The Home Depot Foundation

2008 Awards of Excellence for Affordable Housing Built Responsibly
How To Apply

Intent of Awards Program
This is the fourth year of The Home Depot Foundation's Awards of Excellence for Affordable Housing Built Responsibly signature program. The Awards program seeks to identify, recognize and showcase the outstanding and innovative work of nonprofit housing development corporations engaged in green building/healthy home construction and rehabilitation. Our interest is to share with local, state and national stakeholders the exemplary accomplishments of the nonprofit sector in combining affordable housing construction with the guiding principles of green home building in order that low- and moderate-income families have access to quality housing they can afford to own, operate and maintain.

Affordable Housing Built Responsibly
The Home Depot Foundation defines an affordable home as one for which a person earning 80 percent or less of the area median income (AMI) would spend 30 percent or less of their monthly income on mortgage or rent payments. We believe that by helping families and individuals secure dependable, healthy, affordable housing, we are increasing their chances of success in all areas of their lives.

We also believe that housing developers should go beyond just addressing the affordability issue to include a focus on the health and environmental impacts of housing design and construction. Housing should be built in a sustainable manner that also allows for immediate operating efficiencies to keep the housing affordable over the long-term. Building responsibly, often referred to as "green" building, incorporates the following measures in the design and construction of housing:

minimizes the depletion of natural resources, including timber and water;
decreases the amount of construction waste going to landfills;
controls erosion and minimizes impact on natural areas;
increases energy efficiency and conserves water in construction and operations;
incorporates the integration of tree and landscaping strategies to complement the built environment;
reduces maintenance costs using innovative and durable materials;
assesses the life-cycle costs and benefits of greening the project;
improves indoor air quality;
controls moisture and provides proper ventilation;
uses more environmentally friendly materials; and
ensures smart site planning and land use.

We believe building responsibly is a form of stewardship and is simply a smart way to build quality, affordable housing.

2008 Eligible Projects
Projects eligible for award consideration must be developed by a 501(c)(3) organization and completed and placed in service between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2007. Homeownership projects must contain at least five (5) units that were sold to families earning 80 percent or less of area median income. Rental projects must contain at least 20 units, with at least 80 percent of the units occupied by families earning 80 percent or less of area median income. Group home and transitional housing projects are not eligible for award consideration. There are no limitations as to the type of ownership structure (i.e. direct-purchase home ownership, cooperative, mutual housing, condominium, lease-purchase, land trust, etc.) or physical structure (i.e. single-family detached, townhouse, mixed-use, etc.). Previous national and runner-up winners are ineligible for Awards consideration for five (5) years.

2008 Award Categories
There are two award categories, homeownership and rental. Within each category five grants will be awarded: $75,000 to the winning project, $25,000 to the second most competitive project and three (3) Honorable Mention grants of $2500 each. The grants are to be used at the discretion of the nonprofit to further the goal of producing affordable, efficient and healthy housing for low- to moderate-income families.

2008 Awards Submission and Review Process
The 2008 Awards program involves two steps. The first step is to respond to the project questions asked in the Letter of Inquiry (LOI). LOIs must be submitted on-line by midnight, March 31, 2008. A Foundation staff team will review the project described in the LOI and determine if it is competitive in relation to the intent of the Awards program and the "excellence" standards established by past years’ independent Advisory Committees comprised of experts in green building. If Foundation staff find a project competitive, step two involves the applicant being invited to submit a full proposal. Only the top 10 LOI responses in each housing category will be invited to submit full proposals. Those applicants invited to submit full proposals will be asked to present specific information on the life cycle costs of greening the project, including additional capital costs and operating savings, as well as any special funding received for greening. Those requested to submit full proposals will be provided information about how to access the application and how the winning projects will be selected. Full proposals are due May 15, 2008.

How to Apply
Any city or nonprofit organization interested in submitting a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) for the Awards of Excellence Program for Affordable Housing Built Responsibly should click here for the online submission form.

The deadline for on-line submission of the LOI is midnight, Eastern Standard Time, March 31, 2008. Applications received after the deadline will not be reviewed.

For information regarding applying online, see Application Help