An official website of the More extreme weather events & climate
Due to climate change, extreme weather events such as record-setting droughts, floods, and heat waves have increased over the last decade. As the frequency and intensity of these events increase, existing and new housing construction must be resilient to future climate impacts.
As the Met Council moves to support climate adaptive housing across the region, it is important to note that not all households start from the same place. Historically, environmental and climate effects have had a disproportionate impact on low-income households and households of color. Today, 67% of households of color live in Environmental Justice areas of concern, compared to 32% of white households in the seven-county region.93 The overrepresentation of households of color in Environmental Justice areas of concerns is due to intentional exclusion from areas with fewer negative environmental impacts, the concentration of affordable housing in areas exposed to higher levels of negative environmental and climate impacts, and the historical concentration of sources of pollution and contaminated sites in areas where households of color live.
Health factors relating to physical environments impacted by climate change, Environmental Justice areas, and other environmental harms include air quality, water quality, residential proximity to traffic, and overcrowding in housing. In Minnesota, rates of emergency department visits for asthma are two times higher among kids living in counties with higher poverty levels than the state average, and the likelihood of lead poisoning for kids is over two times higher among kids that live in neighborhoods with higher childhood poverty than neighborhoods with the state average poverty level.94 American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, and Hispanic children have higher percentages of children living in poverty than white children in every county located in the seven-county region.96 The rates of white children living in poverty in each of the seven counties in the metro region are between 2% and 5%, compared to the range of 17% to 41% poverty rates for Black children in these counties.
Part of making sure that our aging infrastructure is resilient through 2050 is ensuring that the region does not pass the costs of climate change to the residents most at risk of health impacts. Health impacts can come from both the external environment and the interior or built environment. Building material choices including the chemical composition of flooring, paint, countertops, insulation, and water pipes,97 maintenance issues, other elements of physical building safety, and housing quality issues can create negative exposures and health inequities in household living environments. These can impact already-overburdened communities that face barriers to maintaining their health.
Climate change also makes homes more vulnerable to localized flooding due to increased precipitation amounts and warming winters. Housing units built in these flood areas are at a greater risk of damage from flooding and result in higher insurance rates for property owners. Insurance premiums are increasing on average 26% annually, while decreasing coverage offered or requiring larger premiums to cover risks such as flooding. Renters are not exempt from these increases, as currently insurance costs represent 22% of monthly rent for an extremely low-income household.98 This steep cost escalation of insurance puts a financial strain on existing affordable housing and creates a larger barrier for the financing and development of new affordable housing.
Affordable housing and access to nature
Affordable housing units across the Twin Cities region tend to be located in cities or townships with lower average access to nature and associated health benefits as measured by NatureScore,95 while market rate housing tends to be located in areas with a NatureScore indicating "abundant natural elements and nature exposure opportunities." Affordable housing, particularly housing affordable at or below 60% AMI, tends to be located in areas with lower NatureScore values, indicating increased effort required to access nature.
Additionally, these homes often experience lower tree canopy coverage, making them more susceptible to the urban heat island effect and higher temperatures. Rising average daily temperatures and increasing overnight low temperatures pose both health dangers to residents and physical threats to buildings. Extreme temperatures also increase the need for air conditioning, which can be a financial burden to power or install in older more affordable buildings.
The aging housing infrastructure in the region also presents another challenge. As of 2022, 17% of the housing units in the region were built before 1950 and 50% before 1980. Older housing units likely lack upgrades to insulation and more energy-efficient systems due to the year they were built, so energy costs will continue to rise for residents living in these units.99 This creates an additional cost burden for residents, especially renters who often bear the cost of these energy inefficiencies despite having less control over the property in which they live.
These older buildings can also contain harmful chemicals and toxins within the materials used for building, such as asbestos and lead paint. Toxic building products can cause harmful chemical exposures to people throughout their lifetime. Households of color, low-income households, and children face the greatest risk to exposure to toxic chemicals and pollution, and this exposure can lead to adverse health impacts.100 It is important when maintaining existing housing or building new housing that healthy materials are used to protect resident health.
93. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS). 5-Year Estimates, 2018-2022. 7-county region. Households of color defined as all households that are not white and not Hispanic, and white households defined as all white non-Hispanic households. MPCA areas of Environmental Justice concern census tracts and more information on equity data, including a mapping tool of MPCA Environmental Justice areas of concern, can be found in the Metropolitan Council’s Equity Considerations Dataset: https://metrocouncil.org/Data-and-Maps/Research-and-Data/Equity-focused-Research/Equity-Considerations-Dataset.aspx
94. MN Department of Health. Public health data access – Environmental justice. https://data.web.health.state.mn.us/environmental_justice
95. NatureQuant. (2025). NatureScore (https://www.naturequant.com/naturescore/) is a tool that measures the amount and quality of natural elements at any address. A higher NatureScore value indicates a more "nature rich" environment with greater associated health benefits. NatureScore incorporates numerous measures of nature availability and quality, including land classifications, park data and features, tree canopies, air, noise, and light pollution. A preliminary analysis by Met Council staff found that the average NatureScore for all market rate housing units in the region is 85.12, the average for all affordable units is 80.7, and the average for units available at or below 60% AMI is 78.77.
96. University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. (2021 Health Rankings Data). County health ranking and roadmaps: Children living in poverty even in the healthiest counties. https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/findings-and-insights/children-living-in-poverty
97. Habitable Minnesota. (May 2024). Advancing health and equity through better building products. https://habitablefuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Habitable_Minnesota-Report_Advancing-Health-and-Equity-through-Better-Building-Products_May-2024_F.pdf
98. New York Housing Conference. (March 2024). The alarming risk of rising insurance costs for affordable housing. https://thenyhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Affordable-Housing-Insurance-Policy-Brief-3.16.24-Final.pdf
99. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), Five-Year Estimates, 2022. 15-county MSA.
100. Habitable Minnesota. (May 2024). Advancing health and equity through better building products. https://habitablefuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Habitable_Minnesota-Report_Advancing-Health-and-Equity-through-Better-Building-Products_May-2024_F.pdf
