Today, The Home Depot(R) Foundation (THDF) announced the winners of its fifth annual Awards of Excellence for Affordable Housing Built Responsibly. The winners receive a total of $175,000 to further their goal of producing affordable, efficient and healthy housing, which is a major funding focus of THDF.

The Home Depot Foundation believes building in a responsible and environmentally friendly way is simply a smart way to build quality, affordable housing. In particular, THDF emphasizes the monthly savings families enjoy from lower utility, maintenance and transportation costs associated with homes built to recognized green standards. The Awards of Excellence for Affordable Housing Built Responsibly identify, recognize and showcase the outstanding and innovative work of nonprofit organizations in the area of ‘green’ design and management of affordable housing. The award recipients were selected based on a number of criteria, including the physical design and building performance, as well as how well they met the needs of the local community while maintaining affordability for the residents.

The first place winner in the Home Ownership category is:

• First Place "“ Habitat for Humanity, St. Louis, MO (HFHSL): In a two-year blitz build, Habitat for Humanity St. Louis (HFHSL) has reinvigorated the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood in Midtown St. Louis. The Jeff-Vander-Lou Neighborhood project, completed in 2008, is comprised of 27 single family homes that are 49 percent more energy efficient than homes built to code. In addition, the homes meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Platinum standards and earned the EPA’s Indoor Air Package (IAP) certification. HFHSL was able to build to green standards without adding any incremental costs to the development by utilizing available rebates and incentives. View the case study and video.

The first place winner and the runner up in the Rental category are:

• First place "“ National Community Renaissance (National CORE), La Quinta, CA: National CORE revitalized a distressed mobile home park into a beautiful and affordable 80-unit green housing development, called Vista Dunes, which meets LEED Platinum standards. Meeting this stringent certification standard added no incremental costs to the project. As a result of energy-efficient building, residents typically have 67% lower utility bills than homes built to standard code in the area. To ensure the continuing high-performance of the apartments, the project team developed a manual and a DVD to inform residents how to maintain the green features of their new homes. New residents also receive hands on training from the property maintenance manager and a National CORE employee. View the case study and video.
• Runner Up"“ Office of Rural Farm-Worker Housing from Yakima, WA: Completed in 2008, the 26 rental townhomes at Pear Tree Place are certified by Enterprise’s Green Communities program. As a result of the quality construction, residents, who typically earn less than $40,000 annually usually save 35 percent on their energy bills and 31 percent on their water bills, yet greening the project added less than 1% to the total development costs. View the case study and video.

"Building healthy, safe homes that families can afford to live in over the long-term is our purpose and our passion," said Kelly Caffarelli, president of The Home Depot Foundation. "We hope that identifying, recognizing and showcasing the outstanding and innovative work being done by nonprofits around the country will not only offer insight, but also inspiration, to others developing sustainable communities and housing for those of modest means."

Winners were selected from projects submitted by nonprofit housing developers throughout the country. An advisory committee of experts from a variety of affordable housing, community development, building sciences and environmental organizations participated in the selection process. The committee included representatives of 360GREEN, Inc., Global Green USA, Enterprise Community, Partners, Inc., Forest Stewardship Council-US, Housing Assistance Council, Jay Hall and Associates, Inc., Mercy Housing Lakefront, Southface, US Green Building Council, The Noisette Company, LLC, City of Atlanta Office of Sustainability, National League of Cities, and the Madison Area Community Land Trust.

Full case studies and videos on each winner are available at www.homedepotfoundation.org.

About The Home Depot Foundation
The Home Depot Foundation was created in 2002 to further the community building goals of The Home Depot. The Home Depot Foundation is dedicated to building affordable homes for working families that are healthy to live in and affordable to own. To make homes healthy and affordable, the Foundation encourages developers to incorporate responsible design and use durable and quality materials to ensure that homes are more energy and water efficient, have good indoor air quality, and provide a safe and healthy space to live. Since its formation, The Home Depot Foundation has granted $120 million to nonprofit organizations and supported the development of more than 65,000 affordable, healthy homes. For more information, visit www.homedepotfoundation.org or follow THDF on Twitter - @HomeDepotFdn.

Home Depot Foundation

Home Depot Foundation

The Home Depot Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that was established in 2002 to further the community building goals of The Home Depot by providing additional resources to assist nonprofit organizations.

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