One of the greatest challenges facing many cities today is a shortage of affordable housing. What is available is often outdated and unappealing. Given the lack of choice, lower incomes and possible commuting issues, most prospective tenants have little choice but to accept what’s offered, however substandard it may be. In a building environment where wellness design is increasingly used to lure high-paying home buyers with amenities like yoga rooms, air and water purification, state-of-the-art fitness centers and circadian lighting, health and fitness is being built into housing for those who can afford it.
Affordable housing is often outdated and unappealing.Getty
“We know that where we live often determines how healthy we are. Unfortunately, too many people live in homes and neighborhoods that inhibit health,” observes the nonprofit Center for Active Design on its website. “In many low-income communities, it is often difficult to find resources such as safe playgrounds, well-lit recreation spaces, or supermarkets with nutritious foods. As a result, it is no surprise that chronic diseases disproportionately affect these very same communities.”
Fannie Mae would like to do something about this. The massive mortgage funder introduced its Healthy Housing Rewards Initiative in 2017 to encourage multi-family developers to build wellness-enhancing properties for the affordable market. “Our Healthy Housing Rewards initiative provides financial incentives for borrowers who incorporate health-promoting design features and practices or resident services in their newly constructed or rehabilitated multifamily affordable rental properties.” Those discounts do come with strings attached, but those strings can also make a property more appealing to market-rate tenants:
- “Properties must meet or exceed the minimum certification standards of the Fitwel Certification System, which is operated by the Center for Active Design.
- “Property owners must become (or partner with) a CORES–certified sponsor, and obtain Enhanced Resident Services (ERS) certification for their property. The certifications are operated by Stewards for Affordable Housing for the Future.”
- “To qualify for either pathway [Fitwel or ERS], properties must include at least 60 percent of units serving tenants who are at or below 60 percent of the area median income.”
What type of health-promoting features for multi-family properties will earn Fitwel certification? These are four cited by Fannie Mae, but the entire scorecard is available on the Fitwel website:
- Strategies that improve indoor air quality
- Features that encourage physical activity
- Common space, community gardens, and playgrounds
- Exercise facilities and walking paths.
Meeting indoor air quality standards includes making your building tobacco-free, which can also reduce fire and second hand smoke hazards, and ensuring proper ventilation in living spaces and chemical storage areas. It also means implementing a green purchasing policy, which can impact building or renovation costs, but helps avoid the types of issues that affected buyers of off-gassing laminate flooring, for example, and appealing to health-conscious Millennials.
“Features that encourage physical activity” could be as simple as appealing walking or running paths and sheltered bike racks. (Racks can also potentially keep ride share scooters and cycles from littering the property and causing trip hazards on the community’s sidewalks.)
Making a property’s common space healthier can include outdoor seating placed for enjoying nature and sunlight, a community garden and on-site farmer’s market. It should also include making shared space smoke-free.
Exercise facilities don’t need to be the elaborate fitness rooms being built into luxury properties either; simple fitness trail stations along a walking path work, too, and they get people outdoors, which is also health-enhancing.
Exercise facilities don’t need to be elaborate gyms to enhance residents’ fitness and health.Getty
The financial plus to builders, according to Fannie Mae, is: “Borrowers that incorporate healthy design features will benefit from a pricing incentive. Qualifying properties will receive a 15 basis point discount.” They will also get their $6,000 Fitwel certification costs reimbursed, and the civic pride of knowing they made an impact on improving community health and well-being.