Affordable housing gets green standards
State officials released a green-building standard for state-funded affordable housing projects.
The Legislature voted in 2005 to require all major state-funded buildings to meet at least a "silver" rating in the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. But lawmakers exempted affordable housing projects, directing state officials to come up with a green affordable housing standard by July 1, 2008.
The new Evergreen Standard is an adapted version of the Green Communities standard from Enterprise Community Partners, a Maryland-based non-profit that supports affordable housing efforts nationwide. Evergreen based Green Communities on the SeaGreen Affordable Housing Guide that the city of Seattle put in place in 2002.
The state will require the Evergreen Standard for all affordable housing projects beginning with projects funded in the fall 2008 Housing Trust fund round. State officials, working with Enterprise, will have workshops and training for developers starting June 13th in Spokane and June 14th in Seattle.
For more details online, visit goto.seattlepi.com/r787.
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