National Housing Trust is offering this toolkit as an information source for HFAs and owners and developers seeking resources through the Inflation Reduction Act. The funding opportunities, case studies and reports, resident engagement tools and other resources listed here will enable you to invest in the affordable housing facilities that you develop and manage.

WE ACT's Out of Gas, In with Justice pilot studied the feasibility and benefits of electrification in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) by comparing improvements to air quality and participant satisfaction between 10 apartments with induction stoves and 10 with their existing gas stoves. It is the first study of its kind to focus on the effects of residential cooking electrification with tenants in-place in an urban public housing setting with low-income residents and residents of color. This pilot offers lessons for policymakers, public housing agencies, and affordable housing providers on cooking electrification and its impact on indoor air quality, social acceptance of electrification measures, and infrastructure challenges for existing housing in environmental justice communities.

Communities across the nation are regularly experiencing natural disasters or recovering from them. While all communities are at risk, low-income communities are disproportionately affected by climate events and often have limited resources to recover. This guide provides owners and operators of multifamily housing with practical guidance on re-designing and retrofitting their buildings to adapt to and provide protection from climate risks and other potential hazards.

This presentation provides an overview for affordable housing owners and managers interested in developing a portfolio-wide energy action plan, demonstrating Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp as a case study, highlighting examples of properties.

The Extreme Heat Quick Guide is a resource from HUD, along with Enterprise and Arcadis, created to help HUD grantees and community partners to tackle extreme heat events. It includes ways of assessing vulnerability, planning for events, and enhancing resilience. It also provides resources and identifies funding opportunities from HUD and other federal partners related to extreme heat.

Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) created a series of fact sheets tailored toward residents that explains different building upgrades and their benefits. Each fact sheet includes the types of measures to expect and energy efficiency upgrades that should result from the retrofit. The categories of upgrades are building shell; domestic hot water (DHW); heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC); lighting, and renewable energy.

As community solar programs scale up, there is an opportunity for multifamily affordable housing providers to help connect more low-income households to the benefits of community solar programs. Members of the Department of Energy’s National Community Solar Partnership, Multifamily Affordable Housing Collaborative, have installed solar projects and partnered with local subscription programs to provide benefits to both affordable housing providers and the residents they serve. This tip sheet highlights resident engagement and outreach strategies used by collaborative members to build trust in community solar programs and increase subscribers among affordable housing residents.

The Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) provides capital resources to reduce carbon emissions, make utility efficiency improvements, incorporate renewable energy sources, and make properties more resilient against the effects of climate hazards. These resources are available for owners of multifamily housing that receive HUD assistance. While residents cannot lose rental assistance as a result of GRRP, the development and retrofit process will directly impact residents’ homes. This toolkit guides owners through the process of engaging residents about the GRRP-funded retrofit process and offers practical solutions and usable resources to meet program requirements.

Advanced Energy Design Guide for Multifamily Buildings-Achieving Zero Energy (AEDG) is the third in the AEDG zero energy guide series. The design guide outlines strategies for achieving energy targets such as setting measurable goals, hiring design teams committed to those goals, using simulation throughout the design and construction processes and being aware of how process decisions affect energy usage. In this edition, content has been included on renovation and resiliency along with expanded guidance on hot water and high load in multifamily buildings.

Decarbonizing residential building stock is crucial to mitigating climate change. However, local and national decarbonization policies can potentially create unintended harms for tenants, including unsustainable rent raises and unnecessary or illegal evictions. These policies must be designed and implemented carefully to protect renters, who are more likely than homeowners to be from Black, Brown, and low-income communities that already disproportionately bear the negative effects of climate change. Not doing so will exacerbate the housing crisis while driving more Americans into homelessness. This paper offers recommendations for tenant protection in building decarbonization policies.