Green Urbanism
Green Affordable Housing
Over the past decade, Global Green USA has established itself as a national leader in promoting green building practices in the affordable housing community. Through our Greening of Affordable Housing Initiative, we work extensively with non-profit community development corporations, architects, financial institutions, and government agencies at the local, state, and national level.
Green affordable housing directly benefits individuals and families in need by reducing energy bills and creating healthier living environments. Affordable housing developers and operators gain through higher quality, more efficient, and more durable buildings.
Zero Energy Affordable Housing
Overview
A zero energy building or net zero energy building is a general term applied to a building with a net energy consumption of zero over a typical year. Zero energy buildings are gaining considerable interest as a means to cut greenhouse gas emissions and conserve energy.
An opportunity exists to lower the utility bill cost burden to low-income families by raising awareness and building a viable financial model for Zero Energy New Homes.
The burden energy bills present to low-income families in the United States is often staggeringly heavy. Families significantly below the poverty level have been shown to spend as much as 19% of their income on utility bills, while in some areas of the United States as many as a quarter of evictions of low-income renters were due to inability to pay utility bills.
Publications
Green Building Criteria in State Low Income Housing Tax Credit Programs, 2009 Update
Global Green's review of the low-income housing tax credit allocation policy shows significant progress being made in the effort to make green building measures standard practice in affordable housing. This development is particularly apparent through a summary of the changes over the last five years to the green building criteria found in state Qualified Allocation Plans (QAPs), which states develop to guide the distribution of federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). For the first time since we started the analysis in 2005, all 50 states were shown to exhibit some aspects of green building in their QAPs. To learn more, download our 2009 report here.
Here are links to Global Green USA’s annual reports for the previous four years:
Click here for 2008
Click here for 2007
Click here for 2006
Click here for 2005
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Green Affordable Housing Initiative Case Studies
These case studies describe innovative green affordable housing projects that range from maximizing green building techniques with limited resources to meeting net zero goals. You can download all four case studies by clicking the DOWNLOAD link, or click for the individual case studes here: SOLARA, Nueva Vista, Colorado Court, First Community Housing.
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