The Department of Housing and Urban Development is making new funding available to help Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program and other multifamily housing owners improve energy or water efficiency; enhance indoor air quality or sustainability; and implement the use of zero-emission electricity generation, low-emission building materials and energy storage or building electrification strategies.
Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, called the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program funding disbursement “a tremendous step forward toward ensuring that low-income older adults are safe and protected as threats from climate change escalate.”
New funding from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and $4 billion in loan commitments to the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program will make HUD-assisted multifamily housing more energy efficient, cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve climate resiliency, the agency said.
“The launch of the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program today will ensure low-income individuals and families have better access to healthy, energy-efficient and resilient homes,” HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge stated Thursday in a press release.
Building owners will be able to invest in technologies such as solar panels, heat pumps, wind-resistant roofing, insulation, low embodied carbon materials and other measures that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make properties safer for residents in the face of more severe weather and a changing climate. The program’s implementing notice and notices of funding opportunities detail a range of grant and loan funding options for affordable senior housing and other multifamily housing owners with varying levels of expertise with green retrofits.
The Green and Resilient Retrofit Program is the first HUD program that simultaneously invests in energy and water efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions reductions, clean-energy generation and climate resilience strategies in multifamily housing, the agency said.
“Over 800,000 older adult households could benefit from the projects supported by green and resilient retrofit initiatives,” Sloan said. “These are not insignificant concerns. The affordable communities eligible to apply for these new funds deserve the benefits of energy efficiency and climate resiliency, and so do today’s and future residents. These investments will save the public billions on utility bills and position these communities to thrive in the future.”
