,” he said. “It's not a Florida, Louisiana, Texas, North Carolina issue, and I think I've certainly seen a groundswell of interest in getting involved in that system.”