Published by Chris Barnett, Rhode Island Foundation on January 3rd, 2020.  Thanks to the generosity of local donors, the Rhode Island Census 2020 Fund has awarded nearly $300,000 to local organizations for outreach and education that will encourage participation in the 2020 Census. The goal is to protect the roughly $3.8 billion a year that Rhode Island receives in federal funding for education, health care, housing and more based on Census data. “These Census outreach grants are an essential tool to build the grassroots effort that will help us achieve our goal of ensuring that every Rhode Islander is counted,”…

Published by Energy News Network — November 18th, 2019 Developers of five new Providence homes aim to reduce residents’ long-term costs by eliminating their utility bills. Residents of an affordable housing development under construction in Providence, Rhode Island, will get more than a break on the home price — they will have zero energy bills. Five two-bedroom homes are being built to net-zero energy standards on a 0.75-acre lot in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Olneyville. The two-level, 750-square-foot homes will be equipped with enough rooftop solar panels to supply slightly more energy than they are expected to consume. The…

Published in The Providence Journal  – October 28, 2019 PROVIDENCE — A new housing development in Providence will simultaneously address three key issues — affordability, climate change and workforce development — officials say, while also providing housing for five families. On Monday, officials broke ground on the Sheridan Small Homes project, a community of five compact, affordable, zero-emissions homes being developed by One Neighborhood Builders, a community development nonprofit based in Olneyville. “While modest in scale … this project is large in innovation,” said One Neighborhood Builders Executive Director Jennifer Hawkins, as she stood at the project site — a…

Published in ConvergenceRI – October 28, 2019   Full Article Here PROVIDENCE – On Monday morning, Oct. 28, a ceremonial groundbreaking will take place in Olneyville for the innovative Sheridan Small Homes project, a community of five, very affordable compact small homes to be built along Riverside Park in Olneyville, in a new development being led by ONE Neighborhood Builders, a community development corporation. [Some of the work has already begun on site preparation.] Among the dignitaries scheduled to attend and to speak are: Sen. Jack Reed; R.I Treasurer Seth Magaziner; Providence City Council President Sabina Matos; Bonnie Nickerson, director of Providence’s…

Kudos to the ProJo for this reporting.  ONE|NB is grateful to be the backbone of the Central Providence Health Equity Zone. We’re working with a dozen community organizations to address disparate health outcomes.  Shockingly, Olneyville’s life expectancy rate is only 73.  Affordable housing, family wage jobs, high-quality education – these are the social determinants to health we’re working on. Read the article here.

Interview by Mary MacDonald, Providence Business News – October 2, 2019 PBN: Is this the first net-zero home in Providence, and what does that mean? HAWKINS: I think it’s the first affordable [one], targeted to low- and moderate-income households. A deed-restricted property. It’s a passive home. That means the systems and the siting and the materials of the home are done in such a way as to use the natural environment. We have triple-pane windows. We have an all-electric system. All of these things make the home extremely efficient. PBN: Tell me what the Sheridan Small Homes are, and how small…

PROVIDENCE, RI – Community-based developer, ONE Neighborhood Builders, is beginning construction on a zero-energy, small home community this fall. The Sheridan Small Homes project will bring five new, very affordable, “passive”, compact homes to the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence. The project was originally posed as a challenge by ONE Neighborhood Builders to Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) students in professor and architect Jonathan Knowles’ studio to address issues of increased housing unaffordability and climate change. The selected designs are now ready for construction. “By building smaller we are consuming less resources: land, materials, energy and financial support,” said Jennifer…