Race, Place, and Resilience: Social Equity In North Carolina’s Post-Disaster Buyout Program

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  • Martin, Amanda
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of City and Regional Planning
Abstract
  • This three-paper dissertation analyzes the context and outcomes of post-disaster buyouts completed in North Carolina after hurricanes in 1996 and 1999, with attention to race and social equity issues. Buyouts are a mechanism for removing development from areas at risk for disaster. As climate change and urbanization worsen flooding in the United States, more communities are considering buyouts. However, research has not caught up with this expanding practice. In particular, an understanding of the long-term outcomes of buyouts is lacking. The first paper examines the motivations for and outcomes of buyouts decisions in two high-poverty African American communities that made different decisions about buyouts. Case comparison reveals that differences in leadership, perceptions of climate risk, and competing priorities motivated the different decisions. Buyouts reduced future flood impacts, increased participants’ home values, and provided the opportunity to move to a lower poverty neighborhood. However, they also broke up social networks, contributed to disinvestment near buyout land, and risked loss of history and memory in marginalized communities threatened by climate change. The second paper examines the geography of buyouts with respect to race and segregation. Using regression analysis, the paper finds that buyouts are associated with neighborhoods with greater shares of African Americans and counties with high levels of residential segregation. The association of race and buyouts is not a result of higher levels of poverty in African American neighborhoods or disproportionate exposure to flood risk. The third paper analyzes the association between buyouts and 20-year neighborhood change. Using spatial regression, this paper finds that buyouts are negatively associated with growth in housing units. Buyouts are also associated with racial turnover in nearby neighborhoods. These results suggest that buyouts encouraged disinvestment in local housing stock, and that white flight occurred in areas where buyout participants were most likely to relocate. The final chapter analyzes implications for research and practice. These implications include reducing negative neighborhood impacts and intangible losses associated with buyouts while supporting wealth-building opportunities for low-income participants. Both community planning and policy change are needed to support these outcomes. Better data are also critical to advance buyouts research and practice.
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  • Nguyen, Mai T
  • Berke, Phil
  • Johnson, James H
  • Lester, William T
  • Smith, Gavin
Degree
  • Doctor of Philosophy
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Graduation year
  • 2020
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