Habitat for Humanity’s Innovation Awards recognize global innovators developing solutions to advance affordable housing. By spotlighting cutting-edge initiatives, we hope to accelerate the adoption and adaptation of the most promising housing innovations that will help more people in communities around the world build or improve a place they can call home.

The Innovation Awards are announced during Habitat’s global housing forums. Every two years, these events convene a network of housing organizations and nonprofit, for-profit, public sector, academic, philanthropic and global institutions. Over the course of several days, in cities around the world, policymakers, business leaders, advocates, youth and others connect and collaborate for practical solutions that will increase access to safe, decent and affordable housing.

The Innovation Award’s inspirational practices category, generously sponsored by Whirlpool Corporation, spotlights public or public-private partnerships that have contributed to improved communities and settlements and increased access to affordable housing for the most under-resourced segments of society.

“Whirlpool has partnered with Habitat for more than 22 years to help improve and broaden the ways that people around the world can achieve housing stability,” says Deb O’Connor, director of corporate reputation and community relations for Whirlpool Corporation. “We believe innovative solutions are the way forward, and that’s why it’s important to us that our support of Habitat includes shining a spotlight on those who are developing forward-thinking approaches.” 

Learn how these 2021 recipients showcase the creativity and passion of leading housing innovators worldwide.

Reduced heating costs and carbon dioxide emissions in Germany

The group green with IT e.V. is a network of 24 companies that formed an initiative to create IT-supported solutions that reduce heating costs and increase efficiency. They worked with three housing companies in Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, to improve energy efficiency for their tenants through the design of a digitized system that reduces heating costs and carbon dioxide emissions. “Saving heating energy means, first of all, saving money from the point of view of the tenants,” says Jörg Lorenz, CEO of green with IT e.V.

The group installed self-sufficient gateways and smart-meter gateways in the buildings’ basements to create a submetering system independent of the gas company. The submeters collect information from various tenants’ sensors through WiFi, calculate their individual heat usage and then deliver detailed reports on individual usage to the landlord. The reports allowed landlords to appropriately bill each tenant for heating costs, correct any inefficiencies in the heating system and report billing inaccuracies to the gas company. 

The submetering system sends updates of individual usage data to the tenants’ smartphones via an app to improve transparency of actual use in relation to billing costs. The digital meters are also able to develop an algorithm from collection of annual data to maximize energy efficiency of building heaters and adjust output based on future weather predictions.

An outdoor classroom in Colombia

Despacio is a research center working to promote quality of life of communities and residents. Their idea to transform an underutilized public space in the city of Cali, Colombia, into a place where children have a safe space to learn and gather resulted in the outdoor classroom Vivo Mi Calle, or “I Live My Street.” In this space, children can continue their studies and improve their physical, mental and social well-being in light of losing critical school time due to the pandemic.

Despacio enlisted local youth to help in the design of the space by sharing features that were important to them and even to help paint and decorate. “Vivo Mi Calle is centered on empowering adolescents and strengthening their voices,” says Lina Marcela Quiñones, healthy cities lead at Despacio. “This is why it was crucial to include them throughout the process, from identification of key places to the design and implementation of the intervention. This resulted in a space that responded to their actual needs.”

The space includes a classroom, dance floor, community garden and yard. Through their participation in the building process, young people learned about the importance of creating safe and sustainable communities. “They now know that they can work together to achieve the change they want. They know that they have a voice and that it matters. And they know how important it is to create spaces that are safe and joyful for children and young people,” Lina says.

Critical roofing loan solutions in India 

LaRaksha Social Impact Trust is a microfinance institution that caters to low-income people without access to typical banking services. The organization designed a roofing-loan solution to help families living slightly above the poverty line who need costly repairs to their roofs but do not qualify for government assistance. 

Residents of India’s coastal communities experience heavy rains, winds and cyclones that can damage their homes, especially when their roofs are thatched or improperly constructed. Families in vulnerable regions are exposed to leaks and dampness that impact their health and quality of life. Then they are forced to spend their meager savings on roof repair, which often pushes them below the poverty line. “A roof is the most vulnerable part of house,” says A Ramesh Kumar, president and managing trustee of LaRaksha Social Impact Trust. “If the roof is good, the overall habitat quality is good. If the roof is bad — however good the walls are and however big the house — the shelter quality deteriorates. So a solution focused on the roof is necessary.”

LaRaksha Social Impact Trust’s small roofing loans allow homeowners to strengthen or replace their roof at an affordable cost using a sustainable and durable roofing solution. The loan is targeted at families with annual income levels of US$2,000 to US$4000. The microfinance institution currently operates in the states of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Manipur in India. 

A brighter future

Each day, inventive housing solutions like these are being created all around the globe. Through our partnership with Whirlpool Corporation, we can elevate the work of these innovators, an integral part of building a world where everyone has a decent place to live.
 

Stable affordable housing helps children thrive. From around the world, some of the youngest residents of Habitat homes show the beauty and individuality of their houses through hand-drawn illustrations of their unique homes, reminding us the importance of having a safe, reliable shelter in childhood and beyond.

“We’ve been married for many, many, many, many years and have grown old together,” Bryant says with a chuckle, sitting beside his wife, Rosalyn, in the living room of their longtime home. The octogenarian couple were born and raised in the Fitchburg, Wisconsin, area and have spent most of their adult lives in nearby Baraboo, owning their beloved home for decades. One winter, the couple found the basement siding on their beloved home deteriorating and became concerned.

Bryant knew the siding needed replacement, a job the U.S. Army veteran would usually do himself, but that presented a challenge now with Rosalyn’s growing health care needs. “Though it’s a simple job, it is rather laborious for one person to do. Habitat has an excellent reputation, so I gave them a call to see if I could get assistance on the repair, and things just worked out very well,” Bryant says.

Partnering with Bryant and Rosalyn to make the needed improvements revealed other realities. “For me,” says Morgan Pfaff, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Wisconsin River Area, “it was realizing that health was creating greater barriers than simply issues with insulation.”

Partnering together, again

Habitat Wisconsin River Area’s region has a large number of older adults and aging veterans. In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found Wisconsin to have the nation’s highest average of deadly falls, more than half of those happening at home. The affiliate, already focusing on expanding their repair work, began to look for ways to grow their reach to include more local aging homeowners.

A few months after Bryant and Rosalyn’s insulation repairs, Habitat Wisconsin River Area was selected to participate in a pilot study funded by a grant from the RRF Foundation for Aging. Habitat Wisconsin River Area partnered with a local health care service to do home evaluations for local older adults who wish to age at home.  

“The pilot allowed us to grow our repair work and specifically focus on aging in place. The home evaluation process taught us to better understand the needs of aging adults and what barriers might prevent them from remaining in their homes,” Morgan says.

For Black Americans, the barriers to homeownership created by historic discrimination in the U.S. housing market still persist today. From redlining neighborhoods, a practice where Black families were denied home loans based on color-coded maps developed by the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation in the 1930s, to racially restrictive covenants stipulating that homes were only sold or resold to white families, the list of housing discriminations meant to deny Black individuals the opportunity to build a better life has had far-reaching consequences across wealth, health, education and employment.

Mary Kay Huss, chief executive officer of Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity, has worked in the affordable housing sector for nearly 30 years. “We can’t change the past,” she says. “But what we can do is do the next right thing every time, and that is providing homeownership opportunities.”