Title: Can the disaster displaced overstay their welcome? Temporary accommodation and billeting in the Canterbury, New Zealand earthquake sequence

Authors: Joel R.A. Burton; Kate Mora; Grace C. Rive; Jared A. Thomas

Addresses: Behavioural Sciences Team, Opus Research, 33 The Esplanade, P.O. Box 30 845, Lower Hutt, New Zealand ' Behavioural Sciences Team, Opus Research, 33 The Esplanade, P.O. Box 30 845, Lower Hutt, New Zealand ' Behavioural Sciences Team, Opus Research, 33 The Esplanade, P.O. Box 30 845, Lower Hutt, New Zealand ' Behavioural Sciences Team, Opus Research, 33 The Esplanade, P.O. Box 30 845, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

Abstract: The provision of shelter for displaced people after the initial emergency shelter phase is a key concern for emergency management in a disaster. Householders who notified a change of address in the months following the Canterbury earthquakes were surveyed to examine billeting in undamaged households as a temporary accommodation option. Matched surveys for billets and their hosts examined their actual and tolerable length of stay, positive and negative experiences of the situation, and the effects of billeting on social recovery. Overall, participants reported a positive experience that they would repeat, with the majority of billeting within familial groups. Positive effects were particularly pronounced for billets. While not at pre-earthquake levels, activities outside the home increased over the 20 months studied, with the exception of main weekly activity. Recommendations are made for interventions emergency management could use for facilitating voluntary billeting, and for the introduction of compulsory billeting in a larger disaster event.

Keywords: compulsory billeting; temporary accommodation; mass accommodation; evacuees; evacuation; Canterbury; earthquakes; Christchurch; crowding; welfare; population displacement; voluntary billeting; tolerable stay; emergency management; New Zealand; natural disasters; displaced people.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEM.2015.071708

International Journal of Emergency Management, 2015 Vol.11 No.3, pp.240 - 261

Accepted: 15 May 2015
Published online: 15 Sep 2015 *

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