Tar Heelprint

Inspiration

Whitesburg, Kentucky Floods

When we volunteered with HOMES, a nonprofit organization that provides affordable housing, we noticed that workers painted over structural damages (such as mold) due to a lack of resources and time.

North Carolina Housing

One of our team members who lived in NC for 16 years has noticed the exponential increase in housing development that minimizes costs to build, largely because of the significant population growth.

What it does

Focusing on the negative effects of increasing heat indexes in urban areas, our challenge involves addressing the housing crisis amidst the challenges presented by extreme climate, population shifts, and archaic infrastructural design. By showing localized effects, it brings the severity of the situation into perspective. The proposal aims to persuade the necessary local governments, as well as the state government, to create a decisive effort towards addressing the social barriers within these respective cities due to zoning laws, housing shortages, and outdated infrastructure to adapt to the changes associated with the climate crisis. At the heart of this project is the demand for housing stability and prioritization of well-being through achieving community resilience equitably.

How we built it

Our proposal has three parts:

GIS Data Analysis & Lobbying for Grants; Execute Lean Experiments
Develop Retrofitting Strategies and Green-Roof Installation of Native Plants in Target Cities Across North Carolina
Improve Heat Tolerance of Native Plants through Scientific Research

Challenges we ran into

The common theme in our challenges was the lack of research or data on our topics of interest:

Roof gardens have never been tested or implemented extensively in North Carolina.
Genetic engineering, although much more advanced than in the past, still is not a guaranteed solution.
Most housing affordability index data were either aggregated by previous research or required an access payment.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Tar Heelprint is proud of how we were able to intersect policy, technology & innovation, and social engagement in our solution.

What we learned

Policy proposals are multifaceted and require a nuanced understanding of multiple subjects. Even when proposals are written, significant effort is required to even execute the plan and prove to stakeholders that the issue at hand is important enough to prioritize.

What's next for Tar Heelprint

More research would be needed to identify areas of low housing affordability. Local contractors, builders, etc. also need to be contacted in order to set this plan into action. As for roof gardens, we would need to collaborate with homeowners, private businesses, and local government to determine if and how they want to plant roof gardens.