In partnership with national experts in climate migration, housing buyouts, and climate adaptation, Rebuild by Design published a white paper on Best Practices for Voluntary Home Buyouts: Recommendations to NYS Office of Resilient Homes and Communities.

These 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.

Explore the recommendations on:

• Program Design
• Program Implementation
• Re-Housing Support
• Integration of Buyouts into Local Planning
• Evaluation, Assessment, and Monitoring

Meet the Experts:

Kelly Leilani Main is the Executive Director and founder of Buy-In Community Planning, a national 501c3 organization providing equitable and accessible voluntary relocation services for communities on the frontlines of irreversible climate impacts.

Kristin Marcell is the Director of the Climigration Network, a national network of more than 200 community and Indigenous leaders and adaptation practitioners. The Network partners with community-based organizations developing innovative responses to repetitive flooding and climate displacement.

Linda Shi is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University’s Department of City and Regional Planning. She researches how land governance institutions constrain and enable more equitable and reparative adaptation to flooding.

Anna Weber is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. She researches and advocates for equitable climate adaptation solutions, with a focus on flooding, sea level rise, and climate-related relocation.

Shameika Hanson is a Climate Adaptation Specialist at The Nature Conservancy in New York. She works to help flfloodprone communities identify equitable, locally-led solutions to make way for water using nature and natural solutions.

AR Siders is Director of the Mangone Climate Change Science and Policy Hub, University of Delaware. Her research focuses on buyout program design and evaluation and fairness in adaptations to climate change.

Maggie Osthues is the Program Manager for the Climigration Network. She advances programming, communications, and fundraising efforts and the Network’s Next Step Cohort, an award-winning peer learning and participatory grant-making initiative co-designed by community and Indigenous leaders alongside experts in adaptation and philanthropy.

Matthijs Bouw is the founder of One Architecture and Urbanism (ONE), an award-winning Amsterdam- and New York based firm specialized in climate adaptation and mitigation projects, and a Professor of Practice at the UPenn’s Weitzman School of Design.

Amy Chester is the Director of Rebuild by Design, a nonprofit that uses collaborative design-driven problem-solving to help communities build resilience to climate impacts.

Johanna Lawton is a Project Manager at Rebuild by Design supporting climate resilient infrastructure initiatives at local, state, and national levels, as well as collaborative stakeholder engagements.

Download the Report HERE>>

Explore Rebuild by Design’s work on Climate Relocation, Buyouts, and Displacement HERE>>