“Through collaboration and evidence-based policy, these organizations are creating sustainable environments where families are healthy and thriving” said HUD Secretary Julián Castro. “I applaud the winners for their commitment to sparking innovative development in their communities, and I look forward to our continued work together in making American city’s places of big dreams and possibilities.”
SHA and its Breathe Easy partners have collaborated to provide quality, safe, healthy homes for all, regardless of their income or background. In 2015, SHA, Neighborcare Health, American Lung Association, and King County Hazardous Waste Management Program launched the Yesler Breathe Easy Program in newly constructed homes for low-income families as part of the Yesler redevelopment. The program also includes one-on-one visits from a trained community health worker.
The program at Yesler stems from practices implemented beginning in 2005 at SHA’s redevelopment of the High Point neighborhood in West Seattle, where an independent study showed dramatic improvement in residents’ health. Within the first year of living in the Breathe Easy homes at High Point, children with asthma experienced a 65 percent increase in symptom-free days.
At Yesler, two new affordable multi-family residential buildings, Raven Terrace and Kebero Court, incorporate design features that protect families from dust, toxins, and other pollutants that can result in increased hospital visits and missed school and work days.
To date, 201 new Breathe Easy apartments have been built at Yesler with features to improve a household’s indoor air quality and reduce symptoms related to asthma and other respiratory illnesses. The homes include:
• Individual unit energy recovery ventilators with air filtering and tempered fresh air supply and heat recovery to improve indoor air quality.
• A variety of non-carpeted flooring options in living areas and bedrooms, recycled content vinyl flooring in bathrooms and kitchens and low-pile carpeting on stairs and in hallways to reduce allergens.
• Low or no off-gas trim and millwork to reduce urea formaldehyde bonding agents.
• Low or no off-gas or volatile organic compound (VOC) cabinet construction and paint.
• No carpets in stairs or hallways.
• A strict non-smoking policy in the building and shared exterior common spaces and entrances.
SHA expects to build a total of 851 new Breathe Easy affordable apartments at Yesler.