AFFORDABLE HOUSING
One of the most pressing issues facing communities throughout the United States is the lack of safe, decent, and affordable housing. As wages stay stagnant while housing costs rise,2 a growing number of low-income men, women, and families3 are unable to find a place to live that meets the conventional definition of affordabilityâhousing for which residents pay no more than 30 percent of their gross income toward rent or mortgage payments.4
In response to the unmet need for housing accessible to low-income individuals and families, a community of nonprofit and for-profit developers, social service organizations, neighborhood and charity organizations, lenders, financiers, and government agencies has emerged over the past forty years to produce and operate what is now commonly referred to as âaffordable housing.â As a broadly used term, affordable housing includes rental, for-sale, co-, and transitional housing that is income restricted and usually developed through one or more forms of public subsidy. Affordability is achieved by setting the monthly rent or mortgage payment in accordance with the residentâs income, rather than at market rates.
The most common types of affordable housing are:
- Rental housing for very low-, low-, and moderate-income individuals and families
- For-sale housing for very low-, low-, and moderate-income individuals and families
- Housing for people with special physical or mental health needs
- Housing for people transitioning out of homelessness or medical or psychiatric institutions, or for emancipated foster youth leaving the family foster care system
- Housing for seniors
- âSweat-equityâ or self-help homes
Affordable housing developers rely on a variety of financial programs administered by federal, state, and local public agencies financial institutions and philanthropic organizations to realize their projects. This assistance is often in the form of tax credits, debt with preferential rates or terms, mortgage guarantees, and grants. While this book outlines a green building process and recommended practices that apply to all types of affordable housing, we emphasize the most common type of affordable housing developed in the United Statesâincome-restricted rental housing funded through a combination of tax credits, preferential debt, grants, and other public subsidies.
WHAT IS GREEN BUILDING?
Green building is the process of creating buildings and supportive infrastructure that reduce the use of resources, create healthier living environments for people, and minimize negative impacts on local, regional, and global ecosystems.
The construction and operation of affordable housing projects, like other building types, consume large quantities of resources, resulting in adverse effects on the natural environment. For example, the annual impacts of building construction and operation in the United States include the following5:
- 40 percent of U.S. energy use
- 35 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide production, a major contributor to global warming
- 30 percent of wood and raw materials
- 25 percent of water use
- 20 â 40 percent of solid waste
In addition, over 30 percent of buildings have poor indoor air, which is cause for concern given that people spend about 90 percent of their time indoors.6 Many building products have negative impacts on human health through the release of toxins, either during the manufacturing process or after installation. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), many of which are known carcinogens, are common in pressed wood products, paints, solvents, and adhesives. One of the most common VOCs, formaldehyde, is present in most particleboard, melamine, medium-density fiberboard, and plywood used for cabinetry and trim. Other VOCs, such as acetone, benzene, toluene, and perchloroethylene, can impact the nervous and respiratory systems, especially in vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly, and alone or in combination with mold, dust, and pet dander, be a trigger for asthma.7 Building operation also has health implications. For example, burning coal to generate electricity releases mercury into the atmosphere; which eventually finds its way into the oceans, then into fish, and finally into our bodies when we eat the fish. Elevated mercury levels in pregnant women harm brain development in hundreds of thousands of unborn children annually. 8 Conventional building often burdens low-income families and property managers with high monthly utility bills and significant ongoing maintenance and replacement expenses.
As affordable housing developers across the country become aware of these environmental, health, and economic issues, they are turning to green building as a way to lower operating costs, create healthier living environments, and minimize local, regional, and global environmental impacts. Examples of a diverse range of affordable housing projects from across the country can be seen in the photographs in this chapter.
Green building addresses five core issue areas: (1) smart land use; (2) water efficiency and management; (3) energy efficiency; (4) resource-efficient materials; and (5) healthy indoor environmental quality. See chapter 3, where these core issues are discussed in more detail. Some specific strategies include the following:
- Building in communities with existing services and infrastructure
- Reusing centrally located land and rehabilitating historic buildings
- Locating projects close to public transit and community amenities to reduce car dependency
- Producing the most compact and efficient units possible to reduce material use and the amount of space needing heating and cooling
- Reducing construction waste through materials reuse or recycling
- Reducing energy consumption through well-designed buildings and efficient appliances and fixtures
- Reducing water consumption both indoors and in landscaping
- Improving the quality and reducing the volume of stormwater
- Using materials that do minimal harm to people and the environment during manufacture, use, and disposal
- Increasing durability by minimizing moisture penetration.
- Improving indoor air quality through good ventilation and use of nontoxic materials and finishes
FIGURE 1.1. Faison Mews Historic Rehabilitation (Camden, NJ). Photo courtesy of Darren Molnar-Port, NJDCA-NJ Green Homes Office FIGURE 1.2. Cambridge Co-Housing (Cambridge, MA). Photo courtesy of Bruce M. Hampton, AIA FIGURE 1.3. Colorado Court (Santa Monica, CA). Photo courtesy of Pugh + Scarpa Architects FIGURE 1.4. El Paseo Studios (San Jose, CA). Photo courtesy of First Community Housing
- Reducing the heat island effect through reflective roof and paving and planting trees.
- Establishing maintenance practices that reduce use of pesticides, fertilizers, and harmful cleaning chemicals.
