HUD creating more affordable, energy efficient and climate resilient rental homes

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is commemorating the two-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in clean energy and climate action ever, which was signed into law by President Biden on August 16, 2022.

The Act is helping families save money on housing, energy bills, protecting them from climate-fueled disasters such as storms, floods, fire, and extreme heat, and creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs.

Through the Inflation Reduction Act, HUD received nearly one billion dollars to create grants and loans to increase energy efficiency and climate resilience at HUD’s assisted rental properties. HUD’s Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) has already awarded $773 million to projects across the country, helping HUD-assisted properties representing more than 20,000 rental homes for low-income tenants.

This includes $68,158,501 to Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska for 1,692 rental homes.

This investment creates healthier, affordable, safer and more climate resilient homes and communities and advances economic and environmental justice, a core value of the Biden-Harris Administration’s work related to climate change. GRRP is the first HUD program to simultaneously invest in energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions reductions, energy generation, green and healthy housing, and climate resilience strategies specifically in HUD-assisted multifamily housing.
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All the investments under the GRRP will be made in affordable housing communities serving low-income families in alignment with the President’s Justice40 Initiative which sets a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. The Inflation Reduction Act provided HUD with $837.5 million in grant and loan subsidy funding and $4 billion in loan commitment authority for this program.

HUD Great Plains Regional Administrator Ulysses Clayborn added: “The funds provided by the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program allow property owners to develop their projects with greater climate resiliency and energy efficiency. Without these funds these green features would be lost and so would the opportunity to develop projects that fit the needs for the 21st century and beyond.”

“Thanks to its IRA funding, the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program is enabling energy efficiency and climate resilience upgrades in the homes of those who for too long have been overlooked when it comes to investments in safe and sustainable housing,” said Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner Julia Gordon. “The Green and Resilient Retrofit Program shows the power of federal funding under the Biden-Harris Administration to make a real and lasting difference for residents, for communities, and for the planet.”

The President’s Inflation Reduction Act also funds HUD’s Multifamily Benchmarking Initiative, which provides no-cost benchmarking services for owners of eligible HUD-assisted properties to assess their energy and water consumption to determine what efficiency upgrades are needed and how to reduce utility and housing costs. To date, more than 900 properties are participating in this initiative in support of efforts to lower energy costs while promoting climate resilience and sustainability and housing affordability in the nation’s housing supply.  In addition to encouraging participating properties to increase efficiency through comprehensive retrofits, this effort supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing efforts to build and preserve more affordable, multifamily housing.

In addition, in September 2023, HUD launched its first-ever Funding Navigator, an interactive tool that allows the user to browse and sort funding opportunities for billions of dollars in funding available under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). As a part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, potentially eligible entities are able to sort funding resources based on audience, activity, funding type, location, and other items. The Funding Navigator helps HUD program participants maximize the utilization of IRA and BIL resources for carbon reduction and climate resilience efforts.