Creating a Community-Based Housing Response Pool

Following disasters, housing is a principal component of economic and buildings losses. Traditional interim housing programs have been criticized for their inability to (1) adequately address the socioeconomic needs of displaced families; and (2) control expenditures. The objective of this paper is to present a new housing framework that can revolutionize the current understanding of post-shelter housing from an overly expensive, socially disruptive activity to a capacity building process. The proposed framework supports the development of a community-based housing response pool that can (1) transform the one-size-fits-all housing assistance to a customized need-tailored approach, while (2) supporting local businesses to recover. This paper presents the development of two key modules within the proposed framework, including (1) an automated data acquisition module; and (2) a data mapping module to match available housing characteristics and locations to fulfill the social, emotional, and economic needs of displaced families. Moreover, this paper discusses the need to develop (1) an IT-based collaboration system among multiple localities and agencies; and (2) a real-time housing procurement system. The proposed framework should prove useful to emergency management agencies in (1) utilizing available housing resources; and (2) quantifying the need to construct/install additional interim housing within the affected communities.