alaska_esource

Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Futures
An e-Source Library for Alaska State

"Connecting housing to jobs, fostering local innovation and building a clean energy economy."

Secretary Shaun Donovan, February 4, 2010

During visits to the Northwest in early 2010, Housing & Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced the establishment of an Office of Sustainable Housing & Communities. It would, he explained, be charged with creating "strong, sustainable communities by connecting housing to jobs, fostering local innovation, and helping to build a clean energy economy".

By coordinating Federal housing, transportation and environmental policies and investments with local land use decision-making, the nation could, he said, "reduce transportation costs for families, improve housing affordability, save energy, and increase access to housing and employment opportunities." When it "comes to housing, environmental and transportation policy," he argued, "the federal government must speak with one voice."

The Secretary also announced formation of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, an "unprecedented" federal collaboration. Guided by six Livability Principles the "unprecedented" new partnership between HUD, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is to "provide resources and tools to help communities realize their own visions for building more livable, walkable, environmentally sustainable regions."

Less than a year later, that partnership has been formed, hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal resources have been allocated and the work to promote sustainable, livable communities is well underway in the Northwest, thanks not just to the Federal partnership but, more importantly, to scores of local governments, nonprofit organizations and private citizens across the region.

Find out more about the work we – and our Federal, state and local partners – are doing in Alaska by visiting the links below. And, once you do, we hope you will contribute your energy and expertise to building more sustainable communities and more sustainable futures in the Northwest.

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) Sustainable Communities Resource Center.

Contact HUD Northwest's Sustainability Team.

USDA Energy Efficient Mortgages - USDA Rural Housing guaranteed, direct and repair & rehab loans can finance energy efficiency in purchasing either new or existing homes.