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Cooperative Adaptation Strategies for Affordable Housing in New York City
This project examines how affordable cooperative housing in New York City is exposed to climate risk, with a particular focus on flooding and the challenges co-ops face in adapting to these conditions. Developed through a collaboration between developed through Cornell University’s Adaptive Land Lab, the Environmental Defense Fund, and UHAB, the work combines spatial analysis, survey research, and policy review to better understand both physical vulnerability and institutional barriers.
The analysis identifies patterns of climate exposure across affordability-protected co-op properties and documents how impacts are experienced at the building level. It also evaluates the limitations of existing disaster recovery, insurance, and resilience funding systems, which often fail to adequately serve cooperative housing structures. The project ultimately highlights the need for more tailored policy frameworks and adaptation strategies for this critical segment of New York City’s housing stock.
Please see the following blog post ︎ for more information. A copy of the report can be found here ︎.
We identified the city’s most at-risk properties, under a variety of inundation scenarios, compiling a robust list of affordable housing to target with surveys. This includes the development of data dashboards to showcase some of our key project results.
Flood Risk ︎
Survey Results ︎
