‘Managed Retreat’ From Climate Change Is Leaving the Most Vulnerable People Behind

FEMA’s program to help Americans adapt to climate change isn’t helping everyone

A school bus makes its way on the flooded Hopper Rd. on September 19, 2019 in Houston, Texas. Photo: Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images

Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston in 2017 — but it hit some residents harder than others.

Neighborhoods in the coastal city with higher percentages of Black and poor residents had “significantly greater” flooding, according to research published earlier this year. The findings highlight an issue many in the environmental justice movement have been trying to address for decades: People from historically marginalized communities are likely to suffer more severe consequences from climate change.

And it turns out that efforts to provide relief to communities are already doing less for the people who need it the most.

As climate change threatens coastal cities like Houston, a controversial strategy for adaptation is gaining popularity. It’s called “managed retreat,” the strategic relocation of structures or abandonment of land to manage the risk posed by natural hazards like sea level rise, eroding coastlines, and extreme flooding.

One managed retreat program, administered by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) since 1989, started as a way to mitigate flood risk…