Healthy Homes Initiative

Green & Healthy Homes Initiative® (Website)
The Eight Principles of a Healthy Home (PDF)
Healthy Homes Assessment Checklist (PDF)

Lewiston-Auburn

Green & Healthy Homes Initiative

Compact for the

Cities of Lewiston Auburn Maine 2014

 

Preamble

We, the undersigned, agree to direct our relevant efforts toward aligning, braiding, and coordinating home interventions in the spirit of the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI) goal of making homes healthy, safe, and sustainable. We pledge to work together to realize our belief that the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative will produce healthier, more energy efficient housing, higher quality green jobs, and improved health and social outcomes for families. GHHI is working to inform the Federal Healthy Homes Work Group, national partners, and state and local agencies in the development of a national green and healthy housing standard. The initiative strives to actively engage local government and non-governmental partners in each of the communities that are already conducting work related to green and healthy homes interventions. We believe that GHHI is an opportunity to improve our communities and the lives of those living within them by coordinating physical interventions to address home based health and safety hazards and energy deficiencies, resulting in:

  • better health outcomes for our children, seniors and families
  • more efficient use of public investment through improved interagency coordination
  • improved energy efficiency for low and middle income families
  • higher quality green jobs
  • reduced barriers to school attendance and work among families with young children
  • support for neighborhood stabilization through more effective and sustainable home investments

We acknowledge that we must work collaboratively and in close partnership to advance this initiative on behalf of the families we serve. Thus, we commit ourselves, our organizations, and our relevant resources to work in partnership to achieve the goals and principles set out in this GHHI Compact, always recognizing and respecting the diversity of interests and perspectives that will inform and sustain our Lewiston Auburn Initiative.

While we have agreed to the goals and principles, the implementation strategies will require further discussion, planning and negotiation, including among agencies with legal or regulatory authority at the local level. This Compact may be incorporated into contracts, memorandums of understanding, and other agreements as part of the implementation effort. It will be the responsibility of all of the parties acting in good faith to see that the work of the initiative is consistent with the agreed upon common goals and principles.

Lead Signatories

Green & Healthy Homes Initiative                  City of Auburn                                       City of Lewiston

Community Concepts, Inc.                              Healthy Androscoggin                         Seniors Plus

Auburn Housing Authority                               Lewiston Housing Authority

St. Mary’s Health System                                DFD Russell Medical Center

Community Clinical Services                          Central Maine Medical Center

Androscoggin Head Start and Child Care     Community Concepts Finance Corporation

Harward Center for Community Partnership at Bates College

Mattra, Inc. General Contracting                    Neighborhood Housing League

  1. The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative

The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative™ (GHHI) is a social innovation that yields high rates of return on the integration of energy and health-based investments in low and middle income communities. With support from partners at the White House, the Council on Foundations, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, GHHI works in collaboration with local and federal agencies as well as philanthropic partners to align, braid, and coordinate funding and programs nationwide.

GHHI maximizes public and philanthropic investments for 5 major benefits:

•    Government innovation in service delivery
  • Development of sustainable community-based “green collar” jobs and social enterprise
  • Creation of stable and sustainable green and healthy homes in low and moderate income neighborhoods
  • Measurable improvements in health outcomes for children, seniors, and families
  • Wealth retention and improved property values

In 2010, with support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded the Coalition a contract to support sites nationally on the effort to change system processes to produce Green and Healthy Homes. In its first few years of operation, GHHI has worked with communities to attract millions in public and private sector support to engage work on over 4,500 homes and develop a set of standards and business practices that can be nationally replicated. Serving as a key informant to the 11-agency Federal Interagency Working Group on Healthy Homes, GHHI became a critical catalyst in shifting the focus of the healthy homes industry to incorporate energy efficiency and vice versa.

Initial Green & Healthy Homes Initiative Sites

*          Atlanta, GA                      *          Detroit, MI                  *          Flint, MI

*          Dubuque, IA                    *          Baltimore, MD            *          Jackson, MS

*          Buffalo, NY                      *          San Antonio, TX         *          Chicago, IL

*          Providence, RI                 *          New Haven, CT          *          Oakland, CA

*          Cleveland, OH                 *          Denver, CO                  *          Philadelphia, PA

*          Cowlitz Tribe, WA           *          Spirit Lake Nation, ND

Ultimately, the goal of GHHI is to support the development of Green and Healthy Homes Standards for all housing intervention programs and to efficiently leverage health into investments in areas such as weatherization and energy efficiency.

  1. A Green and Healthy Home

A green and healthy home is one that consumes less water and energy, produces less waste, and does not contain health or safety threats. A GHHI home maximizes the benefits of each individual home improvement and in many different ways supports the well-being of the people living there. The elements below are detailed in a separate attachment covering Green and Healthy Standards and Practices.

  • Clean
  • Dry
  • Safe
  • Well-Ventilated
  • Pest-Free
  • Contaminant-Free
  • Free from Lead Hazards
  • Energy Efficient
  • Sufficiently Weatherized
  • Residents Equipped to Sustain and Maintain a Healthy and Efficient Home
  • Lewiston Auburn’s Commitment to the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative

Lewiston Auburn’s Vision

It is the vision of Lewiston Auburn’s Green & Healthy Homes Initiative that each home in Lewiston Auburn is a green and healthy home, and each resident benefits from a green and healthy home environment.

Collaboration: The goals and principles in this document are the result of a collaborative process. Likewise, the responsibility for implementing these goals and principles will require a partnership of many parties, including the City Manager and Administrator’s Offices, city departments, state and federal agency partners, non-profits, foundations, community organizations, private companies, and communities throughout the cities. Without this partnership, neither GHHI nor the community benefits envisioned by this Compact will be fully realized.

  • Partners agree to work together to establish an effective collaborative structure and streamline the housing assessment and intervention processes
  • The GHHI Learning Network (Steering Committee) in Lewiston Auburn will be made up of agencies, organizations, and companies listed as signatories and additional partners in this Compact, and will meet on at least a quarterly basis
  • Partners agree to support the coordination of housing intervention efforts and will work to remove barriers to integration among city and state agencies and private partner stakeholders
  • Partners agree to support efforts to share data and applicable information, and develop common metrics

Assessments and Interventions: The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative of Lewiston Auburn will participate in the following work, where applicable:

  • Conduct comprehensive housing assessments and interventions in 10 units in Lewiston Auburn by the end of July, 2015, integrating the areas of lead hazard reduction, Healthy Homes, weatherization, energy efficiency, and related work
  • Partners agree to support working with the GHHI national technical assistance team on a work plan that outlines activities, benchmarks, and a timeline for how the work above will be performed, and identifies the role of each partner and how they will contribute to the local effort
  • Partners agree to support the use of comprehensive assessment tools to assess multiple home-based health hazards and energy efficiency issues
  • Partners agree to support aligning program and income eligibility requirements where possible
  • Partners agree to target and prioritize interventions to properties with vulnerable populations such as young children, pregnant women, seniors, or people with disabilities, when applicable to program funding
  • Partners agree to work to align stand-alone programs, where appropriate, (weatherization, lead hazard control, fire safety, ) with a comprehensive strategy that integrates resources, reduces redundancies, and leverages multiple interventions in a single home

Resources Leveraging:

  • Partners agree to align programs, braid funds, and coordinate agencies to the greatest extent feasible and allowed by law or regulation
  • Partners agree to leverage public and private resources to conduct comprehensive GHHI interventions when appropriate and allowed under program requirements

Affiliation with National Green & Healthy Homes Initiative Efforts:

The development of National Green & Healthy Homes Initiative Model Programs and Housing Standards:

  • Partners agree to support the establishment of enhanced national, state and local housing standards that implement a holistic housing approach through comprehensive environmental assessments and integrated interventions in the areas of: lead hazard reduction, Healthy Homes, weatherization, and energy efficiency
  • Partners agree to support the development of model GHHI Programs that create feasible housing assessment and intervention programs for low and middle income communities

Participating with GHHI National Network:

  • Partners agree to inform the Federal Healthy Homes Work Group in barriers, recommendations, and best practices coming out of this work
  • Partners agree to have participation from Lewiston Auburn at National GHHI meetings, webinars, and trainings
  • Partners agree to share information, success stories, and best practices to be highlighted on the greenandhealthyhomes.org Lewiston Auburn communication site and in the annual report
  • Partners agree to provide data if applicable including but not limited to unit production, energy and health outcomes, and workforce outcomes to a national GHHI data platform3
  • Partners agree to help provide information for the purposes of evaluating GHHI efforts

Job Creation and Workforce Development: Partners agree to use the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative as a model for breaking down barriers to full employment for unemployed and underemployed low income residents and promoting equity through training and employment efforts.

Training: Partners agree to support, where possible, varied training programs to provide skill training and actual certifications and accreditations in green trades Green Jobs Training and Certifications such as:

  • Weatherization Tactics Training and/or Energy Analyst Training
  • Lead Hazard Reduction Supervisor, Worker, and/or EPA Renovator
  • Healthy Homes Practitioner
  • General workforce skills such as public health educator, computer skills, customer service skills, and business skills
  • Partners agree to support the cross-training of healthy homes related inspectors and contractors to increase and broaden their skills and enable flexibility in employment opportunities.
  • Partners agree to support organizations’ efforts to target applicable training funds and employment stipends to persons with barriers to employment such as long standing unemployment or underemployment or criminal history
  • Partners agree to provide on the job training in green trade skills to
  • enhance the skill level of participants and improve their competitiveness in the marketplace

Hiring:

  • Partners agree to adhere to Section 3 Requirements and other relevant local hiring requirements, where applicable
  • Partners agree to support and maintain pathways to higher salaried jobs for low income residents from at risk communities
  • Partners agree to support and provide for services to maintain drug free work places
  • Partners agree to support providing employment stipends to help participants obtain employment
  • Partners agree to support efforts to:
  • Provide opportunities for people who are chronically unemployed and underemployed who are determined to direct their efforts to obtaining and retaining full employment
  • Provide on the job training for residents who are chronically unemployed or underemployed as part of GHHI employment initiatives
  • Target 40% of training funds and employment stipends to persons who have been chronically unemployed and underemployed and who are determined to direct their efforts to obtaining and retaining full employment
  • Mandate that contractors conducting GHHI interventions stipulate in their contracts benchmarks for the hiring of low-income community­ based residents

Education and Sustainability:

  • Agree to support education of clients and behavioral changes that will enhance the long term effectiveness of interventions
  • Agree to provide directions on how clients can sustain and maintain the improvements from the provided investments