Sara McTarnaghan

So often research in our field tells us how the policy *did* but not how it came to be. Super excited to dig into to the findings from my colleagues @yonahfreemark.com, Annie Rosenow, and Lydia Lo.

Similar research in the hazard mitigation/climate resilience space desperately needed.

The Trump Administration Wants to Shrink the Federal Government’s Role in Disaster Management. Do States Have the Fiscal Capacity to Weather the Storm? Taking on more disaster management responsibilities would be toughest for states at high risk of disasters with low fiscal capacity, such as Louisiana and North Carolina.

Whether we call it 'reforming' or 'eliminating' FEMA, the Trump Administration intends to shrink the role of the federal government in disaster management. Do states have the fiscal capacity to take on additional responsibilities? New analysis and state-by-state data:

www.urban.org/urban-wire/t...

#2 The administration hasn’t approved a single request for Hazard Mitigation since 2/17/25. 31 requests are either denied or pending.

🧵👇

Green Social Housing: Lessons from Vienna - Climate and Community Institute Vienna is the global capital of social housing. Over 40 percent of the city’s housing units are social housing, providing homes for the majority of the …

And rock-star @ruthygourevitch.bsky.social and team from @cplusc.bsky.social just published new research diving deeper into this case: climateandcommunity.org/research/vie...

Preserving, Protecting, and Building Climate-Resilient Affordable Housing This framework integrates sustainability, resilience, and environmental justice principles to equip local and regional housing developers, planners, policymakers, and advocates with information, resou...

Looking to translate the Vienna experience to US context? Our research @oriyacohen.bsky.social and Anne Junod lays out some guiding principles. www.urban.org/research/pub...

NPR's Climate Solutions Week How does climate change affect decisions on where, and how, people live? NPR is dedicating a week to stories about solutions for living and building on a hotter planet.

Dig into NPRs other coverage on the climate housing intersection
www.npr.org/series/11995...

Could this city be the model for how to tackle the housing crisis and climate change? Vienna has a way to make affordable housing and combat climate change all at the same time. Now U.S. cities want in, and they're building their own green housing.

Good news stories can feel few and far between, so it was pleasure to the amplify the message and share the evidence that social housing is a climate solution via @npr.org's @juliaradio.bsky.social Climate Solutions Week Sunday Story about Vienna's Green Social Housing.

www.npr.org/2025/06/15/n...

Updated all-time costliest National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) events on record.

Note: Helene now sits at #4 ($6.18B), though nearly all of those payouts have come in Florida ($5.8B). North Carolina only at ~$0.2B.

Most Americans living inland from the coast have no flood insurance coverage.

Last Call at the Disaster Department Trump has signaled an end date for FEMA.

Many close watchers of FEMA do think the agency needs a dramatic shake-up and that states should be responsible for more of the financial burden of catastrophe. This, however, is not what they meant. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

An American Tragedy The president wants to pass a spending bill that threatens health coverage Americans desperately need in a climate-ravaged world.

this week's newsletter is out. it's all about trump's spending bill and how cuts to healthcare threaten the health of Americans as climate disasters make us sicker

www.possibilities.news/trump-spendi...

This story illustrates post-fire moves with recent change of address data, but also relies heavily on first hand accounts from renters and homeowners alike. Appreciate the deep dive on the very human-angle of navigating loss and new beginnings

How much damage did the L.A. wildfires cause? After federal cuts, a crucial estimate is missing Researchers were told not to share data on the January fires or to update their climate disaster database.

Along with @carlyfabian.bsky.social and @alexmartin196.bsky.social I talked to NBC about how the private sector needs NOAA data and the National Climate Assessment

The reality of Hawaii's tourist climate tax A .75% tax will not destroy Hawaii's economy. But unchecked climate change will.

Great reporting from HEATED on Hawaii's first-in-the-nation "green fee" on tourists to help fund climate resiliency efforts

heated.world/p/the-realit...

News — David Richardson, Assistant Secretary for the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, has been named the new Senior Official at FEMA.

A major loss to our understanding of how extreme weather events are affecting us. There are 3 alternative databases I will be using:
Gallagher Re: www.ajg.com/gallagherre/...
Aon: img.clients.aonunited.com/Web/Aon5/%7B...
EM-DAT: www.emdat.be

Good flag.... Have a sense we will need many, many ways to say "devil is in the details"

FEMA chief is fired Federal Emergency Management Agency acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton told people he was terminated Thursday.

1 day later and more updates in store www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

100 Dizzying Days for FEMA A summary of the Trump Administration 2.0's changes to the federal emergency management system

My colleague @andrewrumbach.bsky.social helpfully broke down the last 100 days of executive actions: andrewrumbach.substack.com/p/100-dizzyi...

These moves broadly empower the agency rather than reduce its role and function as many of the recent actions threaten to do

Need to spend time with the details by the top-line goals:
- move FEMA out of DHS and reestablish it as a cabinet level agency
- Improve speed for states to access resources for recovery
- Streamline individual assistance and other programs for survivors
- incentivize mitigation ahead of disasters

As FEMA reforms roll out from the administration at a rapid speed, Congress has a different vision for the agency as laid out in the discussion draft bill by Graves, Larsen transportation.house.gov/uploadedfile...

There’s so much happening right now, I thought I’d put together a running thread on the dismantling of #climate and research and knowledge infrastructure in the United States 🧵

Huge & exciting progress in Chicago, where a new public social housing agency will use a low-cost revolving loan fund to support green, mixed-income housing throughout the city.

100 Dizzying Days for FEMA A summary of the Trump Administration 2.0's changes to the federal emergency management system

I was losing track of all the changes to FEMA, and decided to write them down. Hope it is useful, and please let me know what I've missed! open.substack.com/pub/andrewru...

FEMA Is Ending Door-to-Door Canvassing in Disaster Areas As it shifts responsibility for recovery efforts to local authorities, FEMA workers will stop knocking on doors to provide aid to survivors in disaster areas, per a memo obtained by WIRED.

SCOOP: FEMA workers will stop knocking on doors to provide aid to survivors in disaster areas, per a memo obtained by WIRED. This comes as the agency is shifting responsibility for recovery efforts to local authorities.

Oh, and it's hurricane preparedness week, btw.

Wash > rinse > repeat

Proposed Cuts to Federal Disaster Assistance Will Hit States Just as Hurricane Season Ramps Up In the lead up to hurricane season, the Trump administration has proposed changes to federal disaster assistance, which would result in fewer disasters qualifying for federal aid and state and local g...

Curious how your state could be impacted by FEMA changing the threshold for federal disaster declarations? We provide a state-by-state analysis, based on disaster data spanning 17 years and multiple administrations: www.urban.org/urban-wire/p...

Trump Admin's FY 2026 budget: Proposes cuts to state rental assistance block grant of $26.7 billion. In the text: The Budget empowers States by transforming the current Federal dysfunctional rental assistance programs into a State-based formula grant which would allow States to design their own rental assistance programs based on their unique needs and preferences. The Budget would also newly institute a two-year cap on rental assistance for able bodied adults, and would ensure a majority of rental assistance funding through States would go to the elderly and disabled. A State-based formula program would also lead to significant terminations of Federal regulations. In combination with efforts related to opening up Federal lands, this model would incentivize States and the private sector to provide affordable housing. This proposal would encourage States to provide funding to share in the responsibility to ensure that similar levels of recipients can benefit from the block grant. The Budget includes $25 million in housing grants for youth aging out of foster care.

The FY 2026 Trump budget proposes eliminating the CDBG and HOME programs entirely, as well as reducing native american programs, homeless assistance programs, the lead hazard program, and self-sufficiency programs.

The FY 2026 Trump budget would kill the PRO Housing program and fair housing grants.

Trump Admin has released its proposed budget for FY 2026. The cuts proposed to housing would be brutal, eliminating:
—$26.7 b for affordable housing assistance
—All community development block grants and the HOME program ($4.55 b)
—The PRO Housing program ($100 m)

www.whitehouse.gov/omb/informat...

Trump’s Cuts Are Making Natural Disasters Deadlier The administration is denying recovery funding and slashing money for preparedness. With hurricane season approaching, the results could be catastrophic.

More coverage of these changes from @katearonoff.bsky.social : newrepublic.com/article/1945...
@markgongloff.bsky.social : www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...