Disaster Housing Request For Information Released

In the Boston region, disaster housing is a reality we have to continue to prepare and plan for together. We face the potential for major events or natural disasters that could result in catastrophic damage to housing infrastructure in the region. This makes disaster housing one of the focal points in preparing for and responding to threats. Climate change increases the City and region’s exposure to vulnerabilities that we face from various events and disasters. Boston’s dense urban area makes for a complex planning process. As the region grows, we need to continue to be collaborative, equitable, inclusive, and innovative in our approach to disaster housing recovery.

The City of Boston Office of Emergency Management’s Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) Team has been working on a disaster housing project in partnership with the Metro Boston Homeland Security Region (MBHSR) and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) as part of FEMA’s Fiscal Year 2019 RCPGP. The goal of the grant program is to build the local and state capacity to manage catastrophic incidents by improving and expanding regional collaboration for incident preparedness. This grant program seeks to create a better understanding of the MBHSR’s housing capacity to inform the planning process and better support our residents moving forward. 

The RCPGP team, through the grant program has successfully performed the following: 

• MIT Urban Risk Lab’s Disaster Housing Pre-Planning Toolkit: Partnered with MIT Urban Risk Lab to bring their Disaster Housing Pre-Planning Toolkit to the Metro Boston Homeland Security Region.
• Roundtables to Resilience Series: Created a monthly, virtual, conversation series to bring together emergency management related professionals from across the nation to discuss topics related to disaster housing. 
• Land Suitability Analysis (LSA): Partnered with Google's Summer of Code to conduct an LSA to identify potential areas for redevelopment and map the areas that are suitable for short-term relocation and long-term redevelopment post-disaster.
• Continuity Planning: Developed a Continuity of Operations (COOP) framework, adapted from the City of Boston COOP plan and FEMA COOP template to look at continuity planning as it relates to housing. 

Help us continue to expand and be more creative in our thinking about disaster housing recovery planning and execution by giving your input through our Disaster Housing Request For Information (RFI). Boston OEM is committed to ensuring that our planning processes are equitable and inclusive of all residents. The purpose of this RFI is to leverage subject matter experts, and other partners, to assist Boston OEM in gathering information related to the following disaster housing topics or share other ideas related to disaster housing recovery to inform our region: 

• Partnerships with Vocational Schools, Colleges, and Trade Schools 
• Case Management and/or Tool for Navigating Assistance Opportunities
• Guidelines and Policy Implementation
• Innovative Disaster Housing Design

The Disaster Housing RFI is for planning purposes only and does not commit OEM or the city to issue a solicitation or award a contract. The responses received through this RFI are public record and will be shared with state and regional partners or at public events to benefit our overall approach. Participation ⁠— or lack thereof ⁠— in this process does not help or hurt any entity's chances for partnership opportunities in the future. After the submission period ends, we may invite respondents to tell us more about their ideas. Should the City choose to pursue any specific ideas from the responses to the RFI, we will engage in public procurement processes at that time.

If you would like to share your thoughts with the City on disaster housing recovery planning in Boston, the MBHSR and Commonwealth, you can review the RFI and submit through our online form or via email at bostonrcpgp@boston.gov.

TIMELINE AND PROCESS

Please contact the Boston Office of Emergency Management, with any questions or concerns at bostonrcpgp@boston.gov. Questions will be accepted on a rolling basis and should be submitted to bostonrcpgp@boston.gov. Responses will be posted via the Disaster Housing RFI Google Drive Folder within 3 business days from the receipt of the question.