Collaborative Receives Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania Innovation Award
The Collaborative was one of the recipients of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania's 2007 Innovation Award for its key role in a groundbreaking effort to promote the quality of affordable housing design in Pennsylvania. The award was presented at the Housing Alliance's Homes Within Reach conference in Harrisburg, PA on December 2007.
Throughout 2007, the Collaborative worked closely with other affordable housing and design advocacy organizations to create the Excellence in Design Initiative, a $1.5 million demonstration program that enabled the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) to include design quality—for the first time—in its criteria for funding affordable housing.
The Collaborative partners in developing the Excellence in Design Initiative were PHFA, the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh, the Hamer Center for Community Design, NeighborhoodsNow, and the Affordable Housing Design Advisor. The initiative also received support from The William Penn Foundation.
The Excellence in Design Initiative incorporated design and planning standards for building and rehabbing housing in urban areas into the Request for Proposals for PHFA's Homeownership Choice Programs. The standards were derived from the Affordable Housing Design Advisor a national advocate for good design in affordable housing.
Affordable housing developments in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Carlisle, PA received funding through the initiative in 2007. PHFA Executive Director Brian A. Hudson, Sr., believes the initiative helped elevate good design in an often neglected area—places to live for families of modest means. "PHFA wants to make sure that design excellence is incorporated into the developments it funds from their inception, not just as an afterthought," Hudson said.
Based on the success of the Excellence in Design Initiative, design criteria will be incorporated into all Requests for Proposals for PHFA's Homeownership Choice Programs in 2008.
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