It's that time of the year again. The holiday season is a time for giving and for change. In the spirit of both, Changemakers is proud to announce the early-entry prize winners in our Sustainable Urban Housing Competition: Green Development Zone in the USA, Housing Finance for urban financially excluded families in India, and Franquicia Social para el desarrollo de vivienda sustentable in Mexico! Each of these entrants have been awarded a prize of US$500.
These entries were evaluated per the Changemakers criteria -- innovation, social impact, and operational sustainability -- as the best competition entries submitted at or before the December 12 early-entry deadline.
Green Development Zone:
Green Development Zone is an initiative started by People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH) in 2008. It focuses on sparking urban sustainability in Buffalo's West Side by concentrating investments in green affordable housing, geo-thermal and solar energy, green jobs training, and urban agriculture. In developing the vision for the Green Development Zone, PUSH engaged in an extensive community planning involving hundreds of neighborhood residents. The Zone has delivered change to upstate New York in the form of sustainability and urban agriculture projects on more than twenty parcels of vacant land; the completion of 12 units of green affordable housing, with 20 additional units in development; a NetZero housing renovation, including advanced geo-thermal and solar systems; paid job training in green construction for at-risk, out-of-school young adults; and a partnership with the Massachusetts Avenue Project, which runs a two acre urban farm.
PUSH's success in this venture has motivated New York State and the City of Buffalo to commit more than $4 million to housing and infrastructure projects in The Zone. They plan to replicate and expand the Zone model across the state.
Housing Finance for urban financially excluded families
Micro Housing Finance Corporation (MHFC) is India's first and only organization focusing on providing low-income families with the means of purchasing their own homes. Ninety percent of India's working population cannot access finance from banks due to a simple lack of documentation (IT returns, salary certificates, etc) and the inability to demonstrate a reliable income. Lacking better options, financially excluded families are forced to live in slums where the conditions are obviously sub-standard. MHFC takes a microfinance-style approach to solving the finance gap for the India's informal sector. Through a combination of personal interviews, verifications, and income bechmarking surveys, MHFC is able to assess incomes of customers including taxi drivers, maids, vendors, carpenters, mechanics, plumbers, and tradesmen.
MHFC offers underserved famileis opportunity for home ownership -- in addition to access to clean water and electricity -- through financial inclusion. So far, 400 families have been granted loans and will be moving into more comfortable homes; MHFC hopes to reach 1,500 families by the end of FYE 2011. Even better, every loan has been repaid on time. MHFC currently operates in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkatta, but hopes to expand into an additional 10 cities and connect with over 10,000 families by 2014.
Franquicia Social en la Base de la Pirámide
¡Échale a tu casa! promotes the construction of assisted living and sustainble housing at the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). The ¡Échale! community develops citizen entrepreneurs through social networking and training in accounting, financial education, participatory design, ecological building systems, and more. ¡Échale! also offers its partners administrative and technical assistance in addition to financing with the integration of a savings-guarantee fund. The project benefits families by providing them with the means for establishing sustainable housing and leading community development, while franchisees create value in ensuring funding for micro-industry construction and the replication of the program throughout Mexico.
In Mexico, the housing shortage affects 4.2 million families living in cardboard sheet houses. ¡Échale! targets this desperate group, along with the more than 20 million families living with monthly incomes of $600 or less to unleash social opportunity and rebuild the social fabric in Mexico. In seeking to leverage the savings of families participating families, ¡Échale! achieves the democratization of technology and financial assets to provide homeless families with what they need most: homes.
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Ashoka Changemakers, with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, and in partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Department of State, and the American Planning Association (APA), have launching an online competition to find the best solutions to integrate and develop affordable, inclusive and sustainable urban housing. Successful solutions will engage communities, entrepreneurs, and key institutions in collaboration, while simultaneously respecting the environment, local cultures and practices.
The Sustainable Urban Housing: Collaborating for Liveable and Inclusive Cities competition is being launched in anticipation of the 2012 Summit of the Americas, and in support of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Energy and Climate Partnership for the Americas (ECPA).
The competition seeks innovative products, policies, and strategies that mobilize community resources and the ingenuity of designers, planners, environmentalists, developers, bankers, engineers, and civic and government leaders. The competition winners will build affordable, liveable, inclusive communities by connecting a broad network of entrepreneurial problem solvers and strengthening citizen engagement that directly involves communities.
Submit your solutions, or nominate a project, from today through February 11, 2011. The top three entries will win US$10,000 each. Winners will be announced on April 12, 2011.
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