Low Rent High Tech
(Page 2 of 4)
November / December 2007
By Hannah Lobel, Utne Reader
“In the wintertime now, you can get warm and stay warm,” says Dave Cummings, a physical education and health teacher and 14-year resident. Cold winds don’t blow through the windows anymore, and neither does dust. The place is simply cleaner, he says, and the air is healthier.
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Del and Kathy Konakowitz, who have been managing the property for 14 years, talk about maintenance calls. These days, they’re more likely to hear from a resident who needs a refresher on how to work a dual-flush toilet than from someone whose air-conditioning is busted.
Jorge Lopez, senior project manager for Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, the nonprofit developer of Viking Terrace, marvels at the new gabled metal roof. “It was leakage after leakage after leakage,” he recalls of the previous flat roof. “This roof, we know it’s going to last 50 years.”
Then there are the lower utility bills. Everyone likes those.
“Folks who have less money aren’t less concerned about the environment, but their concerns are practical,” says Ed Connelly, the president of New Ecology Inc., a Massachusetts nonprofit that promotes affordable sustainable development. “Health, costs, comfort . . . those are very important, powerful environmental issues.”
They’re also tangible personal issues that have the potential to appeal beyond the save-the-earth contingent. What’s more, addressing one of those issues often helps with the others.
Take, for example, air ventilation, says Connelly. Making sure that ducts are properly sealed lowers heating bills by saving energy. It also helps keep out the bugs and other unwelcome critters that can cause asthma and allergy flare-ups. Similarly, using building materials free from formaldehyde, which is in various finishes and paneling, and from other volatile organic compounds, like those found in many paints, is good for both the environment and the health of residents.
It’s not surprising that advocates of affordable housing are the ones bringing such synergies to the fore. People who are surviving on low incomes are at a far greater risk than others of suffering from asthma and other serious, costly respiratory ailments. And unexpected medical bills can wipe out the budget of a family that’s living from paycheck to paycheck.