Understanding Disaster Vulnerability of Chennai’s Homeless

Disaster impact is aggravated by socio-economic marginalization which makes the homeless one of the most vulnerable populations to such situations. Yet, they remain largely invisible in disaster research and policy realm. Okapi and IRCDUC worked on a research project to understand disaster vulnerability of the homeless in Chennai with the goal of informing policy and promoting more equitable thinking and action in Chennai’s management of disasters. The project employed a mixed methodology which included comprehensive review of academic literature and policy documents and international best practices, and GIS based community mapping through which the research team engaged actively with the homeless to identify vulnerabilities, plan better access to resources and co-develop disaster response. The project focused on Zone 5 which has the largest concentration of homeless in Chennai.

The research highlights that for the homeless, disasters do not comprise of one-time storms or floods, but constitute “everyday risks”, such as continual social exclusion, fear of eviction, or waterlogging caused by the monsoon rains every year. This underscores the role of the homeless community’s broader socio-political context that leads to lack of access to all kinds of resources, from housing to political clout, defining the contours of their extreme vulnerability on an everyday basis and during major disasters. For more detailed information on the findings and recommendations, please read the Policy Brief and/or Research Report.