Sonoma and Oakland Projects Featured in 2014 AHF Readers' Choice Awards

Valley Oaks Homes and The Savoy are among 34 finalists selected by Affordable Housing Finance as the leading developments of 2013-14. Subscribers can vote now through August 11.

"In Sonoma, Calif., a city known for its wine, Valley Oaks Homes is providing housing for many families who work in the area but couldn’t afford to live there...[SAHA] took the residents’ utility bills into consideration when designing the development, which is on track to receive LEED Platinum certification.

With Sonoma’s hot, sunny days, solar photovoltaic and thermal panels provide energy for common-area lighting and hot water. Virtual net metering allows excess energy generated by the photovoltaic system to be passed on to residents to defray a portion of their utility bills. Whole-house fans also were installed in every unit, eliminating the need for air-conditioning.

'Every dollar they can save a month, they can spend on other important things,' says Eve Stewart, director of housing development for SAHA."

To read the full article about Valley Oaks Homes, visit this link.

The Savoy, a finalist in the Urban Category,"transform[ed] two decrepit hotels into service-enriched affordable housing in downtown Oakland, Calif., involv[ing] a convergence of issues facing urban areas nationwide: homelessness, the need to bring aging housing stock up to modern standards, and the foreclosure crisis. And it wasn’t a simple task...

Completed in March 2013, the 101 renovated studio apartments serve formerly homeless and very low-income individuals who pay no more than 30 percent of their incomes for rent."

To read the full article about The Savoy, visit this link