Richard Foreman's home is stranded in the middle of the beach.

The stairs were ripped away by waves years ago, so there's no way in or out anymore. The house is 20 feet into the air, on stilts that were designed to protect it from hurricane storm surge. But there haven't been any big storms recently, just the rising ocean eating away at the sand year after year.

Just six years ago, the house was still a popular vacation rental in Rodanthe, North Carolina. Like many beachfront houses, it had a nickname: Sea 'n Delight. Today, the name is gone, and the house is uninhabitable. At low tide, the Atlantic Ocean laps at what used to be the driveway. At high tide, the ocean runs beneath the entire house.

Foreman knows it will collapse eventually. Four neighboring homes have fallen into the ocean in the last two years. And more than 100 homes on North Carolina's barrier islands are at risk from erosion and sea level rise in the next decade, according to the National Park Service, which manages the area as part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

At least half a dozen of those houses are in imminent danger. In June, a high tide coupled with large waves was enough to bring down another house.

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

"People should not have to wait for their home to collapse into the water before they can get help," says Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine. "That is just not a smart way to deal with the reality of climate change."

FEMA says it cannot change the rules for threatened properties unless Congress amends the laws that govern the National Flood Insurance Program. Such a bill was introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in 2025, but it is stalled in the House of Representatives.

FEMA did not respond to questions from NPR about the cost to taxpayers of letting homes collapse.

FEMA covers these houses because private insurance absolutely would not, or do so at a high cost.

Why should the public be subsidizing million dollar beach homes for vacationing billionaires?

Unhappy with FEMA's policy of total destruction before a payout, now they want the government to maintain their beachside mansions for them.

ANY beach should be public property and the public should have full and total access, it should not be a space litered with NO TRESPASSING and PRIVATE PROPERTY signs for a few wealthy people.

Seriously, fuck these people. I hope all their houses wash out into the sea and are never rebuilt.

Edit: OK: I know "normal" people can own these homes, but the question still stands: why is the federal government subsidizing housing in disaster areas? Espeically housing that is primarily second housing that benefit people that have an actual place to live? The most I'd be willing to offer people is a pay out of some kind, but the property reverts to public land in perpetuity.

Seriously, fuck these people. I hope all their houses wash out into the sea and are never rebuilt.

One of the problems with this is all the pollution from allowing the homes to wash away into the ocean. I certainly have no love lost for these homeowners, but how FEMA is structured for these situations leaves a lot of other problems.

The most I’d be willing to offer people is a pay out of some kind, but the property reverts to public land in perpetuity.

I think you have the right idea here. It would be better long-term to get control of these properties and take care of them to reduce pollution and build up public land.

Fair. So let the government offer them a payout based on the current value in return for returning the land to public use.

But that's not good enough for rich people who run governments, is it?

Yeah, and long run, with global warming and increased hurricane activity, it's a money saver in the long run.

The problem is political, though. Having multi-million dollar homes sitting empty during the school year is great for a local tax base, so you can bet local politicians are talking to their reps trying to get FEMA to spend as much money as possible on them.

wait...these people were warned not to rebuild after Hurricane Fran 30 years ago. They were told they would not be rebuilt.

The whole outer banks are the result of an 1800s hurricane.