Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Maine will present first President’s Award to MaineHousing Dir. Dale McCormick
Award recognizes leadership in energy efficient housing, creating housing standards
PORTLAND, ME – June 9, 2009 – (RealEstateRama) — The Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Maine will present its first ever President’s Award to MaineHousing Director Dale McCormick at the Association’s annual meeting Wednesday at the Holiday Inn West in Portland.
The award recognizes McCormick’s leadership in making Maine’s housing more energy efficient and in creating standards for housing construction.
“I am pleased to present Dale McCormick with the Association’s first Annual President’s Award for her persistent and ongoing effort to bring energy efficiency and green building standards to the affordable housing sector,” said Association President Ashley Richards, Jr.
“Dale’s efforts have brought safe, comfortable and healthy housing to a segment of the population who can least afford it, but who need it the most. In doing so, she has raised the bar for all of us in the industry.”
The Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Maine is affiliated with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in Washington D.C., a federation of over 200,000 members representing the residential and light commercial building industry across the nation. NAHB has developed the first third-party verifiable Green Building Standard in the nation.
McCormick created Green Building Standards for all new housing construction or substantial rehabilitation that MaineHousing finances soon after becoming Director in 2005. The Green Building Standards improve the building’s energy efficiency by 30 percent, and make the property friendlier for the environment and healthier for the occupants.
McCormick also developed Contractor Standards that, among other things, encourage contractors to train minority and women workers and to offer health insurance to workers.
“I’m extremely grateful for this award, and extremely proud that MaineHousing is playing a leading role in making Maine’s housing more energy efficient,” McCormick said. “Anything we can do to reduce energy costs without an appreciable increase in the cost of the housing makes our housing more affordable over the long term.”
Under McCormick’s leadership, MaineHousing has financed 32 housing developments with 1,040 affordable apartments over the past four years. It also has provided low-interest rate mortgages for nearly 4,500 families, enabling them to purchase their first home. This year it is starting an ambitious program, using federal recovery and other funding, to weatherize more than 5,000 low-income homes over the next two years.
