Christopher Flavelle, Columnist

Climate Change Is Already Forcing Americans to Move

Climate displacement is real -- and it's hitting people in public housing first.

October 31, 2016 at 10:49 AM EDT

Christopher Flavelle covers climate change and adaptation policy, and the business implications of those policies, for Bloomberg News. He was previously an editorial writer for Bloomberg View and a senior policy analyst at Bloomberg Government. Before joining Bloomberg, he wrote for ProPublica, Slate and Newsweek.

Public housing residents in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images

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Loraine Helber runs the public housing authority in Punta Gorda, Florida, a city of 18,000 just north of Fort Myers at the mouth of the Peace River. In March, she hopes to celebrate a milestone: the opening of new apartments for the elderly, replacing about 80 units destroyed by the hurricane.

But the storm that destroyed the original public housing wasn't Hurricane Matthew; it was Hurricane Charley, 12 years ago. Neither the insurance company nor the federal government provided enough money to rebuild what was lost. Construction could proceed only once Bank of America, through a subsidiary, invested in the new building to get a tax write-off.

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

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