Advocating for change in policy and practice

The International Living Future Institute’s 2023 Affordable Housing Summit is almost here! Join us for the 2-day event on June 20th and 21st to discuss decarbonization and health in affordable housing. A key theme of this year’s Summit is the effect of policies on the building sector and how architects, developers, and other practitioners can work to become advocates for healthy and sustainable affordable housing.

Below is just a sample of the panels that we will be featuring at this year’s summit! Review the agenda for a full list of sessions. There will also be time reserved in the schedule for small breakout sessions to meet fellow attendees, Q+A, and discussion.

We are honored to welcome keynote speaker Drayton Jackson, Executive Director of the Foundation for Homeless and Poverty Management, which emphasizes helping families move from homelessness to housing. A developer of affordable housing, Mr. Jackson also works with policymakers. As co-chair of Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s Poverty Reduction Work Group, he helped shape recommendations for a 10-year plan to eradicate poverty in the state. Additionally, he serves on the Central Kitsap School Board.

Also on day one, we will bring together Leaders in Decarbonized Affordable Housing to highlight how affordable housing developers across the country are charting a path to mitigate carbon impacts from new and existing construction. This panel will feature a 4-story Zero Energy multi-family affordable housing project in Boston and a developer pioneering innovative strategies to reduce embodied carbon in the building foundation and sidewalks. 

On day two, we will move our focus to materials and bring together a panel of scientists, researchers, and architects all of whom have been Advocating for Healthier Materials by pushing legislators to develop policies to protect the public from toxicants in our building products, particularly those prevalent in affordable housing.

As we close the Summit, we will hear from the developer and architect of Block Project 009, the first affordable housing project to achieve Petal Certification (and striving for Living Certification), and the developer of a project in the planning stages for Core Certification. These teams are creating new ways of building and working with communities to make living affordable housing a reality. They will discuss how they are engaging deeply with residents and community members; integrating biophilic design, wastewater reuse systems, modular and prefabricated systems; and using natural and bio-based materials. The project teams will also describe how the Living Building Challenge inspired them to become advocates for policy changes.

These are just some of the panelists we are excited to feature at this year’s Summit! Find out more details and register now. Note that we have a sliding-scale for this event to make it accessibly priced for all. We hope to see you all there!

Cover photo: The BLOCK Project. Photo courtesy of Facing Homelessness.

Affordable housing project teams pursuing certification under Enterprise Green Communities now have a new resource to help them achieve points under the Materials Criteria: teams may select either “Enterprise Green Communities – Meets Mandatory Criteria” or “Enterprise Green Communities – Meets Mandatory & Optional Criteria” from the Alignment Tab in the Declare database. This filter provides a list of Declare products that comply with the requirements listed under Enterprise Green Communities Criterion 6.4: Healthier Material Selection. This criterion includes requirements around chemicals of concern in interior paints, coatings, primers, and wallpaper; interior adhesives and sealants; flooring; insulation; and composite wood. The specific requirements for each category can be found in the Enterprise Green Communities 2020 Criteria. 

The chemicals of concern listed in Criterion 6.4 (such as Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs), phthalates/orthophthalates, and formaldehyde) largely align with the chemicals restricted by the International Living Future Institute’s (the Institute) Red List. Therefore, the online Declare database is an easy way to find products that comply with this criterion. In addition to materials, Enterprise Green Communities and the Institute’s regenerative building programs (Living Building Challenge, Core, Zero Energy, and Zero Carbon) include overlapping goals to utilize water on site responsibly, reduce energy and carbon impacts, and promote the vitality of residents and communities. The Institute recently published a crosswalk highlighting the intersections between the Core standard and Enterprise Green Communities in order to illuminate these junctions for project teams that may be interested in pursuing both standards.

The International Living Future Institute and Enterprise Community Partners share a vision of transparency and health in building materials for affordable housing. In addition to Criterion 6.4, Enterprise Green Communities also provides the opportunity for teams to achieve additional points by prioritizing products that include disclosure. Criterion 6.1: Ingredient Transparency for Material Health and Criterion 6.3: Chemical Hazard Optimization award points when projects utilize products with the Institute’s Declare labels. A product with a Declare label and a Red List Free status that is also in one of the prioritized categories for Criterion 6.4 would contribute to earning points in all three Criteria. Several of these categories, especially paints, flooring, and insulation, have also been identified by the Institute as top priorities for affordable housing. They are largely interior materials that affect indoor air quality, and are also categories that include dozens of Declare-labeled Red List Free options. Refer to the Institute’s Affordable Housing Materials List to find more Red List Free products that have been researched and used successfully in affordable housing projects. 

The Institute is thrilled to introduce this feature to Declare and to support more affordable housing teams that seek to create healthier buildings. Reach out to Enterprise Community Partners (certification@enterprisecommunity.org) for questions about Enterprise Green Communities, our Declare Team (declare@living-future.org) for inquiries about the Declare database, or to our Affordable Housing Team (affordablehousing@living-future.org) to learn more about the Institute’s affordable housing work and pilot projects.

The Third Edition of ILFI’s Affordable Housing Materials List is now available! Based on feedback from dedicated users, we implemented several updates to make it more expedient to find and source Red List Free products. Manufacturer’s contact information, including contact name, email, and phone number, has been included so that those researching and specifying products know who to reach out to within a manufacturing company. Links to the product page on the manufacturer’s website have also been included, as well as links to Declare labels, where applicable. These updates were specifically requested by users to streamline the product research process. In addition to the above, the list continues to include information on the product’s Red List status, final assembly location, and alignment with other programs including California Department of Public Health (CDPH), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Living Product Challenge (LPC), and Enterprise Green Communities. Lastly, notes from project teams, manufacturers, and ILFI are also included to report information such as cost premiums, sourcing of the product, and availability. 

The updated list also includes ten new CSI sections as well as new products in 51 previously included CSI divisions. In all 149 new individual products were added. The ten new CSI sections are:

• Metal Roof Panels
• Metal Wall Panels
• Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Siding Panels
• Wood Siding
• Thermoplastic Membrane Roofing
• Fluid-Applied Roofing
• Exterior Sun Control Devices
• Rolling Exterior Shades
• Horizontal Aluminum Blinds
• Window Roller Shades and Drapes

While researching known Red List Free products within these CSI sections, we found a few manufacturers had extensive product declarations and information on their website for other products as well. After further research, we were able to add all of their other products to the list. For example, Henry Company now includes health product declarations (HPD) on their website for most of their products. We found 13 Red List Free fluid-applied waterproofing products and 10 Red List Free adhesive products that have now been added to the list; both of these CSI sections previously had very few options. Since the last update to this list, Knauf Insulation has 12 new Red List Free insulation products, all of which have Declare labels. Additionally, several manufacturers of storefront windows – Allegion, Arcadia, Kawneer, Omega Windows and Doors, and Tubelite – have published Declare labels since the last update, more than doubling the number of products in that CSI section, which has historically proven challenging for teams to find cost-effective products. Several new products were also added in the acoustical ceiling tile, resilient flooring, carpet, and various paint categories, further increasing the number of options available in these divisions.

The Materials List for Affordable Housing now includes a total of 409 products in 51 CSI sections. The products have been drawn from Declare and from the tremendous research efforts of several affordable housing pilot project teams, as well as additional research by ILFI staff. The list is intended to both serve as a quick resource for those specifying products for affordable housing (and other project types) and to provide insight into the categories of products that are easiest and those that need more collective advocacy. Generally, categories that include a large number of compliant products (i.e., insulation, gypsum wall board, paint, acoustic ceiling tile, etc.) also include many products that are cost-effective. Those with more limited options often are also more difficult to specify due to cost premiums. This gives project teams a hint as to the categories they may want to prioritize, depending on if the goals are to move the market or to more easily include healthier products in their projects.  ILFI plans to continue updating this list and building out new and existing product categories. Please contact affordablehousing@living-future.org if you have any feedback on this materials list or suggestions for products or CSI sections to add to the next update.

Header Image: E+Highland, courtesy of Studio G Architects

Author’s Note: ILFI has just registered our 50th affordable housing project! To learn more about these projects and our Affordable Housing Program, read below.

The latest cohort of ILFI’s Affordable Housing Pilot Projects was selected to join the program in October 2020, after an unprecedented number of applicants responded to the Call for Proposals. This group is the fourth and largest in the history of ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program, with 20 projects spread across 10 states. The teams are attempting a range of ILFI certifications (including Living Building Challenge (both Living and Petal), Core, Zero Carbon, and Zero Energy) and vary in scale from clustered single-family residences to 9-story multi-family buildings. See the Trim Tab article published in February 2021 for more details about these projects. 

ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program includes opportunities to join educational sessions and peer-to-peer discussions, receive additional technical assistance from ILFI technical staff, and a commitment to participate in shared research and learning. Each month, an all-teams meeting (open to all ILFI affordable housing projects in current and past cohorts) is held with a focus on relevant topics including barriers and solutions affordable housing teams are encountering in pursuing ILFI certifications. These meetings often feature guest speakers from ILFI and other organizations. Due to the large number of participants in these meetings, smaller, discussion-based meetings are also held that allow team members to opt in to particular topics of interest. We have held 28 of these discussion group meetings since November 2020, featuring speakers, networking and information sharing, as well as work on shared research projects. Additionally, ILFI has provided detailed technical reports to five of the project teams, providing feedback on their documentation and the requirements of ILFI certifications, and helped one team facilitate their Biophilic Design Charrette.

As we are almost halfway through the formal period of engagement for this latest cohort of 20 projects, we took some time to check in with all of the teams. Below, we share project stats and updates and other key highlights. 

Progress and Impacts:

• Project teams have reported the following successes to ILFI:
  • Raising the team’s awareness, knowledge, and priorities of sustainable, lower carbon design choices in the building  structure and materials, and ways to maximize envelope performance.
  • Specifying more sustainable materials on budget (reported by multiple teams)
    • “Use of Red List [Free materials] has spread deeper into our specs.” 
    • “I think we have managed to reduce a lot of Red List materials by specifying Declare-labeled products such as drywall, paint, roof assemblies, and insulation. Had we not been a part of ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program, we might have used whatever product that was recommended to us.”
    • “We have become more aware of what products to use, and have done more research on healthy, Red List Free products, and are seeking to use products that are Declare-labeled and have other healthy certifications. We have talked to many manufacturers and told them about Declare, so it has been good to expose them to this movement and get them on board with joining.”
    • “Incorporation of Red List Free ceiling fans, elimination of PVC-containing flooring and windows”
    • Ability to mobilize around materials for other affordable projects
  • “Biophillic Design charrette and thinking about the points of equity and inclusion have been helpful for our team”
  • “Being awarded NYSERDA Building of Excellence!” (Read about the Seventy-Six and the other winners here)
  • “Engaging the community has been positive. They have embraced the additional sustainability measures beyond code.”

The cohort participants share their experience and how participation in ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program and pursuit of the Living Building Challenge or other ILFI certification has impacted their organization’s approach to building housing:

• “I believe that going through this process has brought the conversation about sustainability to the forefront of concerns. We are also learning how much effort is required when we set a higher bar for our sustainability standards.”

• “It has helped us to scrutinize areas where we can make more sustainable design decisions, and to see where our developers are more enthusiastic to invest.”

• “Very grateful for the detailed references, advice on materials, strategies, available options etc. This has been one of most beneficial experiences with a very well run program of sharing of expertise and lessons learned. Everything has been translated to other projects including those without housing, but with tight budgets. Kudos to ILFI!!!!! Wish that we could do this for all project types. Always impressed by ILFI, but this program has exceeded expectations.”

• “Consider the benefits of participating in [ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program] even if certification is not achievable, and make sure the client will be satisfied even if certification is not achieved. The materials resources have been especially valuable.”

The fourth phase of ILFI’s pilot program will continue until June 2023. This group of project teams is pushing barriers on scale, typology, and geography. The teams have been sharing resources with each other and making a lot of progress through a collaborative approach to materials research. ILFI is thrilled to work with each one of these innovative and mission-driven project teams. We look forward to providing more updates to the ILFI community on the research and progress from this group of projects. If you are working on an affordable housing project and interested in joining this pioneering group, email affordablehousing@living-future.org to get involved.

We also have some exciting updates from previous affordable housing cohorts:

• Hopeworks Station Phase II: Passed their Preliminary Audit in July 2021. The owner’s Green Team is working on resident engagement with energy use and other sustainability measures, while balancing support for transitioning from homelessnss.
• The Apartments at Mill Creek: All four homes are occupied and in their performance period. The project plans to certify next year and is, so far, on track to become the first certified Living affordable housing project ever.
• Harbor Square: The team held their grand opening on August 2nd, 2021. They are planning to certify Zero Energy after the completion of the performance period next year.
• Block Project: Block Home 012 completed and obtained a Certificate of Occupancy on Dec 7, 2021.
• Orchard Gardens: After being on hold for more than three years, the project has been funded and is exploring ILFI certification options.

Nexus Builds 2020: This project has passed their Preliminary Audit and on track to certify as Living.

Header image of 350 China Basin. Image courtesy of Mithun Architects.

The International Living Future Institute’s Affordable Housing Summit will take place on June 14th and 15th from 8 am PT to 12 pm PT. Read below for our top five reasons to attend this year’s summit! Sign up here to register. 

1. FIND OUT HOW TO CREATE  CLIMATE-POSITIVE AFFORDABLE HOUSING from a pioneer in the green affordable housing movement and from an architect committed to Zero Carbon Affordable Housing. Learn from the real life examples about ways to build resiliency and drive down both embodied and operational carbon in a cost-effective way.

2. DISCOVER WAYS TO BALANCE EQUITY WITH ENVIRONMENTAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH PRIORITIES. Be inspired and informed by our opening day Keynote speaker, Nathaniel Smith, who is experienced in advocating for policies and institutional actions that promote racial equity and shared prosperity for all. Additionally, Erick Mikiten and Fatimah Aure will share their experience designing disability-forward affordable housing that is accessible and inclusive for all.

3. UNDERSTAND THE PRINCIPLES OF HEALTHY HOUSING AND HOW TO SELECT HEALTHIER AND MORE SOCIALLY JUST MATERIALS. The National Center for Healthy Housing has been helping to lead the charge on eliminating hazards, risks, and contaminants in affordable housing and are joining us to share their recommendations for ensuring the health and wellness of residents while prioritizing energy efficiency and operational concerns. We will also be hosting a panel discussion on selecting healthier, more ethical materials that avoid embodied environmental injustices.

4. TAKE A TOUR OF A REAL-LIFE LIVING AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECT. Ever wonder what an affordable housing project would look like if it actually pursued every Petal of the Living Building Challenge? We have the answer in the Living Homes at Mill Creek, four straw-built affordable housing homes in Moab, Utah. Join us at the Affordable Housing Summit to take a peek at the recently completed homes and hear from the developer and residents.

5. ENGAGE LEADERS IN THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND SUSTAINABILITY FIELDS IN A CONVERSATION ABOUT HOW TO ADDRESS EQUITY, CLIMATE, AND HEALTH. Learn from the amazing speakers above and many others as well as fellow summit participants. This summit is focused on action, with every section including a list of recommended action items and time to discuss how to implement the ideas in your own work.

Take a look at the full agenda:

June 14th:
8:00 AM Opening Remarks & Welcome

EQUITY IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING
8:30 AM Keynote Address
Nathaniel Smith, Partnership for Southern Equity
9:00 AM Designing Housing for Accessibility and Inclusion
Erick Mikiten, The Art of Access and Mikiten Architecture, and Fatimah Aure, The Kelsey
9:30 AM Equity Action Steps and Discussion
10:00 AM Break

CLIMATE POSITIVE AFFORDABLE HOUSING
10:30 AM Living Homes at Mill Creek Tour
11:00 AM Case Studies in Carbon Positive Housing
Anne Torney, Mithun Architecture
11:30 AM Day 1 Wrap-Up

June 15th:
8:00 AM Day 2 Introduction

CLIMATE POSITIVE AFFORDABLE HOUSING (CONT.) 
8:15 AM Keynote Address
Dana Bourland, The JPB Foundation
8:45 AM Climate Action Steps and Resources for Net-Positive Energy

HEALTHY AFFORDABLE HOUSING
9:00 AM Keynote Address
Jonathan Wilson, National Center for Healthy Housing
9:30 AM Break
10:00 AM Healthy and Ethical Materials
Veena Singla, Natural Resources Defense Council
Nora Rizzo, Grace Farms
Susan Puri, International Living Future Institute
11:00 AM Action Steps for Health and Discussion
11:30 AM Summit Wrap-Up

Sign up here to register. Registration is offered at a sliding scale from $5 to $75. Email affordablehousing@living-future.org with any questions. We look forward to seeing you there!

Projects pursuing Core and Living Building Certification are required to meaningfully integrate universal design into their structures. This project is a fantastic case study of prioritizing universal design and integrating it with broader environmental and health goals.

The Kelsey is a Bay Area non-profit organization dedicated to advancing ‘disability-forward’ housing options. The Kelsey has found that while 26% of Americans have a disability, only 6% of housing is accessible to people with disabilities, a statistic they hope to improve. The Kelsey’s organizational ethos is ‘more’ – ‘more housing, more inclusion, more community’ – ultimately leading to more opportunities for all. This drive for more was inspired by their co-founder and namesake, Kelsey O’Connor, who often signed “more” to push them to remember to do more. The Kelsey believes that by centering the needs of the most marginalized and, in particular, those with disabilities, everyone benefits. In the spirit of ‘more,’ the Kelsey has registered their latest project, the Kelsey Civic Center, for ILFI’s Core Certification and is a participant in ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program. Architect Pauline Souza of WRNS Studio says that the project will help dispel the notion that “good enough is enough.” 

The building will create over 100 new affordable housing units two blocks from Market Street, the economic center of the city. The neighborhood is particularly meaningful because it has a rich history in disability rights and other social justice movements. The Kelsey Civic Center, co-developed with Mercy Housing California, is intended to create a place where those with disabilities and those without disabilities live together in a shared community. Its location across from City Hall also makes it easy for residents to advocate for their needs and community. The programming of the building is cohousing ‘in spirit’ with community spaces crafted to foster informal support networks and interdependence. The building will include a Disability Community Culture Center, which is the first center of its kind to allow connection and a physical place to share experiences.

This project, as with all projects developed by the Kelsey, will be a model of Universal Design and help promote cross-disability solutions that are affordable to integrate. The project team engaged Universal Design Consultant and Architect, Erick Mikiten of Mikiten Architecture, on this project and others. His goal for universal design is to move it away from an “annoying accommodation and medical adaptation” and towards a result of more “graceful and thoughtful architecture for everyone.” As an example, he explains that the Kelsey Civic Center project discussed adding a curve to the building where the project has an 8-story, relatively narrow atrium. This improves the experience of the building for multiple users: it alleviates the disorientation from the atrium that those with certain cognitive or perception issues can encounter, the curve is more natural for the path of a wheelchair, and it helps blind residents immediately recognize which area of the building they are walking through by the tactile experience.

Ideas like this helped inform the Kelsey’s recently published Housing Design Standards for Accessibility and Inclusion, on which Mikiten also consulted. The Housing Design Standards were intended to give developers and architects a better understanding of how to employ universal design strategies in their buildings in an effective and implementable way. The guide emphasizes that codes and compliance with the American with Disabilities Act often focuses  solely on physical accessibility and does not address the range of diverse needs, such as sensory or cognitive impacts. The Kelsey staff also hope that the design standards can help move away from a ‘check box’ mentality and towards integrating universal design in an intentional, mission-driven way, not as a baseline requirement that is never surpassed.

To learn more about the Kelsey Civic Center project and the Kelsey’sHousing Design Standards for Accessibility and Inclusion, we interviewed Fatimah Aure, Director of Field Building and Capacity at the Kelsey.

1.    What is the guiding mission of your organization, The Kelsey?

The Kelsey pioneers disability-forward housing solutions that open doors to more affordable homes and opportunities for everyone. We develop affordable, accessible, inclusive housing communities designed to scale and lead organizing and advocacy to create market conditions so inclusive housing becomes the norm. What started with Kelsey, an advocate for access and community, has become a movement towards an inclusive housing future led together by people with and without disabilities.

2.    Can you describe your current ILFI pilot project, the Kelsey Civic Center? How do the goals of your organization relate to your current project the Kelsey Civic Center (which is pursuing Core certification and participating in ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program)?

The Kelsey Civic Center will be a vibrant urban community offering 112 homes for people of all abilities, incomes, and backgrounds. Located across from San Francisco City Hall, construction is targeted to start in late 2022. The Kelsey Civic Center will serve as a beacon of sustainability, disability inclusion, and equity in the heart of the city.

Twenty-five percent of the units will be dedicated to people with disabilities who use home and community-based services. This fully accessible and universally-designed building will provide programming for all residents and neighbors with the goal of fostering a mutually supportive environment rooted in the ethos of interdependence and informal support networks. Two full-time Inclusion Concierges will help residents navigate their neighborhood, engage with their city, connect to programs and activities, and build community among residents of all abilities.

The Kelsey and its partners were awarded the site through Reinventing Cities, an unprecedented global competition organized by the C40 to drive carbon neutral and resilient urban regeneration. The Kelsey Civic Center will model that an all-electric, low carbon building can be affordable to people of all incomes. To support biodiversity and resident wellness the project will offer a sensory garden within the building’s courtyard and on the rooftop. Efficient individual units with shared spaces will minimize resource waste, support low carbon design, and foster a resilient community. 

3.    Can you describe the Housing Design Standards? Are they intended to be used as a reference for ideas, framework document, certification, or other?

The Housing Design Standards for Accessibility and Inclusion aim to equip designers, builders, and developers with guidelines and frameworks for disability-forward housing creation. The Design Standards define multifamily housing elements throughout the development process and address everything from the design approach to physical spaces, to mobility and reach to healthy materials selection, to even amenities, outdoor spaces, on-site staffing, and resident supports. A cross-disability approach provides elements that are specific to individualized access needs and others that benefit a diversity of disabilities. The elements were assessed on intersectional benefits alongside sustainability, affordability, racial equity, and a better resident experience. 

4.    What was the motivation for creating the Housing Design Standards for Accessibility and Inclusion? How were they developed?

26% of people have a disability, yet it’s estimated that less than 6% of the national housing supply is designed to be accessible. As housing communities are created, they don’t often meet the diverse accessibility and inclusion needs of people with disabilities. While code sets the baseline for what’s required, no holistic guidelines define an implementable, progressive approach to creating truly accessible and inclusive housing. 

The Kelsey created the Design Standards in partnership with Erick Mikiten of Mikiten Architecture. They were shaped with the support and feedback from our Inclusive Design Council, a select group of disability advocates evaluating what works well for different access needs in their own lived experience, as well as workshops with designers, developers, and architects.

5.    What does universal design mean to The Kelsey? Which kinds of access and needs are addressed by the Housing Design Standards?

Universal Design is the design of an environment that is usable by all people, and to the greatest extent possible. It doesn’t rely on special accommodations that separate users from each other, but creates a home that is usable by everyone in the same way. 

All elements within the design standards are grouped by different access needs (rather than by a disability diagnosis). These are the access needs our standards address: 

• Mobility and Height: Individuals who have limited use of their limbs, limited range of motion or dexterity, who use mobility supports (i.e., wheelchairs – manual and motorized; scooters; walkers; canes; grab bars), who have short stature, and/or who use assistive tools (i.e., reachers, step ladders, stools, etc.) to access spaces.
• Hearing and Acoustics: Individuals who are hard of hearing (HOH), use hearing supports and devices to engage in surrounding environments (i.e., voice amplification devices, hearing aids, video relay services, cochlear implants, ASL, etc.), and/or who have auditory sensory sensitivities.
• Vision: Individuals who are blind, who have low vision, and/or who use visual supports and devices to engage in surrounding environments (i.e., Braille, screen readers, magnifiers, lightboxes, etc.). This can also include people with high sensitivity to glare, or rapid changes in light levels.
• Health and Wellness: Individuals who have chronic health conditions, who have allergies and chemical sensitivities, are immunocompromised, and/or regularly utilize medical and/or therapeutic services. Aspects of the building that promote wellness for all, such as connection to nature and natural light, are also included.
• Cognitive Access: Individuals who process information differently, who have alternative language reception and/or communication preferences and needs, who need items or materials presented in different ways or speeds of information, and/or who use supports in understanding and content retention, information processing, and decision making or choice selection. Includes wayfinding support for memory or orientation.
• Support Needs: Individuals who use support services in their home and/or the community including but not limited to: direct support professionals, health aides, nursing support, behavioral supports, and individualized therapies. Can also include individuals using in-house family support for mobility or other assistance.

6.    Why is accessibility a particularly important need for affordable housing?

People with disabilities experience poverty and discrimination at disproportionately high rates. The thoughtful physical as well as cognitive accessibility of housing designed to be affordable is desperately needed.

7.    Can you explain what cross-disability means and how it is used in the standard?

Cross-disability means that a variety of disabilities with differing access needs were considered when creating the Housing Design Standards. At one time, accessibility was mistakenly isolated to people who use wheelchairs. The Housing Design Standards were developed with the purpose of addressing more than one type of accessibility and a variety of access needs, notably disabilities with cognitive and sensory needs.

8.    What is the most important consideration or first step for project teams that want to incorporate more accessibility into projects?

Include people with disabilities early in your design process. By working with a universal design consultant or forming a community advisory board that includes people with disabilities, a project team has someone with lived experience to consult with on design choices. Like in any type of design, asking the ultimate end user of a product helps to create better outcomes and avoid unintended consequences. 

9.    Can architects and other project team members design accessibly without increasing overhead costs of the project? 

Yes, if they start early. Projects that consider accessibility from the outset are more successful at integrating into the end project cost effectively versus spending costs and redesign dollars to integrate right before occupancy or as a reasonable accommodation. Designing for people with disabilities is simply better design. If you think up-front explicitly about maneuvering, lighting, way-finding, etc. you can integrate a lot of accessible elements without a lot of cost. 

10.  Anything else you would like us to know about the project?

The Kelsey Civic Center and The Design Standards for Access and Inclusion helped us identify elements that are good for both sustainability and disability access which could be helpful for many ILFI projects to consider. Some of these elements include: 

• HEPA Filtration Systems 
• Low and No VOC materials and chemical free spaces 
• Mechanical systems that are easily used
• Managed daylighting 
• Automatic shut-off features on appliances 
• Access to alternatives to car ownership including car-sharing and on-demand rentals 

You can take a virtual site tour of the Kelsey Civic Center Project and download the Housing Design Standards for Accessibility and Inclusion and other resources from their website.

“For far too long, environmental policy decisions have failed to adequately account for environmental injustice, including the disproportionate, disparate and cumulative impacts pollution and climate change have on low-income communities and communities of color. President Biden has made clear that his Administration will chart a new and better course, one that puts environmental and economic justice at the center of all we do.”

Shalanda Young, Acting Director of Office of Management and Budget; Brenda Mallory, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality; and Gina McCarthy, National Climate Advisor

On January 27, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14008, which reaffirmed the country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement, developed a net zero emissions target for the United States, and established the Justice40 Initiative. The Justice40 Initiative is a whole-of-government effort to direct at least 40% of climate-focused federal investments towards disadvantaged communities. This means that all federal departments are required to come up with an individual plan for disseminating climate-related technical assistance, grants, or other forms of aid to frontline communities. The Initiative established focus areas of clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transit, affordable and sustainable housing, training and workforce development, the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution, and the development of critical clean water infrastructure. 

The Justice40 Accelerator is a collaboration among several non-profit funders, including Elevate, Groundswell, the Hummingbird Firm, Partnership for Southern Equity, and the Solutions Project, partnering together to optimize the federal funding opportunities that will be spurred from this mandate. The Justice40 Accelerator was born out of an understanding that grassroots community groups are going to need assistance navigating the federal bureaucracy in order to apply for these new opportunities. Tracking the opportunities and procedures to apply for them from the various federal departments can be daunting for nonprofits that may only have a handful of staff and potentially limited grant-writing expertise. One-third of the successful applicants to the Justice40 Accelerator have never before applied for federal funding. The funders behind the Accelerator provide grants for a variety of climate and environmental justice-related projects, as well as grant-writing, capacity-building, information briefings, and other forms of assistance in order to prepare groups to successfully apply for and implement federal funding. The Accelerator also provides intentional feedback loops to federal agencies, most of whom are not well-connected to local organizations that have critical knowledge of where funds are most needed and the barriers small organizations are likely to encounter when interfacing with federal processes. 

The federal Justice40 Initiative is a monumental and revolutionary funding opportunity that has the potential to greatly expedite on-the-ground work in the environmental justice movement. Sherry Taylor, Asset Manager at Durham Community Land Trustees (DCLT), expressed that there is much excitement around this Initiative, because nothing like this has been seen before. Nathaniel Smith, Founder and Chief Equity Officer of the Partnership for Southern Equity says in an op-ed for the Hill, that while frontline leaders in the climate crisis are usually rooted in Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, and other communities of color, these communities are often left out of federal funding due to embedded structural inequities. Smith explains that the Justice40 Accelerator was created to bridge the gap between on-the-ground organizations and federal agencies and ensure that the Justice40 Initiative funds are directed where they will be most impactful – “infrastructure of, by, and for communities affected worst and first by climate change.” 

The inaugural Justice40 Accelerator cohort was chosen in August 2021 based on several criteria, including a prioritization of human health, environmental, and economic impacts of climate change in under-resourced and overburdened communities; accountability to frontline communities and leadership reflective of those communities; and a commitment to improving quality of life in impacted areas through community-driven planning. The cohort includes 52 community-rooted organizations with a variety of missions including environmental justice, urban agriculture, and public health. The Durham Community Land Trustees, developer of Alma Street Commons, an ILFI Affordable Housing Pilot Project, was among the impactful organizations selected for this cohort. They will be using the funds provided to them to kickstart the process of a design that incorporates ILFI’s Core Certification requirements. This will  be the first affordable housing project designed to meet an ILFI certification in North Carolina. Read the interview with Sherry below to learn more about the Durham Community Land Trust and their participation in the Justice40 Accelerator and in ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program.

Susan Puri (SP): Can you give a little background on the Durham Community Land Trust (DCLT) and why you were chosen for the Justice40 Accelerator?

Sherry Taylor (ST): DCLT is an affordable housing provider that has been around for 34 years. We are a land trust, which means we ensure that homes are permanently affordable, both rental and homeownership. Our Justice40 grant was for the Alma Street Commons Project. I think we were chosen because of the way this project is being put together. It’s an affordable housing project, and we have been having a hard time identifying funders that see the intersections of housing, environmental justice, and health disparities. The project is located in a low-income, majority black and Latino neighborhood with significant environmental justice issues. There is a polluted creek and watershed, which feeds into the drinking water source for over 1.5 million people. It is a heavily industrial area with a lot of air pollution. In the 1950s, the government plowed a freeway through the neighborhood for urban renewal, as happened to historically black neighborhoods everywhere. There are a multitude of issues going on. The project was chosen by the Justice40 Accelerator because it will help us address environmental issues and climate change. The project can do a lot to prove that affordable housing can be sustainable and restorative in North Carolina. The project site in East Durham, though not industrial, currently hosts 3 substandard duplexes that have been an eyesore to the neighborhood and ultimately caused the relocation of folks living there because it was deemed unlivable. The new project will be 12 single-family, duplexes, and accessory dwelling units.

SP: Why did your organization want to be a part of the Justice40 Accelerator Cohort?

ST: Primarily because of capacity. We are a very small organization – there are just nine of us, including accounting and maintenance. Having the support of the Accelerator will help us to understand opportunities and sift through overwhelming information that is not well-organized. Right now, you have to go to each department’s website to look for grants and some have not even put their opportunities out yet. The Accelerator is bringing Washington to us – different speakers from different departments have already met with the cohort. 

SP: How will funding from the Justice40 Accelerator help you with the Alma Street Project?

ST: We received a grant for $25,000, which is the first grant we have received, although I have written a lot of applications and hope to receive much more to support this work. We are going to start the formal design process and communications plan and use marketing to garner more support and exposure. Last year it was hard to focus due to the effects of the pandemic, which required us to focus more on our current residents. We are about to bid for design services and create a design brief with our Core requirements.

The Alma Street Commons is the first affordable housing development in North Carolina to attempt an ILFI certification. However, Sherry intends to ensure that the project is not a one-off effort, and instead helps to spur a broader movement towards healthier, more regenerative, and more environmentally just housing in the region. Sherry and DCLT have been exceptional at building a larger coalition around the Living Building Challenge in Durham and in North Carolina. DCLT has partnered with the Duke University Office of Sustainability, Circular Triangle, and the Center for Environmental Health (in addition to ILFI). They are continuing to solicit partners and supporters for the project. Anyone interested in supporting this initiative or joining the coalition can contact Sherry at Sherry@dclt.org.

Celebrating the Grand Opening of Indiana’s First Zero Energy Affordable Housing Building

The Harbor Square project, along with other affordable housing projects in the area, was envisioned to help shape a new future for the city of East Chicago. East Chicago, Indiana is the home of the USS Lead EPA Superfund site, which, unfortunately, is located on the former home of the West Calumet Housing Complex. This public housing project was home to more than a thousand residents at the time of its closure in 2016, all of whom were exposed to lead in the soil left behind by the previous industrial use of the site. The housing project was built in 1972 and in operation until 2016. A recent report by HUD’s Inspector General shockingly found that lead contamination at the site was known since at least 1998, but residents were not warned, despite many of them noticing significant health and development issues among their children. 

The city of East Chicago and nearby Gary, Indiana, became a priority for housing funds due to the dire housing shortage exacerbated by the closure and demolition of the West Calumet Housing Complex. Residents in the area also faced poor air quality, a lack of healthcare infrastructure, and weak economic prospects. The Harbor Square project and others (including the Broadway Lofts project, another ILFI Affordable Housing project) were funded under Indiana’s Moving Forward program, an initiative created to increase quality of life, promote energy efficiency, and alleviate poverty. The Mayor of East Chicago also strongly supported the vision for this project and the City donated the land for development.

The Indiana Housing Development Authority (IHDA) tasked UP Holdings, the Developer of the project, with tackling transportation, addressing social determinants of health, creating a net-zero energy building, and ending the cycle of generational poverty. IHDA required them to include a poverty expert as part of the development team. The team created a pie chart of common expenses for residents and created a “Community Empowerment Roadmap.” Although this project is not considered supportive housing, this plan allowed them to take many components more typically provided in supportive housing to help residents find ways to increase their income. Lower-income households often suffer the feeling of falling off a “cliff” when they move from subsidized low-income housing to market-rate housing when their income suddenly reaches above the allowed threshold for subsidies. The project team ensured that the supportive services would ease this transition for residents and allow for greater economic empowerment of the residents. These services are accessed through the building’s ‘community hub’ space and are available not only to residents, but to neighbors as well. IHDA also intervened and helped ensure that their net-zero energy goals would be feasible from a policy perspective by ensuring that net metering was permitted for this project, though it is not yet widely permitted by the local utility.

The Moving Forward program prioritizes reducing transportation costs for households, as well as eliminating energy bills through net-zero energy housing because these are often the large and overlooked expenses for low income households. The Moving Forward Program recommends a systems approach where costs of transportation, energy, maintenance, and other household expenses are coordinated upfront during construction. The project team found that, in addition, healthcare was usually the third or fourth highest expense for residents. To address this, the project team brought a healthcare clinic on site. They partnered with Healthlinc, a federally-qualified healthcare provider who was needing room to expand in the area. The building now includes a 5,000 square foot healthcare clinic offering primary health, behavioral health, and optometry.

The Moving Forward Program’s approach to reducing cost burdens on low-income households. Image courtesy of Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority 

Harbor Square celebrated their Grand Opening on August 2nd, 2021. Mayor Anthony Copeland described this project as a “legacy” for the community and an important step to defining themselves as a “city of hope and progress.” ILFI’s Kathleen Smith, Director of Technical Support Services, agrees that this project serves as an important model for other communities. “Harbor Square brings ILFI’s mission to life by providing healthy, safe, and affordable housing that addresses critical environmental, social, and cultural issues all at once. This project provides a welcoming home to 28 families and provides a view into what we mean when we say a “Living Future for All!” We express admiration and gratitude to the diverse and dedicated project team for making this project happen.”

Read the interview below with Jessica Berzac, President of UP Holdings, to learn more about the project. You can also read more about this project and all our other affordable housing projects on our website.

1. Can you describe the project and its goals?

Harbor Square is a 28-unit affordable housing development where we aim to not only provide affordable high-quality housing, but also provide affordable utilities, access to transportation, and healthcare. This is all done with the goals of improving quality of life, wages, and assets for individuals and families that have experienced chronic or generational poverty.  

2. How did participation in the Moving Forward program run by the state in order to create more sustainable affordable housing affect the project goals?

The Moving Forward program created a set-aside for Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)† allocation, which allowed the project to be designed around programmatic and sustainability  goals without the standard need for statewide scoring priorities.  

3. Why is building a net-zero energy building important to the mission of your organization? 

In many cases, including Harbor Square, we as the Developer/Owner cover the cost of utilities for our leaseholders so investments in sustainable systems are critical to our long-term community asset commitment and viable operations. We also feel it’s important to show the industry at large and in our region that midwestern projects can achieve this level of green certification in a market where it is not standard and above what funding levels typically allow.  

4. What challenges did you face in developing this project – policy, funding, technical, or otherwise?

Moving Forward 3.0 sets big goals.In the initial workshop, when we were presented with Petals of the Living Building Challenge, it felt daunting and definitely unfunded for an Affordable Housing Developer to pursue things like this. Working on the project changed the way that my firm works and the way that we approach housing design, services for family housing, an approach to tenant interactions, to services partnerships, and what our long-term goals are and what we believe is possible as an industry of affordable housers. Something like this has the potential to really set higher expectations of what is possible as outcomes and what we can do for our residents. 

On the policy side there are a few barriers still; for example, the solar tax credits and net metering are not prioritized or streamlined for affordable housing. 

5. This will most likely be the first certified Energy Petal or Zero Energy affordable housing building in Indiana. What strategies can be replicated on additional projects in the state or region?

We ended up pretty darn green on this project, even though it was a challenge because there was not an excess of funds despite the goals of the Moving Forward initiative. We ended up with a full solar array and maxed out the roof area. We will hit NGBS Gold and believe we will be able to hit Zero Energy certification. Zero Energy Certification is important to us, because it’s not based on modeling, but on operations. That is important for communications and advocacy and being able to show it, not just talk about it. It is also important for us to be able to use those tools and the lessons in our portfolio learned going forward and to be able to use it in projects as we expand our portfolio.

 †The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit funds a majority of new affordable housing construction each year in the United States. The funding is distributed at the state level where states typically use a competitive process with a published set of priorities that are used to score each project in order to allocate funding to the most desirable projects. The Moving Forward Program in Indiana was designed in order to work more collaboratively with affordable housing developers and encourage teams to work together towards zero energy and other goals.

In 2020, ILFI published the first version of the Materials List for Affordable Housing. In June of this year, we updated the list to include five additional product categories, for a total of twenty. The list includes products that have been used by past affordable housing teams, products in our Declare database, and products that were independently researched by ILFI staff for compliance. (Note that any products not in Declare will still need to be vetted independently by project teams, but this list points the way with where to start, greatly reducing research time.)

The updated Materials List is now downloadable as a spreadsheet so that categories can be more easily hidden, sorted, and filtered. The list includes information on each product’s status related to the Red List, CDPH, Declare, Living Product Challenge, and final point of assembly, to help document Imperatives within the Living Building Challenge’s Materials and Health + Happiness Petals. The spreadsheet also includes a column indicating whether each product has committed to price parity for affordable housing projects under the Equity Petal of the Living Product Challenge, meaning these manufacturers typically will be willing to provide a discounted price in order to facilitate the use of healthier products in affordable housing. 

This list is additionally intended as a resource for affordable housing teams pursuing healthy materials criteria under Enterprise Green Communities. A column indicates whether the product will allow your project to earn additional points under this standard. Lastly, information is provided on whether a product is cross-listed on Housing Partnership Network’s (HPN) Select Eco-Guide, which is a procurement resource that can assist with cost-efficient sourcing by aggregating purchases among various affordable housing entities. 

The Materials List for Affordable Housing now includes the following product categories (newly added categories in italics): 

• Insulation
• Sealants
• Aluminum Storefront 
• Windows
• Gypsum Board
• Tile
• Resilient Flooring
• Carpet
• Paints + Coatings
• Casework
• Countertops
• Acoustic Ceiling Tile
• Vapor Barriers
• Waterproofing
• Metal Doors
• Wood Doors

In the fall of 2020, ILFI registered twenty new affordable housing projects that are pursuing the Living Building Challenge and other ILFI certifications. These teams are working together to research, vet, and share information on Red List Free materials, as well as materials with low embodied carbon, CDPH compliance, and FSC certifications. Their efforts thus far have helped inform the evolution of this list. ILFI will continue to add categories to the list this year, as well as add additional products to the existing categories. Check back on our Affordable Housing website regularly for updates to the list!

ILFI hosted our annual Affordable Housing Summit on June 17 with more than 200 attendees. The summit included lively panels and discussions on topics such as inclusive community engagement, healthy materials, and how to finance it all. Rachelle Macur spoke about the relationship between biophilia and trauma-informed design in affordable housing. Rachelle Macur is a Senior Sustainability at Group 14 Engineering in Denver, CO. Her focus is on the cross-section of humans, nature, and the built environment and how we can engage individuals and organizations to reduce resource consumption and improve occupant health & wellbeing. 

Reflecting back on the Affordable Housing Summit, we asked Rachelle a few questions about her work. We hope you enjoy the interview below. Email affordablehousing@living-future.org if you want to learn more about our affordable housing work at ILFI.

1. What are the top challenges and issues you have experienced in working with affordable housing and/or under-resourced communities?

Like most projects, limited budgets are always a point of conversation, but with affordable housing it’s a critical decision point that has far-reaching implications. It’s a constant balance between quantity and quality. Do you provide more beds, getting more people off the streets, and into safe housing? Or, do you ensure that the amenities the project is providing can help support a quality life and build community? We overlay this discussion with the need for sustainable housing as well. With so many stakeholders involved, prioritizing the various needs can be challenging, requiring project teams to be skillful and creative about bringing about the greatest benefit with minimal resources.

2. What most excites you about your work? / What are you most passionate about?

I’m extremely passionate about how we design for health and healing; deeply woven into this is the concept of biophilia. I am interested in how we can use trauma-informed, biophilic design to not only help individuals to avoid triggers and cope with life’s stressors, but to actually create spaces where people can heal and flourish. By working to understand people’s lived experience and combining that with the research on our biological connection with nature, we can create spaces for people and communities to heal, to have resiliency, and to thrive.

3. How do you think sustainability can improve the lives of residents of affordable housing and their local communities?

We cannot divorce ecological sustainability from individual well-being and societal health. If we’re taking care of the earth, we’re taking care of people, and vice versa. By providing housing that is truly nested in place, we have the opportunity to design spaces that are responsive to the needs of the land and the people. This means that we’re aware of and incorporating design elements that are reflective of the project’s context (ecological, historical, societal, etc.) and of the lived experience of the staff and residents. This approach to housing creates a bond that people experience. This bond is a recognition that in caring for the earth we are caring for ourselves. This is reflected in elements like our material choices and envelope design, but also in the opportunities we create that allow for people to make their own connections to place. 

Cover photo: Lakeline Learning Center, Austin, Texas (Zero-Energy Certified Affordable Housing Pilot Project). Courtesy of Foundation Communities:

As part of our commitment to a future that is socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative–for all–ILFI is proud to support dozens of affordable housing projects across the country. This year we celebrate and recognize this critical work at the Affordable Housing Summit, June 17, 2021. The Summit features topics such as inclusive community engagement, trauma-informed design, biophilic design, healthy materials, and, last but not least, how to finance it all.

The day will kick off with keynote speaker Odetta MacLeish-White. Odetta is the Director of Georgia Initiatives for the Center for Community Progress (CCP). Over her twenty-year career, Odetta has worked in affordable housing development, policy, and financing. Her career has evolved to include empowering residents and community members to influence development and funding processes that impact their neighborhoods. 

Susan Puri, Affordable Housing Manager at ILFI, was fortunate to be able to ask Odetta a few questions this week about her work. We hope you enjoy the interview below. You can register for the event here to hear more from her and all our other speakers on June 17.

Susan Puri (SP): What drew you to working in affordable housing?

Odetta MacLeish-White (OMW): I did not know what affordable housing could be until I went to work for a young developer in Gainesville, Florida. Until that point, my understanding of “affordable housing” was shaped by the images we all absorbed from the media of the worst public housing in the country. When I stepped onto the grounds of a newly built, garden-style, LEED-certified affordable apartment complex, I knew I had found a career and a calling. It was a perfect Florida day with blue skies and white clouds, the water in the pool sparkled, the clubhouse was pristine, the units were ready to be homes. I literally fell in love with affordable housing that day; that was when I saw that we could honor the dignity of people earning lower incomes. I am drawn to the potential that affordable housing represents: as a form of housing it should be providing families an opportunity to rest, play, and connect with one another without the stress of worrying about cost. Affordable housing is also the place where human potential can, and should, be nurtured. What if the cure for a deadly cancer waits in the brain of a child whose family needs affordable housing? A safe, restful, and steady home is every person’s birthright.

SP: What are the top challenges and issues you have experienced in working with affordable housing and/or under-resourced communities?

OMW: I would say power imbalances around site control and financing are probably the two top challenges I would name in developing affordable housing, or any other infrastructure, in communities. Too often, the land is owned by entities outside the community that will have to live with the development every day. In this situation, the community will always have to beg for concession from the land owner, and is at the ultimate mercy of the owner’s pace and vision. We do not engage in authentic conversation with community residents creating “empty consent” in which residents accept what is coming grudgingly, rather than being fully respected partners in the process. The structural and institutional racism of current financing favors certain development partners and makes it disproportionately difficult for Black-led development partners to access the equity and investment dollars they need to demonstrate robust community engagement and accomplish projects on time and on budget. High-producing programs, like the low-income housing tax credit, must be understood as incentives to developers, with features like the qualified census tract to drive developers to areas they would refuse to enter otherwise. This incentive doesn’t demand better process and engagement from the developer, and when we do ask them to show community buy-in, they often find the most amenable community member to endorse, rather than put in the time to build a broader base of trust and conversation. If local governments and philanthropy invested more equitably in the nonprofits, community development corporations, and arts & culture partners of a community, the community’s “voice” would be loud and robust and ready to meet the “time is money” pace of most developers.

SP: What most excites you about your work?

OMW: It is exciting to me to see more and more people and professions wake up to the truth that systems are all connected, and that it will take our combined knowledge and study and commitment to find or create what Elizabeth Sawin calls “multisolves” – single investments of time and resources that solve for multiple challenges. I hope that this type of thinking will also help everyone understand that under-resourced communities have been multi-solving, repurposing, and living sustainably for generations. It would excite me to see their knowledge given full respect and engagement and, of course, more resources, including dollars.

SP: How do you think sustainability can improve the lives of residents of affordable housing and their local communities?

OMW: The most obvious answer is that sustainability can lower costs of living to help residents of affordable housing stretch their dollars further. Building sustainably should also create more healthful living conditions, both inside the unit and outside. Sustainability should be about connecting people to the places they want and need to go, as well as creating local solutions for resilience and adaptation as the climate changes and the economy goes through its cycles. I would also like to see the field of sustainability consistently ask how communities can improve sustainability as a field and a process. Where are the lived and local wisdom and stories of a community influencing problem solving and/or identifying strengths to be leveraged? Sustainability should be a great conversation.

SP: What are you most looking forward to talking about and discussing at ILFI’s 2021 Affordable Housing Summit?

I am looking forward to talking about how we can all recognize the power and privilege we bring to conversations of sustainability and affordable housing, and use our privilege to make space for underheard voices, and cede power for the advancement of liberation. I always enjoy hearing other perspectives and experiences as well, so I expect this summit to be lively and thought-provoking.

Header photo courtesy of Foundation Communities: Lakeline Learning Center, Austin, Texas (Zero-Energy Certified Affordable Housing Pilot Project)

Cover image: 350 China Street in San Francisco, CA. Rendering courtesy of Mithun

Editor’s note: ILFI has green building solutions for everyone, everywhere. If you’re interested in being part of our work to ensure affordable, healthy, sustainable housing for all, join our upcoming members-only Affordable Housing Showcase event on Thursday, March 18! Members can register in their Member Dashboard login. To sign up for membership & join the event, click here. You can also subscribe to our monthly newsletter, attend our Living Future Unconference, or consider making a charitable contribution to this critical work that impacts thousands of families around the country. Reach out to us at affordablehousing@living-future.org to register your affordable housing project for the Living Building Challenge or for more information about our affordable housing resources.

The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) is excited to announce that 20 new affordable housing projects have signed up to pursue the Living Building Challenge, as well as the Core Green Building, Zero Carbon, and Zero Energy Certifications. These 20 projects join 27 others that are part of ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program. Over the next three years, these projects will receive extra support from ILFI to aid in their pursuit of healthy, sustainable housing and ILFI certification. This support comes in the form of assistance with charrettes, feasibility reports, educational sessions, opportunities for peer-to-peer informational exchange, and additional access to support and resources. 

The peer-to-peer exchange among teams with similar goals is an important aspect of the program. Members from all the Affordable Housing Pilot Projects meet monthly to learn and support each other in their pursuit of Living Affordable Housing. To provide further opportunities for informational exchange and discussion among teams, ILFI launched a series of small working groups in January of this year. Each group will investigate one topic in detail and work together to share information, discuss barriers, and find solutions. The topics are: 

• Materials: Red List Free, FSC, and Declare
• Embodied Carbon and Energy
• Community Land Trust and Limited Equity Projects
• Modular Construction as a Tool for Sustainability
• LBC Strategies for Lower-Density Housing 

Living Proof

ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program was created with the primary goal of demonstrating that Living Affordable Housing is possible. There are now nearly 50 affordable housing projects pursuing certification under ILFI’s programs, which are the world’s most ambitious and impactful green building certifications. Four affordable housing projects have already been certified under ILFI’s Zero Energy program, and many more are in construction or in their 12-month performance period and will come in for certification under Zero Energy, Petal, or Living Certification in the next several years. These projects are proving Living Affordable Housing is possible. 

The goal now is to scale the work and impact, and to make Living Affordable Housing the norm across the country. Everyone deserves to live in housing that is healthy, sustainable, resilient, and affordable. Through its Affordable Housing Program, ILFI is partnering with these 20 new projects to create living proof of what is possible. The leadership they demonstrate, the example they set, and the lessons they provide are helping to create resources that will transform the industry showing a path to Living Buildings for all!

A core purpose of ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program is to capture the lessons learned from these pilot projects to create resources that will benefit the entire affordable housing industry. Many valuable resources have already been developed to help other affordable housing teams pursuing the Living Building Challenge and other ILFI certifications. These include: the Living Building Challenge Framework for Affordable Housing (now in its second version), the Materials List for Affordable Housing (a living resource that is growing in content and impact overtime), Guide for Greener QAPs, case studies, and other resources that can all be downloaded for free from the Affordable Housing Program’s webpage. 

Scaling Impact

These 20 new pilot projects are helping to significantly scale ILFI’s affordable housing work. They bring increased diversity of geographic location, project scale and type, as well as developer reach.  

The new projects are located in 10 different states, spanning from Oregon to Alabama to Maine, and are located both in urban centers and rural areas. Seven projects will be located in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, a stand-out region for this work, led by developers such as Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, who has registered four new projects. The Bay Area’s work is also being led by designers, such as David Baker Architects, who designed two other Living Building Challenge affordable housing pilot projects now under construction in San Francisco and Oakland. A goal of this phase of our program is to continue to build off the strong work done in regions such as the San Francisco Bay Area, while expanding to other regions. Nine of the new projects are located in states that have not previously hosted pilot projects, including Alabama, North Carolina, Maine, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, and Oregon.   

In addition to geographic diversity, the projects also represent a range of scales, building types, and future occupants. The largest project will be roughly 200,000 square feet while the smallest project will be a little over 10,000 square feet. The projects represent both rental and homeownership projects and include single-family homes, townhomes, duplexes, and multi-family buildings for families, seniors, low-income healthcare workers, special needs populations, veterans, and previously homeless individuals. The projects include not just housing, but also needed services such as childcare facilities, elder healthcare clinics, learning centers, grocery, and community commercial space.

The new projects also represent a broad range of developers, including two public housing authorities and several large affordable housing developers that operate nationwide. The pilot projects from these developers have the opportunity to inform how affordable housing is created moving forward across their entire portfolios.

These projects are also helping to scale impact. The four affordable housing projects that are currently certified have achieved Zero Energy Certification. Seventeen of the newest 20 projects have registered under the Living Building/Petal or Core programs. (ILFI’s newest certification, the Core Green Building Certification allows for project teams to maximize their impact across Imperatives and is the pathway chosen by half of the project teams.) These holistic certification pathways will allow the project teams to demonstrate performance in areas that have long been important to affordable housing developers including water efficiency and reuse, healthy materials, community spaces, providing access to nature and healthy food, and equity. Two projects are pursuing Zero Carbon Certification. Embodied carbon reduction has traditionally not been a priority of affordable housing developers, but many are now looking to choose low-carbon options for concrete and other high-impact materials, as well as reduce the overall materiality of projects to reduce carbon impacts along with costs. 

The next three years of ILFI’s affordable housing work will help to greatly increase the Red List Free materials accessible for affordable housing teams, provide pathways for teams to pursue Core and Zero Energy Certifications at scale, demonstrate case studies for Living Building Certification, and investigate how embodied carbon strategies can work to bring down costs for affordable housing. 

Project Highlights

31 Tufts Street

The 31 Tufts Street project in Somerville, Mass., is modeled as Zero Energy, and the team is pursuing Zero Carbon strategies to prove that a cost-effective model for Zero Carbon affordable housing is attainable. The team, led by Placetailor Architects and the owner E3 Development, LLC, is committed to providing high-quality housing units with a focus on improved indoor air quality and access to green space while also providing long-term energy efficiency.

Providence Generations

Another project focused on health is Providence Generations in Issaquah, Wash. This project is under development by Providence Supportive Housing and is located on a master-planned health care campus, with the intention to provide convenient, affordable housing for low-income health care workers. As referenced in the project name, the building will also connect generations by providing housing for very low-income seniors and families with young children, as well as services such as child care and an elder clinic. With a project mission to promote “better health for the world,” the project team is using the Living Building Challenge as a framework to promote more equitable health outcomes.

Hazelwood Community Land Trust and Alma Street Commons 

The Hazelwood Community Land Trust and Alma Street Commons are both being developed by land trust organizations and will be providing homeownership opportunities for low-income residents of Pittsburgh and Durham, North Carolina, respectively. These projects provide the potential to provide a scalable model for Core-certified buildings 

Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation

The Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC), one of the largest affordable housing developers in San Francisco, has registered four projects, which are pursuing a range of certifications including Zero Carbon, Materials Petal within the Living Building Challenge, and Core. TNDC has committed to creating healthier materials specifications and has encouraged their project teams to work together and with other organizations to help identify Red List Free and FSC certified materials that can be added to their common spec. 

Timber Ridge

Timber Ridge is being developed by the Northeast Oregon Housing Authority in rural La Grande, OR. Rural areas also face housing shortages and can present even greater challenges for building and sourcing sustainably. This project, one of two being developed by public housing authorities, will provide a model for overcoming these barriers and plans to certify under the Energy Petal within the Living Building Challenge. Similar to Providence Generations, this project will also create an intergenerational community by housing both families and seniors.

You can read more about these projects and all of the other ILFI Affordable Housing Pilot Projects on ILFI’s website.  

To learn more about Affordable Housing projects, join our upcoming members-only Affordable Housing Showcase event on Thursday, March 18! Members can register in their Member Dashboard login. To sign up for membership & join the event, click here.

Healthy materials are an increasingly top-of-mind issue in affordable housing. Affordable housing developers do not simply provide shelter – they seek to improve health and well-being, economic prospects, and the overall quality of life for residents. Choosing Red List Free materials is a critical component of providing a healthy indoor environment and ensuring that the built environment does not exacerbate existing health challenges, but rather provides positive benefits. The International Living Future Institute is committed to increasing access to Red List Free materials for affordable housing teams and is working with the Affordable Housing Pilot Projects and manufacturer partners to build a complete Materials List for Affordable Housing in order to reduce research time and effort by project teams. This list includes products that have been used by past affordable housing teams, products in our Declare database, and products that were independently researched by ILFI staff for compliance. (Note that any products not in Declare will still need to be vetted by project teams, but this list points the way with where to start, greatly reducing research time.)

In June 2020, ILFI published the first version of the Materials List for Affordable Housing. The Materials List, organized in spreadsheet form, includes information on each product’s status related to the Red List, CDPH, Declare, Living Product Challenge, and final point of assembly to help achieve Imperatives within the Materials Petal and the Health + Happiness Petal. The spreadsheet also includes a column indicating whether each product has committed to price parity for affordable housing projects under the Equity Petal of the Living Product Challenge, meaning these manufacturers typically will be willing to provide a discounted price in order to facilitate the use of healthier products in affordable housing. 

The list also includes a column indicating whether the product will allow your project to earn additional points under Enterprise Green Communities and whether it is cross-listed on Housing Partnership Network’s (HPN) Select Eco-Guide, which is a resource that can assist with sourcing by aggregating purchases among various affordable housing entities. 

This first version of  the Materials List for Affordable Housing includes the following product categories: 

• Insulation
• Sealants
• Aluminum Storefront 
• Windows
• Gypsum Board
• Tile
• Resilient Flooring
• Carpet
• Paints + Coatings
• Casework
• Countertops

These categories were selected based on our work with affordable housing project teams. The categories are a mix of product types that have many cost-efficient Red List Free products (see the Top Five: First Steps Towards Red List Free Materials below) and product types that have typically been challenging for teams, such as windows and countertops. 

This Materials List for Affordable Housing will be updated regularly and expanded over time to include additional product categories, as well as information on cost and durability.

ILFI’s Affordable Housing Pilot Projects have made great strides towards healthy materials. Projects like BLOCK Project, the Projects at Mill Creek, and Othello Square led by pioneering architects and owners (including BLOCK Architects, Architectural Nexus, Community Rebuilds, Sundberg Kennedy Ly-Au Young Architects, and Homesight) provided a wealth of information on materials that are being utilized to help their projects provide the healthiest environment possible for their residents. ILFI is in the process of organizing the next group of affordable housing pilot projects. In the upcoming phase of our affordable housing work, all project teams are committed to investigating a Red List Free materials scope for their projects. For example, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, one of the largest developers in San Francisco, is in the process of registering multiple projects and is striving towards eliminating Red List materials from their specifications and encouraging project teams to work together on this effort. These partnerships will continue to inform the Materials List for Affordable Housing and to transform the marketplace of available products. Check back on our Affordable Housing website regularly for updates to the list!