When Blue Sea Development completed the South Bronx\u2019s 64-unit Morrisania Homes community in August 2007, it marked the first affordable housing development in New York state to receive the LEED for Homes designation. Financed by the New York State Affordable Housing Corp., the project, which features two- and three-family homes, met U.S. Green Building Council standards for water efficiency, sustainable site planning, energy materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality and design process. Morrisania Homes\u2019 achievement represents the push to develop housing that is affordable yet environmentally sustainable.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Also taking part in the movement is Capitol Hill Housing, which utilized low-income-housing tax-credit funding from Enterprise Community Partners Inc.\u2019s Green Communities initiative to develop Broadway Crossing, a 44-unit green affordable housing project in Seattle. The city in 2002 enacted SeaGreen, a program that mandated that a project meet certain sustainability guidelines to receive city funds. Enterprise Community has modeled its guidelines on that program and on LEED, from which Broadway Crossing is also attempting to gain silver certification. \u201cSince we were headed in that direction anyway and were using Enterprise as an equity source, it made sense (to apply for LEED certification),\u201d said Betsy Hunter, director of real estate development for Capitol Hill Housing. Washington state\u2019s Evergreen Sustainable Development Standard Criteria has replaced SeaGreen in an indication of the growth of green affordable housing programs.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Indeed, in today\u2019s uncertain credit markets, a green project may even give a developer a leg up on the competition for funding, especially in the affordable housing sector, which relies heavily on outside financing for development, an especially important part of the equation. \u201cThere is a good amount of interest in green projects by investors, so green might be an advantage when finding funding sources,\u201d said Dana Bourland, senior director of Enterprise Community\u2019s green communities initiative. \u201cGreen projects are seen as lower risk because of the savings (from efficiency),\u201d she explained. \u201cLong-term managed green developments tend to have more secure operating costs.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Bruce Mast, development director for Build It Now, a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable development, agreed, noting that a slowdown in investment in affordable housing rental projects has not followed the credit-crunch-induced decline in for-sale properties.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0One developer recently secured financing for a major green affordable project. In mid-March, non-profit developer Coachella Valley Housing Coalition broke ground on a $90 million green affordable housing development in La Quinta, Calif. Dubbed Wolff Waters Place, the project was funded by a combination of $30 million in financing from the city\u2019s redevelopment agency and $43 million from Citi Community Capital and Wells Fargo Community Development Corp.For more on green affordable housing, see Sector Scene in the June 2008 issue of CPN or search this site for key words \u201cAim to Sustain\u201d in quotation marks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Blue Sea Development completed the South Bronx\u2019s 64-unit Morrisania Homes community in August 2007, it marked the first affordable housing development in New York state to receive the LEED for Homes designation. Financed by the New York State Affordable Housing Corp., the project, which features two- and three-family homes, met U.S. Green Building Council…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003811227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n