Habitat, UVa’s ecoMOD unveil green home
The Daily Progress/Megan Lovett
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville and the University of Virginia’s ecoMOD project dedicate their new energy-efficient home in Charlottesville.
After waiting for years, Nasima Andesha has received the keys to an Elliott Avenue home that is the first of its kind in Charlottesville.
“We like it, and we are happy to move in as soon as possible,” she said.
The Andeshas’ home was made possible through Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville and its partnership with ecoMOD — a University of Virginia research project that seeks to create prototypes for affordable and ecological modular homes. The house is ecoMOD’s first single-family detached house in the city.
“Sustainable should be attainable by all,” said Dan Rosensweig, executive director of the local Habitat for Humanity chapter, at the home’s dedication ceremony on Saturday.
Nasima and her husband, Fazel, had been on Habitat’s waiting list for a home for years. Their new home, which is close to downtown, is roughly 1,000 square feet and has two bedrooms, along with technology that would ideally result in a very small energy output and small utility bills.
Those involved with the project, which included dozens of UVa architecture and engineering students, the Charlottesville-based Habitat chapter and UVa and city officials, hailed the endeavor as a way to provide energy efficient affordable housing and one that inspired community collaboration.
“It’s one thing to have an idea, it’s another thing to make it work,” said Arthur Garson Jr., UVa’s executive vice president and provost.
Work on the house began in the spring. It was built with a budget of $120,000.
John Quale, ecoMOD’s project director and an assistant professor at UVa’s School of Architecture, said project team members would monitor and evaluate energy use in the house once the Andeshas move in to see if it achieved its eco-friendly goals.
“This is an educational project as much as anything,” Quale said.
EcoMOD also has partnered with Piedmont Housing Alliance for other affordable housing projects. Similarly, ecoMOD is now working with Charlottes-ville officials on a Ridge Street house — adjacent to the Andeshas’ Habitat home — so that it can also become more energy efficient.
City officials say the house at 608 Ridge St. is a demonstration project now, but in about three years they hope to sell it to a homeowner after all the improvements have been made.
“Houses of this style can be renovated and retrofitted to be energy efficient,” Mayor Dave Norris said Saturday.
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Reader Reactions
It does help when a name is spelled correctly. Now I know something of Virnita Court.
Care to elaborate on your reference. Do you have issues with PHA, mixed income development as a means of making affordable housing feasible (a proposition behind Habitat’s Southwood project), distribution of the City’s affordable housing funds, what?
Trying to work with you here, really. Not making it easy.
http://www.c-ville.com/index.php?cat=141404064435450&ShowArticle_ID=11432611073719529
Virnita Court 800 Rose Hill Drive. http://www.c-ville.com/index.php?cat=121304064644348&z_Issue_ID=11430112071810032&ShowArchiveArticle_ID=11431112070664723&Year=2007
Yes, I have heard that argument before.
First, a prototype is always going to be more expensive. There is a marked difference between something experimental, and something put into production. To follow this argument to its logical conclusion, we’d make sure all affordable housing were teepees, or adobes, or mud huts, and we’d relocate all of the working poor as far away from jobs as possible. That, of course, is nonsense. The goal—to build affordable housing for working families in the community that they work, where they have transportation options—to do so energy efficiently in an urban setting—what’s wrong with that?
Second, not sure where the $120/sq. ft. comes from, or what costs are included. Is that all in, including land? Is that including other project costs that would not be a part of a future build?
Fact is, I can build homes in Honduras at $600 a pop. When I was challenged by my employer—who happens to be the largest benefactor of Habitat—that we could not justify sponsorship of a build in Charlottesville, because you could build two or three houses in rural Augusta County for one in the City, I countered with I could build 200-300 homes in Tegucigalpa for that matter. The reality is, we have a problem right here to solve. And it is a problem everywhere.
Now, if what you are saying is that we should not have housing options available to all people in our community—some of them are just SOOL, I politely disagree.
If they want to use the term “affordable” they better do it with less than 120 bucks a square foot. I wonder how much more they received in free labor etc to accomplish this. Saving energy and using green products is fine, but the reality is that if they had built it for 75k using a few non green products they would have been able to buy about 15 acres down in nelson or buckingham county and put it into a conservation easement and grown some green trees in perpituity. Or they could have built two slightly less efficient houses and provided homes for two families which would allow them to become more productive members of society and saved enough in social services etc to maybe build a third house. (just some things that should be thrown into the decision making process.)
Here is a good article that adds some breadth and depth to the DP piece:
http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=10543
Oh, and I have yet to find anyone who has heard of Vernita anything—so unless K enlightens us, it will forever remain one of life’s mysteries. 
“So what if you are unaware? Then it is clear you know nothing about the operations of PHA or Habitat.“
Add AHIP to that list. I was unaware that it is in the City Budget.
I will say this: There is copious information available from the City on a number of projects, and a decent amount of information appears to be available to the public… just a few clicks away on the internet. Ditto most local non-profits such as PHA and Habitat.
“If it is later decided that an enhanced capacity program should be developed, Piedmont Housing Alliance (PHA), a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), has proposed its willingness to administer the program for the City. PHA currently has in place all of the necessary resources to administer a large scale micro-program, namely a
loan committee, loan servicing software, and staff with experience in underwriting loans. Additionally, PHA
has flexible capital to match City funds as a means of re-establishing a new micro-loan program and
connections with other non-City sources that have grants available to help fund the program. PHA has
committed to a match of $75,000 should the City decide that it wants to expand the program. (For more
details about the program, see the attached proposal from PHA (Appendix for Micro-Loan Program.)“
Housing Programs
Rent Relief for Elderly, a sum sufficient estimated at 10,000
Rent Relief for Disabled, a sum sufficient estimated at 85,000
Tax Relief for Elderly, a sum sufficient estimated at 534,000
Tax Relief for Disabled, a sum sufficient estimated at 137,000
Albemarle Housing Improvement Program (AHIP) 95,546
Piedmont Housing Alliance (PHA) 142,106
Charlottesville Community Design Center 27,560
Homeowners Tax Relief Program 450,000
“Since the city hasn’t communicated with the public about either of these two projects, I am not sure PHA is involved in the rehab of 608 or not.“
http://www.charlottesville.org/index.aspx?page=2670
“Houses of this style can be renovated and retrofitted to be energy efficient,” Mayor Dave Norris said Saturday.
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