Racial and Ethnic Change in Floodplain Buyout Neighborhoods: Twenty-Five Years of Evidence from Houston.

Abstract

This paper examines how floodplain buyouts funded through FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) have altered the racial and ethnic composition in Harris County, Texas, from 1990 to 2015. A quasi-experimental research design permits the attribution of observed changes to the buyout program, and interviews with households provide context to our findings. We find that buyouts have triggered white flight, shifting neighborhoods from predominantly white to Hispanic, while little changes in the black population. The impact was more pronounced in wealthier neighborhoods and those with more buyouts, suggesting a need for buyouts to include provisions to help stabilize remaining neighborhoods.