You'd expect homeowners to save their stuff. Federal policy pays them to leave it

Dramatic videos show waterfront houses collapsing into the water. It's happening across the United States, from California to Michigan to Maine.

One hotspot is Dare County, N.C., where more than 30 homes have collapsed since 2020, including one as recently as this summer. About 100 additional houses there are threatened by erosion exacerbated by sea level rise.

Yet there is no plan to remove most of the threatened houses — or to empty them of personal belongings before they fall — because of perverse incentives created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

NPR dug into the upside-down world of FEMA flood insurance in coastal areas, and found many homeowners have no financial choice but to let their homes collapse . That's leading to massive amounts of debris and pollution, which closes beaches, threatens wildlife and necessitates costly taxpayer-funded cleanup efforts.

And the problem is only getting worse. As climate-driven sea level rise accelerates erosion around the country, there is growing alarm among waterfront homeowners, local officials and even members of Congress. Everyone agrees the status quo is unsustainable. But can they agree on a long-term solution?

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