Based in the Capitol Hill section of Seattle, Community Roots Housing (CRH), formerly Capitol Hill Housing, builds vibrant and engaged communities through affordable housing and community development efforts. Since 1976, CRH has served low- and moderate-income residents and has worked to improve the Capitol Hill neighborhood for all. Committed to creating equitable and sustainable communities, CRH promotes transit-oriented development, neighborhood walkability, and space for arts and culture.

The Better Buildings Challenge presents CRH with an opportunity to further its commitment to sustainability and energy efficiency. CRH is a Seattle 2030 (http://www.2030districts.org/seattle/) participant - Seattle 2030 is an interdisciplinary public-private collaborative working to create a high- performance building district in downtown Seattle. Its goals of developing realistic, measurable, and innovative strategies to assist property owners, managers, and tenants to reduce the environmental impacts of facility operations and maintenance align well with the BBC. CRH will be contributing its portfolio energy and water usage via EPAs Portfolio Manager, and at the resident level, CRH is developing an engagement curriculum focused on energy conservation, household waste reduction, healthy living, and civic engagement. CRH has also entered into a partnership with the local electric utility to sponsor a crowd-sourced funding mechanism to install photovoltaic arrays on CRH’s properties.