Regional Planning Toolkit

Introduction

Regional planning is gaining traction as communities seek to address large-scale issues that transcend city, state, and national boundaries. Climate change has created new imperatives, posing a threat to traditional modes of planning. As mitigation and adaptation efforts have been undertaken, the scale of the region has emerged as a critical locus of sustainability planning. The region can act as an organic and autonomous entity, structuring access to water, agriculture, transportation, housing, and other goods necessary for community health, safety, and well-being.

We offer tools at the governance level, community-led grassroots, and international examples to give a broad cross-section of solutions for the complex and interlocking problems of housing and climate change. While this toolkit seeks to address housing and sustainability issues together, most examples we discuss focus on either climate change or housing solutions. We utilize the cross-cutting themes of Equity, Vulnerability, and Justice to reveal the power of Regional Planning to address these issues in a holistic way, leading to greater resilience in systems and communities

The Connection Between Climate Change and Homelessness

This blog sees homelessness as one of the most obvious and extreme forms of vulnerability, and therefore should be prioritized and planned for in all regional climate change policies. As Angela Glover Blackwell describes in The Curb Cut Effect, policies and programs that focus on the most vulnerable and marginalized will lift up all members of a society. In addition to this underlying principle, the link between homelessness and climate change can be described as:

• Climate change will exacerbate the vulnerabilities already felt by those who are not adequately housed; and 
• Climate change will cause homelessness through the destruction of housing in extreme weather events and likely through economic hardship.

Recent crises, from the COVID-19 pandemic to weather disasters exacerbated by climate change have shown how vulnerable unhoused and unstably housed individuals are to illness and death during times of upheaval. Indeed, disasters like pandemics, earthquakes, and hurricanes also cause homelessness, whether because a home is destroyed or it is impossible to stay in a current residence. 

Finally, wealthier countries will have the financial capacity to adapt more efficiently and quickly than poorer ones. The underlying causes of climate change – fossil fuel emissions – are disproportionately caused by the wealthiest countries and individuals, and the effects are disproportionately felt by the poorest. Alarmingly, climate change is exacerbating income inequality, helping or hurting national economies based on existing wealth and geography. For example, the study shows that Norway has grown 34% wealthier while Sudan’s GDP has shrunk 36% based on changes to climate. This means that many of the countries who are the drivers of climate change will have the financial wealth to adapt to climate change’s effects more readily, and poorer countries will not, continuing the growth cycle of inequality.

Overview

The purpose of this regional planning toolkit is to support efforts to protect vulnerable communities, particularly those experiencing homelessness, from the consequences of climate change. We investigate contemporary case studies local to the Bay Area, West Coast, as well as global examples centering around housing, sustainability, and the intersection of these issues. These case studies address the hyper-local neighborhood, municipal, regional, and broader scales and are conceptualized as tools themselves, offering lessons learned, best practices, and cautionary tools for similar policies and structures. Data sources include municipal and county-level websites, legislation, planning documents, reports, academic studies, news articles, and other documentation.

Case Studies/Tools

Regional and Local Government Tools

According to Chapple, regional planning as we recognize it today dates back to the nineteenth century. Chapple also notes that there are no canonical sources for how to establish a regional framework. The plurality of regional planning systems worldwide is a testament to the range and vibrancy of planning at this scale.

An important milestone in the history of regional planning in the U.S. is the creation of Councils of Governments (COGs) in the 1960s. During this time, the federal government began requiring planning for transportation, housing, and other public services, authorizing local governments to coordinate in order to secure federal housing dollars. COGs served as a clearinghouse, dispersing funds from the federal to the local level. Building on this framework, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962 mandated the creation of metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) for areas with a population greater than 50,000 to receive federal funds. MPOs were also required to initiate planning processes, incentivizing greater coordination among local cities. The case studies in this section examine institutionalized structures of regional planning, the successors of 20th century regional planning frameworks.

Duwamish Valley Program

About: The Duwamish Valley of the Puget Sound in Washington State lies along the river banks of the Duwamish River, and is home to the South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods. This area has a higher proportion of people of color, immigrants, refugees, and low-income individuals than Seattle and the Puget Sound region as a whole. The Duwamish Valley Program (DVP) seeks to implement environmental justice and equitable development  principles to uplift and invest in  communities that are most affected by racial inequity, health disparities, and climate change. The DVP proposes reforms for seven priority areas and outlines the  agencies and funding necessary to pursue improved outcomes. The priority areas are  Healthy Environment,  Parks & Open  Space,  Community Capacity, Economic Opportunity & Jobs, Mobility & Transportation, Affordable Housing,  and Public Safety (“Duwamish Valley Program”  website). The DVP has led organizing for clean-up of the Duwamish River superfund site, organized work parties to plant native species in the area, granted funds to the Duwamish Tribe for improvements to their facilities, and taken a variety of other actions to support community-led projects. What makes this program exemplary? The DVP incorporates the lenses of equity, vulnerability, and sustainability repeatedly and explicitly. The exhaustive nature of the DVP, the extensive  community input, and strong equity lens are great strengths, creating accountability mechanisms for this work. What could be improved? While ambitious, this plan reflects the political challenges and significant funding gaps that threaten the practicability of achieving these outcomes.

Courtesy of seattle.gov 

King County Regional Homelessness Authority

About: The King County Regional Homelessness Authority was formed in 2019 in a coordinated effort between elected leaders in Seattle and other Puget Sound cities and King County leadership. The Authority was formed  in order to forge a unified response to homelessness, combining funding dollars from municipalities as well as forming a Public Development Authority (PDA) to oversee implementation.  What makes this program exemplary? The formation of the Authority addresses the themes of both equity and vulnerability directly, and indirectly also enhances sustainability efforts for the Puget Sound region. The report that formed the basis of the system recommendations conducted extensive interviews with people with lived experience of homelessness, using Community-based participatory research methods (CBPR) in order to gain a more comprehensive and holistic sense of the vulnerability of both those experiencing homelessness and the system as a whole (National Innovation Service, “Methods,”). Additionally, the Authority identifies the disproportionality of homelessness among communities of color, and  states that the Authority will seek to strengthen “equity and social justice efforts through the  service systems.” (“Regional Homelessness Authority: Legislation Transmittal,” ).  What could be improved? The Authority’s outcomes and five year plan are forthcoming, and will be critical documents determining whether the Authority complies with this stated mission.

Courtesy of KNKX

California State Surplus Lands Order

About: The state surplus lands executive order, issued on January 8th 2020,  allows state lands designated as under-used, be utilized for sheltering the unhoused as long as it is not being considered for development of affordable housing. So far this mandate has yet to be utilized, as it is very expensive to build emergency-shelter and homeless shelters. A tent shelter housing 420 people under a bridge in Modesto, California costs 1.6 million for 10 months. We need to house our population now more than ever, and this is an example of a state providing a basic resource–land–to address a regional problem.  What makes this program exemplary? Homelessness has always been in the hands of local governments (cities and counties) to address. While the state may disburse funds and amend policies, the power rests in local orders. This top-down executive mandate towards the regional issue of homelessness seen in California is unique in that it addresses the issue on a regional level.  What could be improved? Critiques are that although the state offers the land, it isn’t bringing sufficient funds to local city and counties to compensate for sheltering, managing, and providing adequate services to the previously unhoused residents. Also, in a state run by local governments advocating for local control, creating a coalition of local supporters to build a regional strategy is essential. This is hard to do, as the state has never mandated that cities build shelters in a way that doesn’t concentrate poverty in pockets of already burdened poor communities.

CASA Compact

About: CASA is a task force composed of elected officials and civic leaders empaneled to address the Bay Area’s housing crisis. Convened by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) (the MPO), the CASA members worked to create a set of solutions to increase housing production, enhance preservation, and strengthen protection (the 3 Ps). The CASA Compact was adopted in January, 2019, and includes a set of policy recommendations to address the region’s housing crisis over a 15-year timeline. The coalition proposed a new Regional Housing Enterprise, which Assemblymember Davidu Chiu is pursuing through legislation to create the Housing Alliance for the Bay Area (HABA) (“Push to Create a Regional Housing Agency for the Bay Area”).  What makes this program exemplary? This regional approach to housing is both novel and unique across the United States. Through the lens of housing, CASA created a framework to address equity, sustainability, and vulnerability through a holistic set of reforms applied to the unique constraints and opportunities of the Bay Area.  What could be improved? The success of the CASA Compact is largely contingent on the passage of legislation at the state level. While several bills have passed in support of the “protection” arm of CASA, the area of production was less successful in the 2020 legislative session (analysis of the legislative wins and losses for CASA in the 2020 legislative session is out of the scope of this blog post. For a more detailed run-down of the failure of SB 50 see this LA Times piece). While setting an important precedent in regional coordination of housing affordability, the CASA process also contains important lessons about the limits of an advisory body’s sway over the legislative process.

Courtesy of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Grassroots and Community-Led Tools 

This section offers solutions to the disenfranchisement of people experiencing homelessness and lack of equitable efforts to include them as members of society. Housing as a right is crucial not because of its spatial value but its significance: to be part of a community. Not only are you housed but can also be part of a network. 

Why is homelessness crucial to sustainability and Climate change? One of the key things to keep in mind is that equitable outcomes can be used as references/barometers for progress when it comes to spatial and social justice. “The social and racial equity implications of climate change are substantial. The burdens of climate change are projected to fall disproportionately on low-income and communities of color, with impacts ranging from health impacts due to urban heat island effect and air pollution to negative impacts on industry sectors employing workers of color.” (Pursuing Equity and Equity in a Changing Climate, Schrock et al.) The following toolkits differ in how they approach the phenomenon of homelessness but they are rooted in being started by citizens and aim in restoring self-worth and community building. 

Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture

About: Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture is an indigineous led organization, on Hopi Tutskwa land, focusing on natural building, food systems, and sustainable design based in a vision of community based solutions, cultural sustainability for future generations, revitalization of Hopi culture, knowledge, and leadership building. “We aim to provide our community with the tools, training and practical experience needed to rebuild a vibrant community based on traditional Hopi values and worldview.” They hold events such as solar heating workshops, indiginous food workshops, rainwater harvesting, and home building with natural materials. These houses are built for homeownership for very-low to low-income households who have lived in their community for over two years. The applicant must attend homeownership workshops and courses, while the program provides financial support and loan options.  What makes this program exemplary? Homeownership gives stability and has the capacity to lift people out of poverty. Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture achieves this through an anti-colonial and healing-based lens, meant to reimagine and rejuvenate their native community while also caring for the Earth with traditional building practices and ways of life.  What could be improved? This organization is already showing strong results, but what they lack is financial capital, like many native-led solutions. Community rebuilds, an organization that also focuses on natural building in Utah, tried to partner with Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture, but because Community Rebuilds (a predominantly white organization) was not willing to change their building practices to match the Hopi traditional methods, the Hopi declined their offer of support. The solidarity and anti-colonial lens is often not present in white-led support and/or organizations when attempting to collaborate with native or POC/marginalized communities. The responsibility should not fall on Tutskwa Permaculture to shift their practices. Rather, outside organizations desiring to support native communities should redouble their efforts to address poverty, cultural revitalization efforts, and sustainability.

Courtesy of Hopi Tutswka Permaculture

Operation Dignity

About:  Operation Dignity has been active since the early 1990’s. It was founded by a Vietnam veteran with experiences of homelessness. After this experience the Founder of Operation Dignity, Alex McElree, started collecting beds and started a shelter in a small house in Oakland. Other veterans soon joined Alex in helping Operation Dignity expand. What makes this program exemplary? Operation Dignity provides several types of assistance, including:Veteran Shelter and Housing: operates 15 shelter beds and 91 transitional housing beds for veterans at three properties in Oakland, Alameda, and Berkeley. Veterans work one-on-one with a case manager to help them create a self-sufficiency plan and secure permanent housing.Mobile Street outreach: assists people who are homeless with basic needs, providing supplies they need to stay as safe and healthy as possible.Connects participants with services to improve their long-term situation. Staff assist people in preparing housing applications, getting IDs and other documentation, traveling to service appointments, applying for employment and/or benefits, and addressing other needs. Operation Dignity also partners with health care providers and other local service agencies to have their staff “ride along” and provide services to people where they are.Permanent Supportive Housing: Operation Dignity provides their own permanent housing to formerly homeless veterans and other families who have experienced homelessness. What could be improved?  Funding from a State and Federal level to similar grassroots programs to create a greater sense of community among participants, thereby enhancing stewardship of equitable, sustainable communities.

Courtesy of Operation Dignity

South Berkeley Encampment Solar Panels

About: There are many dangers to living in an encampment as an unhoused individual. In South Berkeley, there is an encampment alongside the Ashby BART station, and the exposure and lack of protection introduces a great deal of risk for residents. Environmental and physical risks, and risks of losing one’s personal property are realities people in encampments face on a daily basis. Just last month, the lack of a protective barrier to community led to a a car to drive through the encampment and smash into their very valuable solar panels. These solar panels however were an incredible asset. It not only is a sustainable means by which the community can have light in the dark hours, but “instead of going to the library, where there are 90 homeless people trying to charge their phones at one time, we can charge up as many as we need here, up to 10 or 12 a day.” Having this resource on-site allows for residents more time to organize. Their phones and laptops are necessary to organize and communicate with organizations and groups that provide necessary services and resources for their wellbeing and protection. Additionally, if a climate change disaster were to strike, it is necessary for these folks to have access to a cell phone.  What makes this program exemplary? These installations came from one of the residents, who had experience with solar panels prior to moving into his new community at the Ashby BART station. Local governments and organizations should support these community-led initiatives, and use them as exemplary in their policy approaches to other encampments.  What could be improved? Although these efforts were outstanding, the vulnerability of the solar panels to harm was too high, and just last month they were run over by a car. Protection to this community investment should be given by local authorities, as it is in their interest to uplift these communities out of poverty which can only happen if encampments have the basic resources to access opportunity.

Courtesy of msn.com

Another example in pushing for equitable sustainable communities is “the Village” which is part of 30 curbside communities of homeless encampments in Oakland. I would like to utilize James  Holston’s conceptualization of homeless encampments as forms of Insurgent Citizenship. In “Insurgent Citizenship.”  Holston argues, “These movements create new kinds of rights, based on the exigencies of lived experience, outside of the normative and institutional definitions of the state and its legal codes.” Insurgent Citizenship movements like “the Village in Oakland” can be seen under this context as indicators of the much work that lays ahead in creating sustainable equitable communities but as well a bottom-up movement initiated by the disfranchised. 

The Village in Oakland

About: Works in partnerships with 6 other curbside communities (encampments) in Oakland. It primarily is fueled by volunteers. Per website’s description: “Using a diversity of tactics to reach our goals is necessary in the current political, economic and historic moment we are in: direct action and policy reform. adverse possession and purchasing lands. reparations and self-determination. serve the unsheltered and self-governance of the unsheltered.”  What makes this program exemplary? It is a bottom-up movement. Land use and land rights are key organizing paradigms. Movements like the Village are examples of how communities can pressure the institutional structure for legislative changes. These pressures create additional attention to taking into consideration housing as a human right and as well keeping in mind environmental and socio-economic standards/parameters in sustaining communities.     What could be improved: While the encampments represent solidarity and community, it also shows the vulnerable state of curbside community residents. The lack of proper infrastructure in access to public utilities and amenities can be a reference point of the much needed progress in creating equitable sustainable communities.

Source: The Village in Oakland. 

Global Tools for Homelessness and Heat Emergencies

One of the most common areas where homelessness and climate change intersect at a regional scale is high heat action planning. The increase in high heat days is one of the most deadly changes we are seeing with the changing climate, and vulnerable individuals like unhoused residents are the most susceptible to heat-related illnesses and deaths. Unhoused people are particularly affected by the urban heat island effect. Apart from air conditioned shelter itself – the most desirable option – unhoused people often lack basic shelter from the sun, have inadequate access to water to stay hydrated, and are forced to live in less desirable, more industrial and low-vegetation areas that get hotter. The following heat action plans from around the world represent planning efforts that take unhoused communities into account in their planning processes: 

Ahmedabad, India Heat Action Plan

About: Ahmedabad is one of the many cities experiencing more and more high heat days that kill its residents – in 2010, after 1,344 people died in a heat wave, the city began planning for these emergencies. The 2016 plan is focused on a) building public awareness, b) initiating an early warning system and inter-agency plan for high heat days, c) building capacity among healthcare providers, and d) reducing heat exposure for vulnerable residents. What makes this plan exemplary? By focusing adaptation efforts on the most vulnerable communities, like those living unhoused or in slums, the plan tries to meet the bare minimum needs of these individuals during crises. For example, public buildings, temples, and malls will be turned in to cooling centers to remain open overnight. In many instances, cooling centers are only opened during the day in other locations, but in cities where the night time temperature remains extremely high, it is critical that unhoused individuals have access to cool air and water 24 hours a day.  What could be improved? The Action Plan was developed largely by academic experts and public health departments; while these groups should certainly be part of the effort, there was no community representation.

Melbourne, Australia Heatwaves and Homelessness Action Plan

About: This plan was created to complement their Heatwave Activation Sub-plan, based on current estimates that the city will experience far more high heat days by 2030. This plan is designed for residents who are experiencing different types of homelessness, from complete lack of shelter to people living in long-term hotel or boarding house arrangements.  What makes this plan exemplary? This plan is one of the few documents found that focuses specifically on the intersection of climate change,  homelessness, and regional governance. In addition to creating cooling centers, the plan offers more innovative ideas including free movie passes and pool passes to provide opportunities for recreation and shelter out of the heat. While these practices are not a substitute for adequate housing, they are particularly humanizing and represent thinking outside of the norm.   What could be improved? The Melbourne Heatwaves and Homelessness plan could describe more about what is being done to provide adequate shelter and housing to individuals experiencing homelessness.

Athens, Greece Heatwave Action Plan

About: Launched in 2016, the Athens plan focuses expansively on vulnerable communities, which include elderly, those with underlying health problems, infants, and low-income and homeless individuals.  What makes this plan exemplary? As part of the plan, Athens is taking a more mitigative approach to heatwaves by increasing green spaces and green canopy in underserved areas; they are also taking similar adaptive measures like opening cooling centers. Another unique part of their outreach efforts is a di­gital heat­wave warn­ing mech­an­ism is now avail­able to res­id­ents via either per­sonal com­puters or smart­phones. This app, called EXTREMA, has also launched in Paris and Rotterdam, and assesses the user’s vulnerability to heat and directs them to cooling centers in their areas.

Conclusion

Regional Climate change planning must center and protect our most vulnerable to be successful. Vulnerable communities such as seniors, people with disabilities, children, low-income communities, communities of color, and immigrants are more exposed to the harms of climate change. In this toolkit, we see housing as an indispensable platform for protection against these harms, and offer examples of local and regional approaches, both domestically and abroad, to the inextricably linked regional issues of housing insecurity and sustainability. These issues are not separate as we will only succeed in developing a resilient global community if we are able to create strategies to protect our most vulnerable while moving towards sustainability. These tools can contribute to developing strategies to help support regional planning that integrates housing and climate resilience in a way that uplifts our most vulnerable.