Last month, NH&RA hosted an inspired town hall focused on health and sustainability in affordable housing. The panel theme was inspired by a conversation I had with Krista Egger, vice president of National Initiatives at Enterprise Community Partners. Krista had recently updated me on the latest iteration of Enterprise’s Green Communities (EGC) Standard, which is the “gold standard” for affordable housing green building standards. I was intrigued and excited by the new ways the EGC update incorporates resident health into its design strategy.
The Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Housing and Infrastructure Project released federal policy recommendations designed to dramatically reduce the number of working families with destabilizing rent burdens and at risk of eviction, minimize the number of people experiencing homelessness, and prevent further spread of COVID-19.
A new joint venture between the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) and National Affordable Housing Trust (NAHT) aims to raise $1 billion over the first five years of the partnership to build, protect and preserve approximately 10,000 affordable homes across the country.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) signed Executive Order 2020-700, dedicating $15 million in federal Coronavirus Relief Funds for a Healthy at Home Eviction Relief Fund. The fund is a statewide effort to prevent Kentuckians from facing eviction and to allow landlords to realize substantial payments for back rent.
Mixed-use housing is poised for a huge expansion in the post-COVID era, as at-risk populations, especially seniors, are going to want more goods and services available to them under one, health-secure roof.
For examples in world history of grand changes to urban planning, look no further than a health crisis.
“Once you’re home, you’re safe.”
That is the essence of Health Secure Housing as defined by our colleague and TCA columnist David Smith, founder and CEO of the Affordable Housing Institute (AHI) of Boston, MA.
October 8, 2020
Virtual Town Hall
The Health@Home webinar series consists of four webinars that provide affordable housing rehabilitation specialists and program managers with information on integrating healthy housing techniques into their rehabilitation projects and best practices from practitioners who have successfully implemented these techniques.
After consuming bushels of news articles, social media posts and White House Coronavirus briefings over the past several months, I think we have all become amateur epidemiologists.
Because infrastructure always reaches the poorest last, its networks are always uneven. Because the business case for prevention can never be made until the cost of allowing failure is proven, preventive policies arise only after catastrophe.
America has seen shifts in senior care provisions. There are at least some elderly people who prefer to retire near urban centers, not suburban campuses, since that puts them near a greater diversity of people and amenities.