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Graduate students will get a chance to tour the facilities of Fresno Housing's Firebaugh developments. Photo courtesy Fresno Housing.

published on November 13, 2020 - 1:31 PM
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U.S. Housing and Urban Development selected Fresno Housing as the host for its 2021 Affordable Housing Competition.

Graduate students from accredited colleges and universities will form teams and tour the five affordable housing developments in Firebaugh built and operated by Fresno Housing. Dates of the tour have not been established nor has whether tours will be done virtually or in-person, according to Kelli Furtado, assistant director of strategic initiatives with Fresno Housing.

Housing Authorities throughout the country apply and compete to be hosts for the competition, which is in its eighth year, according to HUD.

Following the tour, students — many of whom are studying in the areas of public planning, architecture or business — will come up with planning and design proposals for the rural community. The goal is to address social, economic and environmental issues.

“This is an exciting project for Firebaugh and the community as a whole. Our goal for this project is to challenge the teams to define a plan that incorporates and boosts resident engagement and positively impacts the quality of life, housing and community connectivity,” said Preston Prince, CEO of Fresno Housing in a press release. “Fresno Housing will benefit from the students’ design input, as we hope to receive a vision that stitches the properties together, creating a fluid, walkable sense of community.”

The winning team in the competition will receive $20,000. Fresno Housing will also have the option of incorporating designs for their developments.

Last year’s winning teams came from University of Maryland, College Park; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; University of California and Yale University.

 

An aerial map shows the perimeter of the five developments in Firebaugh. Photo courtesy Fresno Housing.


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