Strengthening resilience through housing retrofits
Smart house with energy-efficient appliances, solar panel, and home energy management system. Image credit: Getty Images
July 19, 2024
Overview
Implementing retrofits is a vital strategy for strengthening both single-family and multifamily homes against climate-related natural hazards.
These initiatives encompass various improvements, such as the installation of energy-efficient windows and doors, upgrades to more efficient lighting and appliances, and the addition of roof overhangs, storm shutters, and cool roofs. By embracing retrofits, cities can enhance energy and water efficiency, and promote equity for lower-income residents, who are more likely to live in older homes, spend a higher share of their income on energy costs, and are at higher risk from climate-related natural disasters. This approach also contributes to improving the overall health and safety of homes, while concurrently enabling households to save money and improve their resilience.
This brief covers important strategies and policy choices that localities can promote to encourage retrofits in their communities. These include conducting energy audits, implementing energy use disclosure requirements, setting performance-based standards or providing incentives, and establishing water conservation requirements or incentives. While these home improvements can raise property values, they may also lead to unintended negative effects. Therefore, it’s crucial to develop retrofitting approaches that incorporate policies supporting the preservation of housing affordability to reduce the risk of displacement, particularly for lower-income renters.
Key strategies
Identify and engage key local stakeholders
Localities can start by meeting with relevant community organizations and community members to understand their needs for improving housing resilience. They can also find out what community members need to meaningfully engage in shaping efforts to promote housing retrofits and work to sustain ongoing public participation. Sharing knowledge with and learning from the community is also important. For example, localities can educate community members about the importance of retrofit programs and share information on available resources. Community members can, in turn, help to identify which retrofit programs and benefits would be most impactful for the community. Engagement methods may include door-to-door outreach, flyers and other notices, and community meetings to both share information and gather feedback on an ongoing basis.
Engaging with local government and non-government partners early on can assist with communication strategies and implementation. Relevant local government departments or agencies for housing retrofit programs may include those in charge of climate action, permitting, or housing, among others. Non-government implementation partners may consist of property owners, property management staff, local builders associations, local contractors, home energy professionals, and public utility commissions. Participating in ongoing public comment and stakeholder meetings can help cities and towns to conduct outreach, gather feedback, and make continuous improvements to expand programs for housing retrofits.
Finally, it can be beneficial to develop engagement strategies and communication materials to engage with and provide guidance to property owners, property management staff, and renters interested in retrofitting their properties or homes. An American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEE) toolkit provides marketing, education, and outreach campaign strategies for engaging with different audiences. This guidance could include topics such as finding contractors and communicating with them, inspections, permitting requirements, and maintenance. Any materials should be translated into languages relevant to the community to ensure they are accessible to all its members.
Establish equity and retrofit goals
Working with partners to establish retrofit program goals, with a focus on those that promote equity is an encouraged strategy. Localities could adopt, for example, a goal that community members do not pay more than a certain percentage of their monthly income on energy bills. Another community-level goal could be to complete retrofits in a certain number or percentage of the most vulnerable neighborhoods. In this particular instance, this effort would only require the use of the White House’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool to identify overburdened and underserved neighborhoods. Focusing on retrofits in these neighborhoods could promote equity by helping low-income households reduce energy burdens and improve resilience. In Chicago, Illinois, for example, the City of Chicago prioritized 20 communities for equitable investment, which helped identify older single-family and two- to four-unit multifamily buildings for energy retrofits.
Prioritizing certain building types or features, such as single-family versus multifamily, older versus newer construction, presence of basements or attics, or susceptibility to specific natural hazards such as flooding or wildfire is important to consider. As an example, municipalities could set a retrofit goal of raising a certain percentage of neighborhood boilers or water heaters off the ground in basements susceptible to flooding, or a certain percentage of attics insulated in areas that experience extreme heat. Implementing minimum energy efficiency standards for certain buildings could also be a good option. Burlington, Vermont, for instance, requires residential rental properties that use 90,000 BTUs or more per conditioned square foot to meet minimum energy efficiency standards.
Retrofit program goals can also help meet broader greenhouse gas reduction targets. Developing housing energy efficiency targets could help reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions and meet other environmental and livability goals. Implementing retrofit programs and addressing energy efficiency can make housing more affordable, create jobs, and improve health and safety for inhabitants, among other outcomes.
Explore financing mechanisms and programs that support retrofits
Financing mechanisms for promoting and implementing housing retrofits vary and can be administered at the local, state, or federal levels. Examples of housing retrofit opportunities may include state, federal, or other resources, They may also encompass envelope efficiency and weatherization (e.g., installing energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, electrical systems, or higher-rated insulation), and floodproofing. Financing mechanisms may involve grants, loans, bonds, rebates, or tax incentives. Additionally, existing programs could be used to promote other funding opportunities. In Salem, Massachusetts, local officials used an existing affordable housing retrofit project to push the need for statewide funding to help retrofit public housing in the region.
Federal programs such as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), energy performance contracting guidance, eProjectBuilder tools, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) and Green and Resilient Retrofit Program also offer benefits. Accessing government or utility companies’ technical assistance, financing, or rebate programs is an added option. Property owners can additionally consider using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), a federal program to subsidize rental property retrofits for affordable housing for low- and moderate-income tenants.
Develop a local retrofit strategy
Developing targeted retrofit strategies to meet local needs and established equity and retrofit goals can be highly beneficial. For example, those in areas that experience extreme heat may wish to prioritize retrofit programs that support better insulation and more efficient cooling systems. Programs may be tweaked over time to reflect new funding opportunities as they become available.
Considering equity issues, such as housing affordability and displacement, when developing retrofit strategies is highly encouraged. Providing guidance on how to maintain the habitability of homes while undergoing retrofits, where to get support with needed relocation, and how to avoid unfair rent hikes due to retrofits are some of the ways in which this could be accomplished. Strategies for preserving affordability could include requiring participating building owners to maintain lower rents in exchange for program participation or providing property tax refunds. Strategies for maintaining tenant habitability include requiring property owners to prepare a tenant habitability plan to mitigate impacts on existing residents. For example, the Ordinance of Culver City, California, provides tenant protections during substantial renovations and requires landlords to mitigate untenable conditions resulting from them, including exposure to any hazardous materials.
Finally, localities can consider developing their own funding mechanisms for property owners. For example, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the City of Minneapolis operates a Green Cost Share program to help homeowners pay for energy-efficient upgrades. The city also requires that owners provide energy disclosures to potential home renters and buyers to preview expected energy costs.
Evaluate metrics and program outcomes
As with any large-scale program, program outcomes should be evaluated in relation to set goals. This may include energy savings, cost savings, greenhouse gas and criteria pollutant emissions reductions, health and safety improvements, and equitable distribution of benefits.
Resources for resilience housing retrofits
Several existing resources provide guidance for localities interested in promoting retrofit programs. These include:
Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP). This HUD resource provides information on loans and grants to improve sustainability and efficiency.
Climate Resilience Implementation Guide: Single-Family Retrofits. This guide published by HUD provides step-by-step instructions to assist communities in implementing a single-family retrofit program.
Guidance on Marketing, Education, and Outreach Campaigns Targeting Energy Efficiency Improvements in Rental Housing. Published by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), this toolkit offers tips for local governments to reach stakeholders to promote energy-efficient programs.
Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity (R2E2). Another ACEEE partnership, this team offers technical assistance to state, local, and tribal governments as well as community-based organizations to jumpstart energy upgrades for single-family and multifamily affordable housing.
Climate Safe Housing: Strategies for Multifamily Building Resilience. This web-based guide by Enterprise Community Partners provides owners and operators of multifamily housing with practical guidance on re-designing and retrofitting their buildings.
Ready to Respond: Strategies for Multifamily Building Resilience. A PDF guide by Enterprise Community Partners outlining practical strategies for building owners to make their properties more resilient against the effects of extreme weather events.
Decarbonization Roadmap for Multifamily Affordable Housing. This is a best practices manual published by the Building Energy Exchange.