Walker Wells - Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing

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Copyright 2020 Walker Wells and Kimberly Vermeer

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Keywords: Building envelope, carbon reduction, charrette, climate change, community solar, energy efficiency, Energy Star, Enterprise Green Communities, green property management, healthy housing, indoor environmental quality and health, integrated design process, LEED certification, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), NeighborWorks, Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP), resilience, social cohesion, sustainability, water conservation

The authors thank the many people who helped us research and write this book. Your insights into the state of the field, suggestions of specific projects to consider for case studies and emerging best practices to highlight, reviews of chapters, and general enthusiasm for the project are invaluable and much appreciated. We especially thank Rob Dapice and Grace Lessner, New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority; Ray Demers and Krista Egger, Enterprise Community Partners; Madisen Gittlin; Jeff Lesk, New Partners Community Solar; Harold Nassau, NeighborWorks America; Hillary Noll, Mithun; Katie Swenson; Sami Taylor, Raimi + Associates; and Joann Ware, Schemata Workshop, Inc. Much thanks to intern Molly Caplan and to Grace Lyons for their work on the cases and compiling the final manuscript. Special thanks to Steven Burdick for his graphic design work for the new figures and maps. And we recognize and acknowledge Global Green for its role in facilitating the first edition of the Blueprint.

Thanks to all the people and organizations that helped us develop the case studies, including Rebecca Schofield and Nira Gurung, Homeowners Rehab Inc.; Kara LaSalle and Sal Steven-Hubbard, Lakes Region Community Development; Brian DAndrea, Century Villages at Cabrillo; Brian Ulaszewski, City Fabrick; Laura Altomare, Homewise; Guy Kempe, RUPCO; Steven Root, Bryan Dove, and Holly Wunder Stiles, Mutual Housing California; Brian Bieler, Ben Sturz, Chris Maxey, and Erika Mahoney Yen, REACH Community Development; Darlene Schultz, 3Keys, Inc.; Jon Toppen, Tapestry Development Group; Abe Kruger, SK Collaborative; Brandyn Deckinga and Kristin Rahn-Tiemeyer, Habitat for Humanity Kent County; Leslie Roering, Aeon; Mary Jane Jagodzinski and Sylvia Martinez, Community HousingWorks; Marty Keller, First Community Housing; Sabrina Barker and Jenny Wu, Jonathan Rose Companies; Jessica Yoon, L+M Development Partners; Christina Davis and Robert Barfield, Columbia Residential; and Michael Kloefkorn, VMWP.

Great gratitude is extended to our friends and family for listening to us talk about the project, understanding the late nights and early mornings, and providing emotional support.

Lastly, thanks to Island Press and our wonderful and supportive editor, Heather Boyer.

We are excited to see the Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing take on a second life. It is a great honor to contribute our shared knowledge and bring new vitality to one of the few books that bridges environmental and community development concerns. This collaboration built on our individual experiences and motivations, as we each describe below, and grew from our mutual trust and commitment to the process, with a richer, better outcome as the result. We hope you find this new version of the Blueprint valuable inspiration to take on some challenges of your own in creating many more examples of green affordable housing.

Walker Wells (Venice, CA) and Kimberly Vermeer (Boston, MA)

As we confront the many serious challenges facing urban areasadapting to climate change, providing shelter for the homeless and refugees, and ensuring equitable access to opportunitythe fundamentals of green affordable housing hold true: collaborate, seek design strategies that provide multiple benefits, stay mindful of the needs of the residents, seek opportunities along the entire arc of a project from land acquisition to building operation, and leverage real-world success through policy.

Initially, green and affordable housing seemed to come from two different worlds. Could they go together? Could green building become standard practice in affordable housing? These are the questions that a group of dedicated housing and green building practitioners began to explore nearly two decades ago.

It turns out that green building and affordable housing are a natural fit. Green building isnt just an elite practice for luxury homes; instead, the integrated design process allows everyone to access green building benefits. Once we proved it was possible to design and build housing that saved energy and water, reduced waste, improved quality of life, and contributed to the surrounding neighborhood, doing anything else seemed irresponsibleto tenants, society, and the planet.

The original Blueprint arose from a desire to share the potential of merging a green perspective with the passion and optimism of community development. Case studies were popping up around the country of family housing, co-housing, tribal housing, public housing, housing for the formerly homeless, senior housing, and sweat equity projectsall using the green building process to integrate smart design strategies with innovative systems and healthy, environmentally responsible materials. We documented best practices, summarized the lessons learned from early charrettes, and searched for case studies that told valuable stories of innovation, inspiration, and perseverance so that green affordable housing would become the expectation rather than the exception.