Climate change impacting housing: Fair housing report highlights environmental, climate change impacts

Of all the challenges facing Hoosier homeowners and renters, the harmful impacts of environmental hazards and climate change rank near the top of the list.

Whether it’s children being exposed to elevated lead levels, air pollution or rising water levels due to climate change, these environmental issues are here now and will be for the foreseeable future.

The Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana released a report in June, “The State of Fair Housing in Indiana – Highlighting Housing Impacts From Our Changing Environment,” that comprehensively detailed some of the more concerning housing and environmental issues in the state, according to the nonprofit group.

It also put a spotlight on the historically disproportionate impacts felt by some of Indiana’s communities.

“The FHCCI’s research shows that Black and Brown communities and families with minor children are at higher risk of environmental racism and injustices overall,” said Amy Nelson, the center’s executive director, in a news release. “Many of these symptoms are effects from historic redlining and other discriminatory housing practices. It’s our responsibility to undo these effects and ensure environmental justice for all Hoosiers.”

Rakuya Trice, Indiana Legal Services’ deputy director and director of the group’s medical-legal partnerships, said these environmental impacts turn what should be a safe place — people’s homes — into a threat to their physical and economic well-being.

Trice told Indiana Lawyer that, for example, it is estimated that 1 in 10 adults and 1 in 16 children in Indiana have asthma.

She said poor air quality is a known trigger that can cause children to miss school and adults to miss work, cause them to be hospitalized, and can cause death.

“For tenants living with asthma, habitability issues can be a life-or-death matter when environmental triggers such as mold, insects, or rodents are left unaddressed. These issues could result in an ill tenant repeatedly missing work and, in turn, being unable to pay their rent, resulting in eviction. The issue could then progress to them being unable to find affordable quality housing because they were evicted from the housing, which caused their health and economic issues in the first place,” Trice said.

Trice noted that tenants who do complain about housing conditions risk being evicted or their lease not being renewed.

She said children who miss school repeatedly due to asthma episodes may face negative academic and long-term adult outcomes, which can lead to them facing the same housing habitability issues and risk of employment loss in adulthood, creating a generational cycle of negative health and economic outcomes.

Key report findings

Brady Ripperger, FHCCI’s deputy director of administration and advocacy, said that the state’s increasing climate and environment changes are resulting in more negative housing impacts for all Hoosiers.

That means housing should always be a priority when discussing environmental topics, he said.

Ripperger told Indiana Lawyer one of the biggest things he feels people aren’t aware of is that the state’s regional airports are a major cause of lead-based airborne pollution through airplane fuel.

The report examined what it described as “people of color and new immigrants being disproportionally impacted by the proximity to these regional airports.”

In one example, FHCCI looked at Purdue University Airport, located in West Lafayette, and found approximately 29.3% of residents that live within 500 meters of the airport’s runway identify as Asian, despite Asians making up 21.1% of West Lafayette’s population.

Also, 9.2% of residents that live within 500 meters of the airport’s runway identify as non-white Hispanics, despite this group making up only 4.9% of West Lafayette’s population, according to the report.

Referencing the FHCCI report, Ripperger said it takes a lot of time, effort and money to clean up Superfund sites (areas polluted with hazardous materials), which explains why so many still need remediation.

“There are some that have been around since the 1980s,” Ripperger said.

The report also found that Indiana contains more than 50 Superfund sites, but less than half of those have been cleaned and returned to usable land.

In its report the FHCCI stated that when it overlaid redlining maps and locations of the Superfund sites, many of the sites are located in formerly redlined neighborhoods.

For example, Black Americans are 75% more likely to live near a company, industrial or service facility.

The report found that, like Superfund sites, brownfields are also prevalent in formerly redlined neighborhoods, where communities of color mostly reside today.

About half of these sites are located within two miles or less of HUD-funded public housing, according to the FHCCI.

The report noted that Gary and Indianapolis, two cities with Indiana’s most diverse populations, have some of the worst air quality in the country, due to industrial plants and traffic pollution, especially in communities of color. Lack of tree coverage can be linked to formerly redlined neighborhoods and is associated with worse heat exposure and worsened health quality for those neighborhoods’ mostly Black and Brown residents.

Indiana’s housing stock is aging, with 15% being built before 1939, including both home-owned and rental properties.

The FHCCI also reported that approximately 800,000 Hoosiers are at risk of being negatively affected and more than 270,000 Hoosiers live in an area that has been projected to be at risk of inland flooding.

Of those at risk, 32% of households in floodplain areas are families with children and 25% are households with seniors.

The report also highlighted the lingering hazards of lead paint and its potentially dangerous impacts on children.

It stated that the Indiana Department of Health reported that the risk of lead exposure is higher for children in households with the following characteristics:

• Lower income.

• Racial or ethnic minority groups.

• Housing built before 1978.

• Housing that is poorly maintained.

• Recent immigrants (especially those coming from countries where spices, cosmetics, jewelry, ceramics and medicine may have higher levels of lead).

Trice said lead paint wasn’t banned by the federal government until 1978, and HUD estimates that around 64 million dwellings built before 1978 contain lead paint.

“Add to that the prevalence of lead in the air and soil surrounding dwellings built on or near toxic land, and the likelihood of being exposed to lead increases significantly. Research shows that the effects of lead poisoning can cause permanent damage to the brain of children, and has shown that developmental exposure can cause poor school performance, increase juvenile delinquency, and increase a child’s likelihood of having more interactions with the criminal justice system as an adult,” Trice said. She added that the requirement for sellers and landlords to provide tenants with the federal government’s Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home disclosure pamphlet did not go into effect until 1996.

Possible solutions

The FHCCI report concluded with several possible courses of action, with the group noting that “without a concerted effort sooner rather than later, environmental hazards will continue to haunt and harm Hoosiers, especially Black and Brown communities, those of low-income, persons with disabilities, and families with minor children.”

FHCCI recommendations included: passing legislation to make it easier for tenants to address issues of significant habitability, enforcing proactive, mandatory soil testing on residential land, expanding free legal services and offer right to counsel programs and supporting grassroots efforts that bring awareness to environmental injustices.

Ripperger said there are several grassroots groups throughout Indiana that are working on discussions and solutions for the fair housing and environmental justice issues outlined in the FHCCI report.

He said it’s important to note that Mother Nature isn’t responsible for the environmental damage being done to the communities cited in the report.

“We’ve got to work to undo those issues and address those concerns we have,” Ripperger said.

Paula Brooks, the Hoosier Environmental Council’s environmental justice director, said there has been some legislative action that has addressed environmental and housing-related issues raised in the report.

Brooks said Senate Bill 5, which was signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb in March, will expedite the replacement of lead drinking water pipes by landlords throughout Indiana.

She said she’d like to see more money allocated for Superfund site cleanup and remediation.

Brooks acknowledged that civil servants do the best they can with the funds they available for environmental and housing issues.

The HEC director echoed Trice’s observations about lead exposure to children and how that contributes to developmental difficulties.

“We know lead is dangerous, especially with children,” Brooks said.

With the housing growth happening in some Indiana communities, Brooks said she would like to see more soil testing for lead done prior to home construction.•