BY BENDIX ANDERSON <br>

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE <br><br>

 

When Ed Key tears open his utility bill every month, he sees a clear benefit from living at Denny Park Apartments, an energyefficient green affordable housing development in Seattle. Since he moved in, his utility costs have dropped from $30 a month at his old studio apartment to $13.

 

<br><br>That's an important savings for the lowincome veteran. Across the country, the numbers are in from the first generation of green affordable housing projects, finished over the last five years. Developers and investors report utility cost savings of 20 percent to 40 percent, to both landlords and tenants, in hot climates and cold, thanks to green building ideas that conserve resources like electricity, water, and gas.

 

<br><br>Proven savings from coast to coast In the Northeast, where the winters can be long and cold, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has helped finance energy improvements at nearly 100,000 apartments across the state, bringing both new construction and existing buildings up to the federal Energy Star standards and cutting their energy costs by a quarter on average, officials said.

 

<br><br>All of these apartments have been tested on their actual utility expenses as part of the program. The savings work out to an average of nearly $400 per unit annually. Affordable housing managers have found similar savings ratios in the West, where winters are much milder.

 

<br><br>Thanks to these energy savings, the reserve accounts of the 600 green affordable apartments in the portfolio of Homestead Capital are an average 36 percent larger than the rest of Homestead's affordable portfolio.

 

<br><br>The apartments were built to a variety of green standards. Early operating data from the green portfolio of Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., shows energy savings of up to 40 percent, compared to properties built to the standards of local building codes. Enterprise began aggressively investing in properties that met its own green standards three years ago.

 

<br><br>So far, six of these 250 properties have been operating for two years or more. Of course, the biggest energy savings are at projects built to the toughest green standards. Denny Park opened in 2005 as one of the first affordable housing properties to win a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

 

<br><br>Denny Park also meets the demanding standards set by Enterprise for its Green Communities investments. It cost Denny Park's owners, the Seattle-based Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI), a total of $1,000 per apartment in utility expenses to operate Denny Park in 2007, from electricity to hot water to trash pickup.

 

<br><br>That's as much as $200 per apartment lower than the utility costs at LIHI's other affordable properties. Conserving water Green developers and investors also report steep savings on their water bills, which are 35 percent to 40 percent less on average than water costs at comparable properties, according to information from the portfolio of green properties in Enterprise's Green Communities Initiative.

 

<br><br>"I've been surprised," said Dana Bourland, director of Green Communities for Enterprise. "So many of us have been focused on energy."

 

<br><br>But green building ideas that save water can often save a lot of money quickly compared to their cost. Low-flow fixtures, for example, pay for themselves in less than three years, said Bourland. In water-conscious California, Murphy Ranch, a five-year-old LEED-certified affordable housing project in Morgan Hill, Calif., paid a third less for water and sewer than comparable properties:

 

<br><br>$450 per apartment in 2007, compared to expenses ranging from $504 to $594 per unit at three nearby communities, according to San Jose, Calif.-based developer First Community Housing.