Abt Associates has used research to explore housing solutions and provide insights into getting help for disaster victims:

 

 

Although children are among the most vulnerable victims of disaster and comprise about 25 percent of the U.S. population, their needs in a disaster are often overlooked or misunderstood. Abt Associates staff, under a contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, worked with the National Commission on Children and Disasters to prepare a report advising President Barack Obama and Congress on the unique needs of children in natural or manmade disasters.

 

The report, submitted to the President and Congress in October 2010, includes recommendations that address preparation for, response to, and recovery from all hazards, including disasters. Among the recommendations, the report called for integrating the needs of children across all inter- and intra-governmental disaster management activities and operations.

 

 

 

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Congress appropriated $19.7 billion of supplemental Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to support housing recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction efforts. The CDBG funds were meant to supplement other funding sources secured by property owners to ensure adequate coverage of the cost of repairing their housing units.  HUD commissioned Abt to assess the extent of housing recovery on the gulf coast and the effect of CDBG funds on rebuilding activities. The focus of the study was on reconstruction activities in some of the hardest hit areas of those states receiving most of these monies -- Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Read more about housing recovery on the Gulf Coast.

 

In addition, Abt conducted a survey of residential properties located on blocks severely affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As of when the information was collected in early 2010, the report estimated that 74.6 percent of these properties were in good condition, 14.6 percent of the properties still had substantial repair needs, and 10.9 percent of the properties no longer contained a permanent residential structure. The report also explored factors related to rebuilding.

 

Separately, Abt evaluated the Alternative Housing Pilot Program (AHPP), a FEMA program that provided $400 million to Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to develop and test new forms of emergency shelter as alternatives to FEMA trailers. Abt Associates conducted an evaluation to measure the quality of life for program recipients in these four states who were displaced by the storms in 2005 and to understand how the program was implemented across sites.

 

Among other insights, the study found that program participants preferred the alternative emergency housing provided by AHPP to the traditional temporary housing alternatives, including FEMA travel trailers, and they reported that AHPP housing was of significantly higher quality. Read more about design alternatives for emergency housing.

 

 

 

Survivors of disasters often require case management services to help them regain self-sufficiency. But Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that in large-scale disasters the demand for case management services far exceeds what can be provided by state governments and non-profit organizations. In its report The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, the White House recommended that the federal government adopt a "one-stop shopping" approach to disaster case management to improve efficiency.

 

Abt Associates developed and tested a disaster case management program for the Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF). In creating this disaster case management program for ACF, Abt Associates drew on lessons learned from previous and ongoing case management programs for disaster survivors.

 

The prototype disaster case management program that Abt designed was eventually tested during Hurricane Gustav in September 2008 and is now poised to go into action if a Governor requests disaster case management services from the federal government.