Reports + Publications

Innovations in buyouts: lessons from lived and learned experience

March 2025

The Climigration Network partnered with Anna Weber (NRDC), Shameika Hanson (TNC), and Carri Hulet (CH Consulting) on an article published in Frontiers:  “Innovations in buyouts: Lessons from lived and learned experience.” This policy and practice review article summarizes the recommendations generated through the Innovations in Buyouts workshop series with buyout program practitioners and residents, as well as the methods used to design and facilitate the sessions and subsequent work done to implement the recommendations and develop a community of practice for better buyouts.

Best Practices for Voluntary Home Buyouts: Recommendations to NYS Office of Resilient Homes and Communities

November 2024

The Climigration Network partnered with a coalition of national experts in climate migration, housing buyouts, and climate adaptation, hosted by Rebuild by Design, to publish a white paper on “Best Practices for Voluntary Home Buyouts: Recommendations to NYS Office of Resilient Homes and Communities.”

The recommendations were developed in response to the passage of the 2022 $4.2B New York State Environmental Bond Act, which stipulates the creation of a dedicated state buyout program. They are intended to serve as both a compilation of best practices and reference points for buyout and climate relocation programs in general, and to identify opportunities for a NYS-funded buyout program to improve upon existing post-disaster buyout programs.

Partners included Rebuild by Design, the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, Buy-In Community Planning, the Climigration Network, ONE Architecture, and faculty experts at Cornell University and the University of Delaware.

Innovations in Buyouts Workshop Reports

2021-23

The Climigration Network partnered with NRDC, TNC, and CH Consulting to host two parallel workshop series to explore recommendations for better buyout programs. The first was among 30+ buyout program managers and agency staff from across the US; the second was a first-ever convening of 12 residents from across the US who had direct experience of a government-financed buyout of their home (both voluntary and mandatory).

Buyout program practitioners created a white paper “Innovating to Make Home Buyouts Faster, Easier, and Fairer (2022)” and complementary federal policy recommendations. Community members shared their experiences and recommendations in a report “Improving Home Buyouts - Lessons Learned from Experience (2023)” (in English and Spanish). Learn more about the workshops here.

Uprooted: As the Climate Crisis Forces U.S. Residents to Relocate, a New Conversation Emerges

July 2022

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, with writer Alexandra Tempus, documented the collaborative efforts of the Climigration Network, the Anthropocene Alliance and its members from Go Austin/Vamos Austin and Rosewood Strong, and Buy-In Community Planning. The article explores how the coalition of community members and technical partners is building locally led, justice-centered approaches for adapting in-place and moving away from climate disaster.

The Great American Climate Migration Statement

2021

In 2021, leaders from 10 low-income, Black, and Latinx communities in the Climigration Network’s Grassroots Leader Community of Practice — convened with the Anthropocene Alliance — created “The Great American Climate Migration.” The statement draws from community leaders’ experiences to outline conditions necessary to guide the resettlement of some 30 million Americans over the next half-century due to climate change. Please read the statement, watch the testimonials from leaders, and share with your colleagues and friends.