Community Partner
Precedents for Sustainable Renovations in Orchard Acres (click PDF)
Fall 2011
Team members: John Bonanno, Timothy Morris, and Kate Bird
While many non-profit organizations travel abroad to offer their aid to citizens of developing nations, addressing local issues allows us to get involved in and improve our communities. An issue that faces both rural and urban parts of our nation including Charlottesville is the lack of safe and affordable housing for low-income families and individuals. Housing that betters our community through sustainable means can become a reality in Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle County with the necessary research and funding.
To assist the Albemarle Home Improvement Program (AHIP) with their efforts to implement a sustainable approach to renovations of low-income housing, our team has focused on identifying precedent programs and projects to inform possible approaches as well as examples of funding strategies to help bring the work to fruition. We have focused specifically on information that will assist in the work in the Orchard Acres neighborhood of Crozet. We are interested in identifying programs and projects that used green building approaches to renovate existing houses and the funding that made them possible. We have explored low income housing renovation precedents and funding strategies that are sustainable both in terms of the environmental and social outcomes they facilitate. Ultimately we hope that AHIP will be able to utilize these strategies efficiently and effectively both in the short and long term.