GREEN SCENE
LISC Writes the Book on Green
AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE • May 2008
BY BENDIX ANDERSON
SAN FRANCISCO --
The homeowners at Unity
Homes here aren’t experts
in green building, but
they’re still in charge of a
renovation that is making
their community of aging government-subsidized
co-op apartments a healthier,
more energy-efficient place to live.
“You don’t have to be the supreme
green expert to go green,” said Cathy
Craig, senior program officer for Bay
Area Local Initiatives Support Corp.
(LISC). LISC, a national nonprofit
affordable housing investor, provides
technical assistance to help groups like
Unity’s co-op board perform green
rehabs on existing affordable housing
properties.
Now LISC is sharing that information
with anyone who wants it — for free.
Bay Area LISC has teamed up with
Build It Green, a local nonprofit,
to write Green Rehabilitation of
Multifamily Rental Properties. (The
information in the guide applies to both
rental and homeownership multifamily
projects, said Craig.)
The 68-page guide is a distillation
of everything LISC has learned in its
years of green rehabs. The two nonprofits
have made the publication available
for download at www.bayarealisc.org.
Many affordable housing owners
have little experience in doing green
redevelopments. That’s especially true
at Unity Homes, which was built in 1974
under the Department of Housing and
Urban Development’s Sec. 236 limitedequity
co-op program. Unity’s 94 garden
apartments are owned by its residents.
Planning the renovation, the homeowners
had advice from green experts at
LISC and Practica Consulting, based in
Austin, Texas. However, many redevelopers
aren’t so lucky. “Sometimes for a
rehab job you might not even have an
architect,” said Craig.
LISC and Build It Green kept
Unity’s owners and others like them in
mind as they designed the guidebook,
an assessment tool that will help owners
decide which green building materials
and techniques make sense at their
aging properties from the start of the
rehab process to the finish.
The guide includes definitions and
basic descriptions of green techniques.
Its focus on rehabilitation of existing
properties sets it apart from many other
green guides and standards. “It doesn’t
presume that you can re-site the buildings,”
said Craig.
Each green building technique or
material listed in the guide is rated both
for its extra cost and for the benefit it
will bring to a property. Items covered
range from low-cost paints that don’t
emit harmful gasses to much more
expensive solar systems. The authors
include cost information wherever possible.
Energy efficiency is especially
important to older affordable housing
properties like Unity that struggle to
cover rising utility costs with fixed operating
budgets set by HUD.
Work is expected to finish on
Unity’s green renovation by the end of
2008. Financed by a Federal Housing
Administration Sec. 221(d)(4) substantial
rehabilitation loan, the improvements
will include Energy Star-rated
windows and appliances, water-saving
fixtures, and new, durable cement board
siding—features that should save the
34-year-old property energy and maintenance
costs for decades to come.
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