Detroit-based nonprofit Southwest Housing Solutions received an Honorable Mention for pioneering work in sustainable innovation last week during the Governor’s Energy Excellence Awards, hosted on the river at The Port of Detroit.
The event was attended by Governor Rick Snyder, who also recognized fellow Detroiters Saunteel Jenkins, the CEO of the THAW Fund and Carla Walker-Miller, the President & CEO of Walker-Miller Energy Services, one of Detroit’s fastest growing small business owners, in his address, along with brief overviews of finalists’ projects from around the state.
“The ability to determine how much homeowners will save in utility costs through standardized and energy-efficient construction can make the critical difference in whether families in Detroit can attain and sustain homeownership.” – Tim Thorland, Executive Director of Southwest Housing Solutions
One of the three organizations under the umbrella of community development nonprofit Southwest Solutions, Southwest Housing manages approximately 700 affordable housing units in the southwest part of the city and has developed hundreds of units around Detroit and the metropolitan region, including the Marygrove program in Northwest Detroit, in partnership with Chemical (now Talmer) Bank and the Detroit Land Bank Authority.
The project garnering Honorable Mention was a construction and design standards guide developed by Nat Zorach, TheHUB’s Neighborhood Economic Development Director. Zorach, who left Southwest earlier this year, recounted the guide’s humble beginnings as a one-page cut sheet meant to streamline the bidding process for renovations to Marygrove College.
Zorach’s “heavily editorialized” guide not only makes something as “unglamorous” and technical as roof insulation a bit more entertaining, but serves as an important tool to support housing that’s both more energy-efficient and more attractive.
“We had companies from rural Oakland County, from the West Side, from the East Side, all bidding on projects with completely different ideas of what they thought would constitute a finished house,” he recounted. “We had no consensus, so we needed a process. Some of these guys were sending files from their Google drive and some of them were submitting handwritten bids.”
The guide became a comprehensive, 200-page “how-to” for renovation that could not only save hassle in terms of scope but also make homes look better and feel more comfortable. The major goal was to save money for homeowners, prescribing strategies for how to affordably insulate and air-seal homes and how to quantify energy reduction, both scientifically and monetarily.
“I had clients who were breaking the bank to gut a completely intact bathroom or kitchen or something,” Zorach said, “while at the same time they were struggling to finance the renovation itself—and had to pay a few hundred dollars a month to heat the place in the winter, to boot. It made zero sense.”
Zorach admits that the guide is “heavily editorialized” to make something as unglamorous and technical as roof insulation be a bit more entertaining, but thinks that it can serve as a tool to create housing that’s both more energy-efficient and more attractive.
Southwest Solutions similarly remains committed to the deployment of energy-efficient solutions as a crucial issue in housing affordability.
“A high utility bill can be an enormous hardship for low-to-moderate income homeowners,” said Tim Thorland, Executive Director of Southwest Housing Solutions. “The ability to determine how much the homeowner will save in utility costs through standardized and energy-efficient construction can make the critical difference in whether families in Detroit can attain and sustain homeownership.”
Plenty of low-hanging fruits, Zorach says, aren’t yet the norm for housing renovation in Detroit, but can have a huge impact on monthly finances.
“Paradigm shift is tough,” he says, “but it all starts with a conversation. This is just a way to help visualize the whole thing and tell a story about something that we all intuitively agree needs to happen—and can happen.”
Editor’s Note: To learn more about Southwest Housing Solutions visit www.swsol.org
Lead image: Governor Rick Snyder poses for photos with finalists and awardees.
Neighborhood Housing developer receives sustainable innovation award added by TheHUB on
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