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HUD COPC: Affordable Housing Initiatives: Case Study Prototypes

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has award a multi year grant to establish a Community Outreach Partnership Center. The project Affordable Housing Initiatives Case Study Prototypes is a partnership between the University of Minnesota, the Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation, and the Wilder Foundation. The partnership has three over arching goals; create sustainable, healthy, and culturally responsive, affordable housing; explore the cost reducing potential of new technology; and educate students at the College of Design on aspects of affordable housing.

Project: The Affordable Housing Initiative is a design-research collaboration in affordable housing that brings together the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, the Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation (GFCDC), a team from the University of Minnesota, and the building industry. The team's mission is to aggressively address the housing crisis by providing affordable housing that will ensure stability and improve the quality of life in low-income communities. This project targets a critical gap in affordable housing for those between the 40-60% median income level, which fall between the housing programs by Habitat for Humanity and Community Development Corporations.

Goal: The goal of the project is to develop ten prototype houses that integrate affordability with sustainable design, healthy construction, social and cultural responsiveness, and design excellence. Phase One of the project, which was completed in fall 2003, involved the design, construction, and evaluation of Case Study House One in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. House One utilizes a new studless oriented strand board Structural Engineered Panel (SEP) building system combined with the PERSIST (Pressure Equalized Rain Screen Insulated Structure Technique) weatherization technology developed in Canada.

The Affordable Housing Initiative is part of a larger housing effort coordinated by the Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation (GFCDC) entitled Project 20/20, which has the ultimate goal of developing 20 demonstration-housing units in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. The Affordable Housing Initiative focuses specifically on the design, construction, and evaluation of ten houses (including single family, duplex, and townhouse variations) to test and demonstrate that high performance and healthy features can be added to new construction while still maintaining affordability for low-income families.

Outcomes: Case study housing prototype designs and resources including design and technology transfer documents, performance analyses, production protocols, and web site. Houses Two-Ten constructed, documented, and evaluated for performance and livability. Dissemination of designs and technology standards and protocols to policy making bodies, housing and government agencies, building industry, design professionals and educators.