Welcome to HomeFree
A national initiative supporting affordable housing leaders who are improving human health by using less toxic building materials.
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Looking to strengthen the equity conversation? How about including building materials!
Wondering what makes building materials a public health issue? The word equity plays a big role! Equity and buildings seem worlds apart, but Healthy Building Network is changing that paradigm through research, education, and our HomeFree initiative.
Read MoreTake the Transparency Pledge, Lead the Way to Better Health
Building owners and designers in the affordable housing sector are leading the way to healthier products by taking a pledge to prefer products with full and public ingredient disclosures. HBN’s HomeFree Champions have co-designed both a process and tools to make it easier to achieve transparency. Join these leaders by...
Read More"Tens of Millions of Pounds of Phthalates Annually Eliminated from Vinyl Flooring"
Phthalates (thay-lates) are chemicals used to make vinyl soft and pliable for uses such as roofing membrane, wall covering and flooring. Healthy Building Network began a campaign to remove these chemicals from building products in our seminal 2002 report, Environmental Impacts of PVC Building materials. In 2005 we reported that...
Read MoreCould Chemical Exposures Increase Your Chance of Catching a Cold?
Followers of our work at Healthy Building Network are well-versed in the broad range of impacts that chemical exposures can have on our health. Many chemicals that are common in building materials have been linked to cancer, asthma, and effects on the endocrine system. Did you also know that more...
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Jess Blanch
Assoc. AIA, LEED, Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow
Jess is a Design Associate and Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow at Capitol Hill Housing (CHH) in Seattle, where she is focused on advancing CHH's capacity in design excellence, sustainability, and community engagement in a variety of low-income housing and community development projects. Jess brings over a decade of experience in affordable housing and community-engaged design work.
A champion for healthy materials in affordable housing, she has presented the topic at AIA Seattle’s Material Matters education series. Jess is spearheading CHH’s Healthy Homes Initiative to promote healthier work and living environments by reducing toxins in CHH’s 48 low-income housing properties, and educating over 2,300 CHH residents and staff on using healthier materials and green cleaning products.
Jess uses HomeFree on the Liberty Bank Building project, one of HomeFree’s pilot Demonstration Projects. The HomeFree principles and lessons learned from the design of the Liberty Bank Building have heavily influenced the CHH Healthy Homes Initiative, especially in creating design and operations guidelines to be used at all of CHH’s affordable housing properties.