City Unveils Pilot Program to Green Foreclosed Homes

At a conference held last Friday at the Durst Organization's LEED Platinum hopeful Bank of America Tower, the Bloomberg administration announced plans to launch a pilot green retrofit program for foreclosed one- to four-family homes in New York City. Sponsored by USGBC-NY, "Green and Affordable: Sustainable Strategies for the New Housing Marketplace" featured former Department of Housing Preservation and Development ("HPD") commissioner Sean Donovan, who announced the pilot program during his keynote address. The Enterprise Green Communities criteria will serve as the basis of the pilot, which is part of Mayor Bloomberg's New Housing Marketplace Plan, an initiative aiming to create sufficient affordable housing for 500,000 New Yorkers. GlobeSt.com was unable to obtain information from HPD about the number of homes that will qualify under the pilot program, or where those homes might be located. Funds for the pilot program will come, in part, from HUD, which awarded a $24 million grant to the New Housing Marketplace Plan back in January. Donovan, who now serves as President Obama's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, also noted that HUD will be competitively awarding $2 billion in neighborhood stabilization funds through the stimulus package, much of which will be invested in making existing homes more sustainable.

• City May Green Foreclosed Homes (GlobeSt.com)