Net-Zero Energy for the Homeless

Net-Zero Energy Building for the Homeless Introduced at The Salvation Army Home Run

by Bobbie Stacey - Founder of Home Run Innovations Inc.

On May 23, 2009, designers and architects, Ryan Brayak, Kevin Bell and Hannah Jackson introduced conceptual plans for a net-zero energy building in downtown Escanaba that will be used temporarily for emergency and transitional housing of the homeless in Delta County.

 

The building is part of a three-part plan by Home Run Innovations Inc. to revitalize communities by creating a financially self-sustainable housing program. Part one is to create sustainable income streams to fund homeless services provided by local agencies. Part two is to build an endowment for future needs and eliminate much of the need to fundraise in the future. Part three is to create net-zero energy buildings for use as emergency or transitional housing with each property being sold to private buyers after a period of approximately five years.

Net-zero energy is a building standard reached when a property produces as much energy as it consumes in a given year. To reach this standard, Brayak’s building will incorporate multiple energy efficient technologies such as a geothermal heating system which draws the heat out of the ground to provide radiant or forced air heating for the building. The roof of the building will feature several rows of solar panels to produce electricity and excess electricity will be sold back to the power grid. Brayak has also chosen to use insulated concrete forms (ICF) which provide a high R-value (measure of thermal resistance) and thermal mass. A high R-value greatly reduces the transmission of heat and the thermal mass of concrete stores heat from the building interior, in the wintertime, and moderates the temperature, in the summer time. The use of these two reduces the need for a larger heating and cooling system and thus lessens the demand for resources to heat or cool the building.

Additional features include a greywater system which will reuse water from the laundry, bathing, and dish washing for toilets, greatly lessening the building’s demand for water. The parking lot will be paved with pervious concrete, a porous material that allows storm water to filter naturally on the site instead of being diverted elsewhere and adding to the demand on our storm water sewers.

The resource consumption of this building will be monitored and the results made public. If you would like to follow the progress of this project, please contact us through either of the following sites: www.salvationarmyhomerun.org or ryan@rockelements.com.

Home Run Events: Innovative Ideas for Community Revitalization by Roberta (Bobbie) Stacey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

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Net-Zero Energy and Homeless Shelters

Building Net-Zero Energy Structures for the Homeless Could be Most Powerful Step to Community Revitalization

By Bobbie Stacey - Founder of Home Run Innovations Inc.

What has net-zero energy construction got to do with homeless shelters?

First of all, Escanaba and most of the other towns in Delta County are officially (by government funding standards) considered to be impoverished - a status that qualifies us for Brownfield Redevelopment and other "blighted" community re-development incentives.

Secondly, if cold-climate, net-zero energy construction can be accomplished here, with our gray winter skies, it can be done almost anywhere else in the world. The US Department of Energy Zero Energy Buildings Database lists only 7 (yes, that's only SEVEN) net-zero energy buildings with only 3 of them located in cold-climates. SUCCESSFUL NET ZERO ENERGY BUILDING CONSTRUCTION OR REHABILITATION WOULD BRING DELTA COUNTY TO THE ATTENTION OF THE ENTIRE WORLD.

Thirdly, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority will grant up to $25,000 funding per unit for construction or rehabilitation projects that provide low-income housing for at least 5 years.

Please look at the picture of the 100-year-old net-zero energy New Jersey farmhouse above. Does it not remind you of many, many houses in the older parts of Escanaba?

What if a small local non-profit could get manufacturers and distributors of energy-saving materials and technology to donate supplies and advertising/PR dollars to rehab a duplex or triplex within walking distance of Ludington Park that would be used for transitional housing for our homeless?

Better yet, what if the same property was sold at market value to a private buyer at the end of the mandatory 5-year MSHDA lease period? What if the capital gains from the sale were rolled back into another similar rehab project in a different neighborhood, also to be used for transitional housing needs over another 5-year time period - again and again?

Picture that same farmhouse, with ZERO ENERGY BILLS located in a neighborhood between Matt Sviland's Ludington Lofts project on 17th Street and Ludington Park to the east. Would any of you consider retiring to a duplex like that, not only living with zero energy bills, but also with the option to supplement your retirement with rental income? What about the desirability of living in a traditional neighborhood within easy walking distance of the lake, the public library, the Bonifas Arts Center and the Hereford and Hops? Could such a property be an alternative to someone who might typically be attracted to places like Eugene, OR, if not for the higher costs of living there?

Recycling dispersed, older neighborhood properties this way would create desirable residences out of eyesores, reduce the initial zero-energy construction cost barriers to entry for private individuals, and (because of the 5-year turnaround) prevent any one neighborhood from acquiring the reputation of a low rent district so common when large shelters are erected.

I sincerely need the opinions of former residents who since moving away have grown to truly appreciate the assets of Delta County and the Upper Peninsula. I also need input from you who have always remained. One has to live here to fully appreciate the quirks, potential obstacles and citizen dynamics both positive and negative.

Net zero-energy construction can be our solution to homelessness.

Home Run Events: Innovative Ideas for Community Revitalization by Roberta (Bobbie) Stacey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

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Net-Zero Energy in the UP?

Can Cold-Climate Net-Zero Energy be Accomplished in a Small Town?

By Bobbie Stacey - Founder of Home Run Innovations Inc.

Off and on over the past year I have searched the internet for examples of affordable, net-zero energy, cold-climate homes. So far, I can count the results on my fingers with digits to spare. Net-zero energy commercial buildings are just as sparse. The Department of Energy Zero Energy Buildings Database holds a whopping seven examples. Only three of these were constructed in cold-climate locations.

The most affordable residential home example to date (pictured above top) was built in Wheat Ridge, Colorado as a joint project between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Habitat for Humanity. It has plenty going for it - simplicity, off-the-shelf appliances and materials, ease of mainenance and affordability. But it also lacks aesthetic appeal and like any other net-zero energy design it cannot control the habits of the occupants. Plugging in large inefficient TVs and forgetting to turn off appliances can counteract the design efforts.

Regardless of cold-climate, Wheat Ridge, Colorado averages over 255 days of sunshine per year. Michigan's Delta County averages almost 100 fewer days of sunshine, greatly limiting the value of a solar panel investment. Retrofitting my own eight year old home with solar panels to produce 90-100% of electricity consumed would currently cost in excess of $60,000. The payoff just isn't there. Zero energy would probably have to be achieved by employing a combination of solar, geo-thermal, wind power and the installation of prototype appliances and fixtures that aren't easily serviced in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

My favorite net-zero home example so far is a remodel of a 100 year old farm house in New Jersey (right side photo above) Resembling so many houses in Delta County, I see hope in this example for what I believe can be accomplished in our community. The problem is that this is one of the only examples of its kind in the nation. There are few predecessors to show the way.

Does this mean that zero-energy properties are a territory to be avoided? Not in my opinion. It's all the more reason to forge ahead. Delta County would lead all cold-climate communities in the nation and land on the map doing so - gaining world-wide recognition.

Home Run Events: Innovative Ideas for Community Revitalization by Roberta (Bobbie) Stacey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

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Three Components for Home Run Events

Three Phase Approach to Small Town Economic Revival Beginning with the Homeless

By Bobbie Stacey - Founder of Home Run Innovations Inc.

The three main components (Collaborative Community Fundraising, Joint Endowment, and Financially Self-Supporting Dispersed Housing) proposed for the structure of Home Run Events Inc. may seem too ambitious to lump into one package under a new non-profit. But I argue that unless an organization embraces and positions itself to fit dynamically into the "big" picture from the outset, all of its efforts will ultimately wither and die.

I'm a fan of systems thinking, one of the disciplines mastered by successful learning organizations who have given up the "illusion that the world is created of separate, unrelated forces."* In his book The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, author Peter M. Senge describes what an individual experiences as part of a learning organization.

"Most of us at one time or another have been part of a great team, a group of people who functioned together in an extraordinary way - who trusted one another, who complemented one another's strengths and compensated for one another's limitations, who had common goals that were larger than individual goals, and who produced extraordinary results. I have met many people who have experienced this sort of profound teamwork - in sports, or in the performing arts, or in business. Many say that they have spent much of their lives looking for that experience again. What they experienced was a learning organization. The team that became great didn't start off great - it learned how to produce extraordinary results."**

How I have approached the groundwork for Home Run Events has been greatly influenced by at least one of Senge's partners - a man named Robert Fritz. In my opinion, and in that of many others, Fritz is perhaps one of the most original thinkers of our lifetimes. I used to work for Fritz. I also used to teach courses designed by Fritz from a series called "Technologies for Creating" for which I was certified and licensed. Robert Fritz is the author of several books, the most popular of which is his bestseller The Path of Least Resistance: Learning to Become the Creative Force in Your Own Life.

The tenacity with which I have continued to develop The Salvation Army Home Run over the past two years does not come from foolish stubbornness. It comes from an unusually high ability to maintain "structural tension" that I owe to the lessons of Robert Fritz and his wife Rosalind. Read the Amazon customer reviews of The Path of Least Resistance to see what others have to say. It will impress you. I promise.

My vision for Home Run Events is one where we create a housing solution for our community that no one has ever accomplished before, one that becomes a model for rural America and an innovation to the field of social services. Bringing something into being that has never been there before -that is the essence of the creative process. Can that be accomplished with only one of the components in isolation from the others? Not in my opinion.

Do you agree?

Will you join me?

* The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge, p. 4

** Ibid., p. 3


Home Run Events: Innovative Ideas for Community Revitalization by Roberta (Bobbie) Stacey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

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New Non-Profit to Solve Homelessness Efficiently and Effectively

Hi everyone.

Please read on, and join us for an organizational lunch meeting of a new non-profit “Home Run Events Inc.” at NOON on Monday, October 27th at The Salvation Army Community Center to learn more.

Most of you know that when I started The Salvation Army Home Run 2 years ago that it was my strong desire to grow it into a premier event that ALL shelter providers in Delta County could count on as a major fundraiser for their organizations. With St. Vincent de Paul, the Alliance Against Violence and Abuse, Lutheran Social Services Voices for Youth and The Salvation Army, Delta County is blessed with at least 4 indisputably worthy organizations who work around the clock to shelter our neighbors in times of greatest need.

I believe that the time has come for our shelter providers to work collectively to attract donations and additional sponsorships and grants from outside of Delta County and the Upper Peninsula and to build an endowment the interest from which will eventually eliminate the need for these agencies to compete with one another year after year for portions of the same small pot of local dollars. It will also eliminate the need to sit as hostages to ever dwindling government funding sources. I also strongly believe that if, as agencies with dedicated and caring supporters, we GIVE our community active, fun, family-oriented events that the GETTING part will almost take care of itself. We can enjoy ourselves and raise a new generation of healthy young volunteers at the same time.

Since I could not find a way to accomplish this under the umbrella of The Salvation Army, with the permission of Major Cox I wrote and received a grant from the Community Foundation of Delta County for $2400 to cover the legal expenses of starting up a new non-profit which will create and implement joint fundraising events in our community that also employ on-line fundraising techniques to the fullest possible extent. There is some momentum started already toward that end with The Salvation Army Home Run going into its third year. It will be up to the board of the new non-profit (current working title “Home Run Events Inc.”) to determine from the outset the completely objective methods/percentages by which proceeds from joint fundraising events will be distributed to each agency. This will be a community effort, not a Salvation Army project. I needed a non-profit fiduciary in order to apply for the grant, and Major Cox was kind enough to let me do so through them.

This is a good year to launch a new approach to the cause of homelessness in Delta County. It is a milestone anniversary year for OSF St. Francis Hospital, a generous previous sponsor of The Salvation Army Home Run and supporter of local social services.

There is more. The vision has evolved. We have an opportunity through this new non-profit to revitalize neglected residential property in Delta County and in the process create a truly financially self-sufficient emergency shelter and transitional housing program. This would be accomplished by renovating dispersed properties (probably beginning in the DDA district) with government tax incentives available to our low income community, MSHDA funds and by seeking grants from major manufacturers and suppliers of “zero energy” products to accomplish the most energy efficient renovations possible. These properties would be leased to area agencies for transitional housing for a pre-determined set period (5 or 6 years, no longer) and then sold to a waiting list of private buyers of a similar demographic to the clients that Matt Sviland is currently targeting with his Ludington Lofts project. The capital gains from the sale of these rehab properties would then be re-invested into the next rehab project, etc. Rather than potentially harming property values by locating shelter and transitional living facilities in the same neighborhood over long periods of time, we can actually improve property values in several neighborhoods and solve housing issues at the same time. I’ve already discussed my ideas with Jim Davis at MSHDA and he likes what he hears.

Obviously I could go on for a long time. Please join us to learn more and consider whether or not you would like to be appointed to the board of this new corporation.

The tentative one hour agenda for the organizational meeting at noon on Monday, October 27th is as follows:

Lunch
Overview of the purpose for Home Run Events Inc. and progress to date
Determine method for nomination of officers and board members
Establishment of incorporation advisory teams
Determine next meeting date and location
Adjournment

PLEASE RSVP so we can get a lunch count.

ALSO, please send me an e-mail if you wish to be considered for a board membership or one of the three positions of President, Treasurer or Secretary. Obviously we will need a voting member from each of the shelter agencies mentioned above. They have each expressed a willingness to participate.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for caring.

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