Patton Place brings green building to those who need it.

The American economy has tumbled amid slowdowns in the home-building industry that once kept it afloat, putting construction projects across the country on hold. A building boom in China has sent the price of steel skyrocketing, leading to increased construction costs in the United States. The mortgage crisis has slowed the economy and new construction starts, while surging oil and fuel prices have led to increased transportation costs, affecting everything from food costs to pubic transit fares.

One might think, therefore, that green affordable housing projects might be falling by the wayside as well—or at least their green building aspects. Even though green buildings can be 5 percent to 10 percent more expensive to construct than conventional ones, green low-income housing projects are continuing unfettered amid cloudy economic times.

Developers get feet wet

While upfront costs for implementing green building techniques often represent an obstacle for some building owners, nonprofits or government agencies—particularly those that retain ownership of a project, as is the case with most multi-unit projects—many such organizations are implementing green design as a way to assure that operation costs are minimized in the long run. Leading the charge, many pioneers of the green building industry are making a concerted effort to incorporate the “third leg of the sustainability stool” into the green building industry.

“A lot of developers have put their toes into the water, so to speak, with green,” says Dana Bourland, senior director of the Green Communities initiative for Maryland-based Enterprise Community Partners, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit housing developers. “They’ve seen there’s immediate payback on both bills and in residents who are experiencing increased health impact from living there.”
Bourland says she believes the economic boom of the past few years provided the green building movement with time to prove its value. During an interview less than a week after the Dow-Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 800 points over a three-day period, Bourland adds, “We’re still getting calls even today from interested public entities that want to make their housing green.”