Disability and Subsidized Housing Residency: The Adverse Impacts of Winter Storm Uri in Metropolitan Texas

Elsevier

Available online 13 November 2022, 101403

Disability and Health JournalAbstractBackground

While natural disasters have been found to affect both disabled and subsidized rental housing residents negatively and disproportionately, previous studies have not examined if adverse disaster impacts experienced by disabled individuals in subsidized housing developments differ from those living in other housing.

Objective

We focused on Winter Storm Uri in Texas, USA, which lasted from February 10-20, 2021. We sought to: (1) compare differences in adverse impacts suffered by households with and without disabled persons; and (2) examine how residency in US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-assisted rental housing influences severity of impacts for households with disabled persons.

Methods

We collected data from 790 randomly selected households in eight Texas metropolitan areas through a bilingual phone survey. Bivariate and multivariable statistical methods were utilized to compare adverse impacts suffered by households, based on both disability status and HUD-assisted housing residency.

Results

Households with disabled persons were more severely impacted by Uri than households without disabled persons, in terms of service disruptions, colder temperatures, slower recovery, and adverse experiences that have important health implications. Households with a disabled person residing in HUD-assisted housing were more negatively impacted and suffered more adverse experiences than those living in other housing.

Conclusions

Residency in federally-assisted rental housing can worsen severity of adverse impacts and amplify disaster vulnerability for disabled individuals. These disparities based on disability and subsidized housing status emphasize the need for additional research to understand the impacts of disasters on disabled residents and formulate interventions that provide equitable protections.

Section snippetsStatement of funding and conflicts of interest

This research was supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grants CMMI-2127941 and CMMI-2127932.

Any opinions, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

The authors have no conflicts of interest or disclosures to report.

Methods

Data for this study were collected from Texas residents through a 35-minute telephone survey conducted in English and Spanish, in July 2021. The survey targeted randomly selected residents in counties that comprise eight Texas Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs): Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, McAllen, El Paso, Beaumont-Port Arthur, and Lubbock. Professional bilingual interviewers employed by a private survey research firm conducted these interviews. The sampling frame

Results

Bivariate results measuring differences between households with disabled persons and households without disabled persons are presented in Table 2. Households with disabled members indicate significantly longer drinking/boil water advisories, more hours without electricity at home, and lower indoor temperatures (p<0.05), compared to households without disabled members. Households with disabled persons also reveal significantly lower levels of recovery and more adverse event experiences (p

Discussion

With regard to our first research question, our results indicated that households with disabled persons were more adversely and disproportionately impacted by Winter Storm Uri than those without disabled persons, in terms of significantly longer water advisories, longer electricity outages, and lower indoor temperatures, even after controlling for relevant socio-demographic and environmental factors, as well as geographic clustering. Households with disabled persons also indicated significantly

Conclusion

This brief report extends scholarship on the disproportionate impacts of disasters on disabled residents by focusing on Winter Storm Uri and analyzing both disability and subsidized housing status of randomly selected households in metropolitan Texas. To our knowledge, no previous study has documented how residency in federally-assisted housing developments can worsen severity of adverse impacts and amplify disaster vulnerability for disabled persons. We found substantial evidence to indicate

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