In an exciting development, the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association (NH&RA) is harnessing the efforts of affordable housing and financing professionals to overcome hurdles in implementing green building principles.

On May 15-16 in Los Angeles, the NH&RA is sponsoring the 2008 Spring Developer Forum, a conference to discuss how to assemble the capital necessary to fund sustainable building design in affordable housing projects.

Affordable housing tax policy and an equity drought resulting from the turbulence in financial markets has complicated paying for the green building features sweeping the nations’ building codes. Because rents are purposely restricted to ensure affordability, financing affordable housing has been accomplished primarily through tax subsidies. Though subsidies compensate developers for the profit difference lost to low fixed rents, they have yet to keep pace with the increased costs of sustainable green building features such as efficient HVAC systems and solar panels.

Thom Amdur, Vice President of NH&RA, explained that the recent credit crunch and sub-prime debacle have left the two main affordable housing financing firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, posting “stupendous losses.” Their profit loss reduces their need for the tax incentives that lead to investment in affordable housing.

Amdur notes that the lack of investment in affordable housing is ironic because that market is quite stable; affordable housing is perpetually in demand. “It’s sad because affordable housing is one of the safest types of investments with the lowest foreclosure rate of any type of real estate investment in the U.S.,” he said. 

Amdur says that the conference will have pragmatic themes. “As a development community, we want to do green and sustainable building, it’s a matter of paying for it," he said. "The conference will focus in part on what types of sustainable building are the most effective, with the biggest payouts. Some sustainable things are easy to do, have immediate impacts and are not particularly expensive, like bike racks or low voc paint. With a smaller budget, we may be able to employ ten other green building strategies for the same cost as solar.”

While enthusiastic about solar, Amdur noted that it can carry with it ongoing costs and long-term payoffs that the affordable housing industry has not yet adapted to underwrite. “We’ll focus on what works, what doesn’t, what challenges and solutions exist, and how to comply with recent legislative changes,” he said.

Issues of class and affordability have long dogged environmentalists, who are commonly accused of elitism. Organizations like NH&RA that work to make sustainable housing accessible to people of all income levels play a critical role in ensuring that "going green" is not a luxury.

Photo by Kristen E. Hall