While senior living options continue to expand and improve, older adults with limited resources often find themselves without affordable alternatives. For decades, Rona Barrett made a name for herself covering celebrity news – and plenty of gossip – for a myriad of publications and television networks. What began as a prescient vision of the future of celebrity marketing soon grew into a syndicated column, a highly celebrated memoir, and a stint on Good Morning America. But Barrett abandoned the gossip mill long ago, and has recently set her sights on helping provide affordable housing for senior citizens. Barrett admits to in an interview with Buzzfeed that her time in the spotlight took its toll. After years of dodging misogyny, anti-Semitism, and simple lack of vision, Barrett ditched the press corps and headed to the Santa Ynez Valley. “The day I left Hollywood, I canceled all my subscriptions: Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Ad Age, everything to do with the entertainment industry. I left it all behind. I came up over the pass here to the Santa Ynez Valley, and I thought, Oh my god, this is exactly where I want to be.” These days, Barrett spends her time and (formidable) energy advocating for The Golden Inn & Village, a “first-of-its-kind” mixed-use development comprised of low-income housing for seniors and local families. The Golden Inn and Village includes 150 affordable units, 60 of which are earmarked for low-income seniors and 60 assigned to memory care and assisted living. An additional 27 rental apartments will be made available to employees and their families. Funded primarily through Barrett’s foundation, the project also received $23 million in tax credits, which will help with a portion of the projects equity funding. Barrett herself has helped raise more than $4.2 million for the project through her...

Awareness of the affordable housing crisis has grown exponentially inside of industry circles. Unfortunately, public awareness is still woefully low and solutions to the problem have yet to manifest. A new organization lead by Ron Terwilliger will collect data that can guide policymakers towards crisis resolution. Simultaneously, the data will help to protect the most vulnerable victims of the affordable housing crisis, America’s youth and seniors. “A legacy of the great recession, the rental affordability crisis is often overlooked by policymakers, ignored by the media, and underestimated, at best, by the general public,” announced Ron Terwilliger, former CEO of Trammell Crow Residential. Terwilliger reports that three-fourths of federal spending for housing supports homeowners, who generally have more than twice the income of renters. In contrast, federal rental assistance remains underfunded and only one-fourth of those in need are eligible for support. Of those in need, a growing number are seniors and children. Many people who cannot secure affordable housing face homelessness. Child homelessness is at a historic high. America’s Youngest Outcasts reports that homelessness impacts nearly 1 in every 30 children in the nation. This denotes an 8 percent increase in child homelessness between 2012 and 2013. The study ranked all 50 states according to the number of homeless children reported in the area.   Causes for child homelessness include high poverty rates and a lack of affordable housing. “Living in shelters, neighbors’ basements, cars, campgrounds, and worse—homeless children are the most invisible and neglected individuals in our society,” begins Dr. Carmela DeCandia, director of The National Center on Family Homelessness. “Without decisive action now, the federal goal of ending childhood homelessness by 2020 will soon be out of reach.” Seniors are also silent victims of the affordable housing crisis. The number of seniors...

“New York apartment market stays white-hot,” “Seattle multifamily development on a roll,” “San Francisco rents through the roof,” – we’ve all read the headlines. We come across them daily, as the nation’s top metro areas continue to post high rent growth numbers and apartment projects continue to pop up all over America’s large urban centers. While the apartment market’s rebound and growth has undeniably brought great economic improvements nationwide, it is just as undeniable that the past few years’ explosive growth in the country’s top markets has led to pervasive housing affordability issues. While incomes are overall more substantial in large urban centers, so are living costs. With half of America’s renters spending 30 percent of their income on housing and a quarter spending over 50 percent of their income on their apartments, unaffordability is a hot-button issue. The good news is there are a few pockets in America, where housing and living costs coalesce with employment opportunities for affordable living. According to a recent Forbes analysis, many of America’s affordable cities are located in the South and Midwest. We’re taking a look at some of the housing options available in the five most affordable cities in the U.S. as established by Forbes. Birmingham, Alabama Named the most affordable of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas by Forbes, Birmingham, Alabama is boasts a median family income of $61,000 which means that you can live in style in the largest unit available at Arium Inverness, and still brag about having an affordable apartment. That’s right, this stylish community’s largest units, which clock in at 1,400 square feet, charges between $915 and $1,085 per month. That bargain deal includes three bedrooms with a loft, two bathrooms, a dining room, a balcony and den. Other posh features...

The uptick in green affordable housing continues as Habitat for Humanity embraces passivehaus design. Passivehaus, or Passive House, is a rigorous German building standard that emphasizes air-tight envelopes, optimized solar gain, and decreased dependence on mechanical heating and cooling. Such stringent standards and cost assumptions have discouraged many affordable housing developers, yet Habitat for Humanity teamed up with BarlisWedlick Architects to look at passivehaus through an affordable lens. Dennis Wedlick of BarlisWedlick admits that he had his reservations about the project, though they weren’t rooted in costs or standards.  “We were concerned about how much training it was going to take for the volunteers so they could achieve what custom builders and their subs normally achieve on a project like this,” he says. “But there was no problem.” Columbia County townhouses were born, each costing about $125,000 and 4,000 volunteer hours to build. The results are well worth their efforts. Each 1,200-square-foot home achieved an air tightness level of less than .6 air changes per hour, and an R-value of 50-60 for the walls and roof, thanks to glorified newspaper insulation (weatherized cellulose insulation to be exact). Columbia County townhouses use less than 90 percent of the energy required to run a conventional home of the same size. The efficiency of passivehaus construction loses value if residents do not receive the proper tutorials on how to optimize the home’s features. Owners were taught the ins and outs of daily operation and maintenance, simple pointers such as closing the blinds during the hottest time of day and running the recovery ventilator nonstop. Time will tell if the houses and their residents live up to their greatest potential. Yet even with a margin for human error, such green building techniques offer three-fold benefits to those who need it most....

The widespread presence of sustainability features in affordable housing is finally underway thanks to changes in government regulations and financing incentives. Key green features are in high demand, forming a new standard in affordable housing. Affordable housing communities are becoming greener from the ground up, beginning with optimal placement: the north-south and east-west orientation of structures can help builders capitalize on passive solar energy or greater access to natural light, both of which can help tenants cut utility costs. Such passive solar housing units were recently added to Stoneham Barrier Free development in Massachusetts. By situating the buildings towards the sun, the units receive passive solar heating. During the summer, overhangs provide shading to keep units cooler. Clerestory windows channel natural light throughout the residences resulting in lower power bills for tenants. Developers are also taking advantage of smarter envelopes to create more efficient interiors. Since air leakage accounts for 25-40 percent of energy usage, constructing an airtight envelope promotes maximum indoor climate control and reduces energy waste. A tight envelope also helps to control moisture in living quarters and basements, minimizing the likelihood of mold, mildew, and moisture-related damages that carry significant costs for owners. What energy is needed to power affordable housing communities is furnished, at least in part, by renewable energy sources. Solar panels are more affordable and diverse than ever, coming in a variety of space-friendly styles to accommodate multifamily applications. Other innovative technologies, such as the use of algae and living concrete, offer properties a way to generate their own power and potentially sell power back to energy providers. “The Mennonite” is the nation’s first multi-family affordable passive house apartments, implementing an airtight envelope and on-site renewable energy sources. The $8.5 million structure will offer 24-units of green living for...