COURTESY : eesi.org

Green affordable housing

Sadly, this story is not unique to Detroit. In cities across the country, safe, affordable housing is becoming increasingly out of reach for low-income households, communities of color, and indigenous communities. According to Harvard’s 2020 State of the Nation’s Housing Report, over 62 percent of low-income renters pay more than half of their income on rent. But rent is not the only inflated cost low-income residents must deal with. Nationally, these households also pay up to three times more of their income to cover energy costs like heat and electricity, resulting in high energy burdens. Oftentimes, low-income residents are then forced to make the impossible decision between paying for bills or buying food, medicine, and other necessities—let alone saving for emergencies or educational opportunities.

“We have a massive housing crisis,” said Dana Bourland*, author of Gray to Green Communities. “People’s wages are not keeping up with our price of housing. And over half of all the housing in this country is more than 40 years old.”

As an expert on both the climate and housing crises, Bourland believes tackling both issues simultaneously is the best way to strengthen the economy and accomplish national climate goals. According to Bourland, investing in green affordable housing will generate new jobs, strengthen communities, build resilience, and decrease emissions.

While the National Housing Act of 1949 made establishing decent housing in suitable living environments for all a national priority, it has become clear that this objective is not being met. Not only are many residents facing high costs of living but higher rates of inequality also permeate the nation’s housing markets. Communities of color are regularly subjected to increased air pollution and environmental degradation. According to the National Conference for Community and Justice, more than 50 percent of people who live within two miles of toxic waste sites are people of color—even though people of color represent only 24 percent of the overall population. Additionally, discriminatory housing practices have led to residential segregation resulting in highly concentrated high-poverty neighborhoods.

“Housing is a human right,” Bourland said. “For far too long, housing has been the physical demonstration of the racist systems embedded in our country. These systems and policies have forced people of color into rental housing situations in areas where we then allowed polluters and extractive industries to locate, leading to deplorable conditions.”

Back in Detroit, local organizations are taking action to improve the deteriorating community housing. One non-profit, HOPE Village Revitalization, is working directly with HOPE Village residents to increase energy and housing equity. Born out of a 2016 initiative, HOPE Village Revitalization was established to move the community forward in a way that mitigates disparities in wealth, privilege, and educational resources.

“Our project is the Sustainable Community Builders project—with this project, we are working to create not just affordable housing, but deeply affordable housing, and to do it using existing, vacant, underutilized apartment buildings that have been empty for years,” said Debbie Fisher, the executive director of HOPE Village Revitalization. “We envision renovated buildings with renewable energy providing a significant portion of each building’s energy needs, contributing in turn to lower utility costs for residents.”

A key feature of the initiative is its emphasis on sustainability. The HOPE project will combine classic green affordable housing components like energy-efficient building design and renewable energy to simultaneously decrease the energy burdens of residents while also increasing community resilience.

Fisher sees access to renewable energy as a way of reducing energy poverty while also decreasing reliance on the unreliable local energy grid. The initiative plans on using the utility savings from renewable energy to reduce the overall costs of rent for HOPE residents and use any additional savings to fund future solar projects for other neighborhood structures.

“The supply of quality, affordable housing with low utility rates is in great jeopardy at the moment—in many neighborhoods in our city, there is significant gentrifying pressure, and constant upward pressure on utility rates,” Fisher said. “We believe that without access to renewable energy sources like solar, low-income communities like ours will be left further and further behind.”

Though HOPE Village Revitalization has not yet started accepting rental applications, the feasibility stage is complete and the organization is now moving into the pre-development phase. But HOPE is not alone in its mission. Across the country, other green affordable housing initiatives are gaining traction. For example, PUSH Buffalo in Buffalo, New York, Solar-for-Vouchers in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, and Community Climate Collaborative in Charlottesville, Virginia, are all just a few of the programs that are fusing climate and housing goals together in an effort to close equity gaps and increase access to renewable energy.

“There is significant pent-up demand in low-income communities for renewable energy—we have had numerous focus groups and meetings about solar energy over the past couple of years, and many residents have already started trying to figure out how they can install renewable energy sources for their home,” Fisher said.

With President Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan, green affordable housing for all may be on the horizon. In addition to increasing wages for frontline workers, the bill outlines a plan to retrofit over two million buildings to create energy-efficient and resilient housing. Biden called the plan a “once-in-a-generation investment in America.”