E3 Facility and Town Provides Zero Energy Ready Home in Low-Income Communities
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The United Way of Long Island (UWLI), along with its partner, the Town of Islip Community Development Agency (CDA), join forces today to celebrate the completed DOE Zero Energy Ready home of a family of four in Brentwood, NY.
In an effort to help families in need on Long Island, UWLI and the Town of Islip in conjunction with the CDA work in collaboration to provide energy-efficient homes that serve low-moderate income families with affordable and attainable housing on Long Island. Energy-efficient homes like this one in Brentwood need to have energy efficiency and healthy indoor environments built in as the home is being built, so Long Islanders can benefit from healthier living and lower operational costs. This translates into more disposable income and less health related problems due to poor indoor air quality in the home. Partnerships like this help showcase the convergence of healthy home detailing, durability, resiliency, sustainable energy savings with more comfort, and state of the art Smart Home Technology to ultimately help advance the common good in Long Island communities.
Through it’s E3 SmartBuild Center, UWLI has worked with closely with the Town of Islip CDA, and the Department of Energy to complete the Zero Energy Ready home through the DOE Builders Challenge program. This represents a whole new level of home performance, with rigorous requirements that ensure outstanding levels of energy savings, comfort, health, and durability. The completed Brentwood DOE Zero Energy Ready home is a high performance home, which is so energy efficient that its renewable energy system can offset all or most of its annual energy consumption.
The UWLI E3 SmartBuild Center, in Deer Park, NY, is a state-of-the-art building-science lab house (funded by NYSERDA), which provides students with hands-on, energy-related training opportunities and certification programs. Training at the pressure lab house includes trainees in the fields of renewable energy; advanced heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; energy retrofit and weatherization; as well as the green building industry that includes a variety of green design practitioners.
Throughout the process of building the Brentwood energy-efficient home, United Way of Long Island and the Town of Islip CDA worked with United Way’s YouthBuild students to build the community home, in an effort to fulfill Section 3 HUD requirements to use low-moderate income residents of a community and provide help with employment opportunities with federal HUD dollars. Section 3, established by Congress, is a mean by which HUD fosters economic development, neighborhood economic improvement, and individual self-sufficiency directed toward low-moderate and very low-income persons, particularly those who are recipients of government assistance for housing.
YouthBuild Long Island – a program of UWLI, is a free youth and community-development program that addresses core issues facing low-income communities: housing, education, employment, crime prevention, and leadership development. At YouthBuild, low-income young men and women, ages 18 to 24, work towards completing their education while learning hands-on job skills by building affordable, Green housing for low- to moderate-income people. YouthBuild is focused on Green collar job opportunities in Energy Efficiency, Renewables, Weatherization, Energy Star construction, and Home Performance. Students train with state-of–the-art equipment and technology at the E3 SmartBuild Center in Deer Park.
On a larger scale in partnership with the Town of Islip CDA, the DOE and other partners, the UWLI has been consistently advocating for low-income communities through policy research and development, innovations in financing, assistance with program design and technology adoption, engagement with community partners, and more.
For more than 20 years, UWLI has been committed to helping low-moderate income people, communities, and the organizations that serve them to reduce the burden of energy use and cost. UWLI’s work to make low-moderate income housing ever more affordable, durable, and sustainable through direct program design and implementation helps reduce energy burdens one home at a time, leaving families with monthly savings that translate directly into more money for other essentials. UWLI broadens this focus by tackling climate change, which disproportionately affects low-income housing with locations and designs that are often ill-suited to withstand extreme weather.
“Our partnership with the Town of Islip CDA provides a greater opportunity for low-moderate income individuals get back on their feet with affordable housing that enables members of the household to implement long-terms savings as a result of energy-efficient applications built into the home,” said Theresa Regnante, President and CEO of United Way of Long Island.
“We commend Islip’s CDA and the United Way for working together to make the important dream of owning a home a reality for some very deserving Brentwood residents,” said Islip Town Councilman, John Cochrane, Jr. “These efforts have not only provided affordable housing to these qualified individuals, but have also created an energy efficient home which will result in significant savings for the homeowners, while providing them with a healthier lifestyle.”
“Affordable housing continues to be an important priority in the Town of Islip, and we are grateful to the CDA and the United Way for partnering to establish this energy efficient home. We congratulate the owners and wish them much happiness in their new home,” said Islip Town Supervisor, Tom Croci.
“We are committed to furthering the implementation of energy efficiency and conservation through the development and construction of Zero Energy Ready Homes within the Town of Islip. Various financing options will be provided including rent with option to buy, down payment and closing cost assistance. These initiatives make home buying affordable, attainable and sustainable by offering first time homebuyers the opportunity to achieve, maintain and live the American dream of homeownership. Empowering future generations is the essence of the Youth Build Program which provides not only teaching of construction skills, responsibility and self-confidence,” said Alison Karppi, Executive Director of the Town of Islip CDA.
The lab house is a valuable resource for participants in UWLI’s YouthBuild, as well as UWLI’s VetsBuild program, which serves returning veterans from IRAQ and Afghanistan. Industry professionals can also obtain continuing education units (CEUs) through training programs at the pressure lab house.
The E3 SmartBuild Center provides United Way with an effective business model and perfect opportunity to partner with so many ‘like’ organizations seeking to accomplish similar community goals,” said Rick Wertheim, Senior Vice President of the UWLI Housing Division. “After receiving practical training at the lab house, many students will have the opportunity to work in teams with local contractors to construct homes, like the one in Brentwood, that provide energy savings and healthy indoor environments to the residents that need it the most.”
About United Way of Long Island
United Way of Long Island advances the common good, creating opportunities for a better life for all by focusing on the three key building blocks of education, financial stability and health. We recruit people and organizations that bring the passion, expertise and resources needed to get things done. LIVE UNITED® is a call to action for everyone to become part of the change. United Way of Long Island is part of a worldwide network spanning across 41 countries and territories, including more than 1,200 local organizations in the U.S. For more information about United Way of Long Island, please visit: www.unitedwayli.org.
About Town of Islip Community Development Agency
The Town of Islip Community Development Agency is a public benefit corporation, which was created by New York State legislation in 1976 at the request of the Town of Islip. It functions as an "Urban Renewal Agency" under Articles 15, 15-A, and Section 633 of Article 15-B of the General Municipal Laws of the State of New York. While it is an independent entity from the Town of Islip government, the Town Board appoints all members of the CDA Board of Directors and the Town Board annually directs the CDA to implement housing and community developments projects on behalf of the Town. http://www.islipcda.org