Lubbock Building Affordable Concrete Homes
Continuing its leadership role in using concrete wall systems for affordable housing, the City of Lubbock over the last four years has replaced more than 90 substandard and deteriorating homes with new homes built with insulating concrete form (ICF) exterior walls. The project is part of the city's Affordable Housing Reconstruction Program, which is partially funded through a combination of state, federal and private partnerships, including Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs) from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under the terms of the program, residents are provided with temporary housing until their new concrete home is constructed. The residents assume a mortgage based on the hard cost of the home, after any grants have been taken into account. The homes have proven to be so energy-efficient and disaster-resistant that the city no longer accepts bids for wood-framed housing. As of March, the city and three ICF distributors had trained and certified 13 local contractors to build with ICFs. Although the affordable concrete homes built by the city have received most of the attention, the majority of ICF homes in Lubbock are being constructed for the private housing industry. The Cement Council of Texas has documented more than 200 ICF homes built in Lubbock over the last five years, in all price ranges. At a February, 2004 field hearing in Lubbock in preparation for legislation on wind hazard mitigation, Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), a member of the House Science Research Subcommittee, toured two city-built ICF homes, which he cited as excellent examples of safer residences being constructed for the affordable housing sector. | 
