Can housing be green — and cheap?

HOST builds city’s first sustainable neighborhood

By Jim Redden

Pamplin Media Group, May 15, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

COURTESY OF EDELMAN / PORTLAND

The first homes of HOST Development Inc.’s Helensview Homes neighborhood in Northeast Portland are nearing completion. The development is the first traditional single-family neighborhood project in town to receive LEED-ND certification.

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When it comes to housing, Portlanders place a high value on affordability and sustainability.

That was a major finding of the approximately 13,000 public surveys compiled and released last year as part of VisionPDX, the community visioning project championed by Mayor Tom Potter.

Such results help explain why various city agencies and the Metro regional government are trying to create green housing for families with young children.

Now a local nonprofit agency that builds and sells new homes is showing how it can be done. HOST Development Inc. is finishing work on the first homes in its Helensview Homes development — the first traditional single-family neighborhood project in town to receive LEED-ND (Neighborhood Development) certification.

“Our goal is to prove that green living can be affordable,” said HOST deputy director Ted Salter.

The development is located near Northeast 64th Avenue and Killingsworth Street. When completed, it will include 40 new homes and 12 flat-stacked condominiums, all designed to meet LEED and Energy Star standards. Environmentally friendly features range from nontoxic paint to low-flow water fixtures to native landscaping.

Prices will range from $196,000 for a two-bedroom home to $248,000 for a four-bedroom one. That is well below the current $339,900 median home price in Portland — and even less than the $286,000 median home price for the metropolitan region, which includes Clark County.

HOST is able to keep the prices low for several reasons. Among other things, it does not make a profit and has access to low-interest loans not available to conventional builders.

The organization also builds long-term partnerships with companies that provide goods and services at reduced costs. And it bought the land four years ago, when prices were lower.

“We wanted to show that with good planning, efficient building techniques and reasonable cost cutting, we could build sustainable homes at an affordable cost,” HOST executive director John Miller said.

“It’s a common misconception that green building has to be a luxury item,” said Devin Culbertson, HOST assistant project manager. “People may choose to use bamboo flooring or expensive recycled materials to earn LEED points, but by switching to good insulation, efficient windows and low-flow fixtures you can get more substantial benefits with minimal cost increases.

“At HOST, we’ve been building to Earth Advantage Standards for years, which gave us a head start at Helensview. When we took additional steps to get LEED certification, we focused on functional solutions — even if they’re not the most glamorous.”

Homey living at condo prices

Lois O’Hara and Matt Andrus put down a $500 deposit earlier this month to buy a four-bedroom home in the development. For two years, the couple had been looking to buy a home with enough room to raise Andrus’ daughter, who is in the sixth grade. O’Hara said they were thrilled by the price, size and environmental standards of the home.

“For that price, we were afraid all we could afford was a condo, not a real home. And we all think it’s very important to leave as small a footprint as possible on the Earth,” said O’Hara, adding that she and Andrus both plan on bicycling to their jobs near the airport when they move in.

The public is invited to view the finished homes and the rest of the project at a street fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 31. The event will feature food and information about homeownership opportunities through HOST.

The project’s certification is earned through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program of the U.S. Green Building Council. The council is a nonprofit that issues various green-building certifications based on energy efficiency, indoor air quality, building methods and materials.

Such features, however desirable, typically require a higher upfront investment, and usually are out of reach for home buyers in the lower-income brackets.

The HOST project is one of 238 across the country trying to break through this barrier. Two others also are located in Portland: Hoyt Yards in the Pearl District, and the Central District project in South Waterfront. Both are residential towers, however, not more traditional single-family homes.