National Center for Healthy Housing Releases Tools and Training Resources for Affordable Housing Professionals

COLUMBIA, Md., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) has released a new suite of training and informational resources to help affordable housing professionals adopt sustainable and healthy building practices. With funding from the Home Depot Foundation, NCHH partnered with affordable housing organizations including Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. (Enterprise), NeighborWorks America, and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation to provide practical information local housing organizations can use to cost-effectively integrate healthy homes upgrades into their existing programs.

"NCHH supports the efforts of affordable housing organizations as they pursue a major policy shift to adopt green and sustainable housing practices," said Rebecca Morley, executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing. "We've developed this suite of training and technical assistance programs to demystify the practice of building healthy homes, with a special emphasis on highlighting practices to affordably build sustainable and green homes."

The new series of fact sheets, videos, Webinars and other resources are available online through the NCHH Web site. The materials provide affordable housing professionals with information on the latest innovations in green building techniques as well as practical technical information community development corporations can use in carrying out green building projects.

NCHH is placing special emphasis on efforts to "green" the more than 100 million existing housing units -- particularly affordable housing units -- across the country as an avenue to retrofit existing housing communities to provide high-quality, durable homes that also promote health.

NCHH has co-convened Webinars with Enterprise on the benefits of smoke-free housing and radon resistant construction. NCHH has also developed a course entitled "Green and Healthy Strategies for Multifamily Housing" in partnership with Steven Winter Associates and NeighborWorks America®. The course will be offered by the NeighborWorks America® Training Institute and through the National Healthy Homes Training Center. Sign up for the course online www.nw.org/network/green/training.asp. The course meets the NAHMA/NAA green property management certification requirement, which qualifies training participants under HUD's Mark to Market Green Initiative, as well as the Recovery Act/Green Retrofit Program.

"Enterprise is proud to partner with NCHH in demonstrating that affordable housing can be cost-effectively produced or preserved green," said Dana Bourland, AICP, vice president, Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. "Our research has proven that the estimated lifetime savings for energy and water costs exceed the initial investment and yields significant financial and health benefits for developers, property owners, and residents."  

Other new resources include fact sheets aimed at helping engineers, project managers and architects tackle some of the toughest healthy homes issues:

• Radon-Resistant Construction: Low-Rise Multi-Family Housing;
• Reasons to Explore Smoke-Free Housing Fact Sheet;
• Improving Ventilation in Multi-Family Buildings that Do Not Have Fan-Powered Ventilation;
• Improving Ventilation in Existing or New Buildings with Central Roof Exhaust; and
• Improving Ventilation in New and Existing Multi Family Buildings with Individual Unit Ventilation Systems.

To showcase successful green and healthy housing projects, including their impact on health and bottom line benefits for affordable housing managers, NCHH also developed several case studies:

• Nuevo Amanecer - The Greening of a Farmworker Community; 
• Viking Terrace - Advent of a Green Community;
• Wheeler Terrace - Rebuilding a Community Through Healthy Green Innovation; and
• Seattle High Point - A New Prescription for Asthma Sufferers.

Finally, NCHH has developed a series of "Webisodes" with Home and Garden Television host JoAnne Liebeler to help families learn how to incorporate healthy homes upgrades as part of their home renovation and maintenance projects.

To learn more about NCHH's green and healthy housing resources for affordable housing professionals, please visit: www.nchh.org/Training/Green-and-Healthy-Housing.aspx.

The National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) is the only national scientific and technical non-profit organization dedicated to creating healthy and safe homes for America's children through practical and proven steps. NCHH develops scientifically valid and practical strategies to make homes safe from hazards, to alert low- income families about housing-related health risks, and to help them protect their children.

Media Contact: Phillip Dodge, 443-539-4168, [email protected]

SOURCE National Center for Healthy Housing