As the United States continues to experience widening inequalities in terms of access to safe and secure housing, CEER investigators are exploring issues specific to housing precarity at the intersections of disasters and health.
Engaging Precariously Housed Communities in Risk Communication Planning:
Too often, homeless and precariously housed communities are overlooked in emergency and risk communication planning. CEER researchers are working toward addressing these gaps in understanding and in practice through work funded through a Natural Hazards Center Special Call for Weather-Ready Quick Response Research supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF Award #1635593) through supplemental funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In collaboration with UW researcher, Ann Bostrom, and key community partners in Boulder and Denver, Colorado, we aim to lay the groundwork for an adaptive risk communication model that can be applied in multiple contexts and for other stakeholder groups. While previous work has outlined frameworks for engaging particularly at-risk communities, our current work takes this a step further as we develop an approach for how to integrate diverse community perspectives, particularly among those most at-risk to extreme weather, into risk communication planning. This includes identification of barriers and facilitators to engagement, integration of community perspectives into planning, and carrying out risk communication at local levels of governance.
Homelessness, Housing Precarity, & Disaster Network:
CEER researcher Jamie Vickery leads the Homelessness, Housing Precarity, & Disaster Network, which is an international network of researchers, practitioners, and students engaged in work relevant to housing precarity and disasters. For more information on how to participate in HHDN monthly meetings, please contact Jamie Vickery at vickeryj@uw.edu. You can sign up for the HHDN listserv at hhd_network@u.washington.edu to receive updates about upcoming network meetings, relevant events, and publications.