Faced with a lean economy, developers need to be creative to incorporate
green improvements into existing affordable rental housing along with new
projects.
The National Housing Conference and the MacArthur Foundation
hosted Partners in
Innovation: Preserving Affordable Rental Housing Through Energy Conservation
in Boston on April 14 to further that
discussion. Another forum, about preservation of affordable rental housing in
rural and urban areas, was held in Portland on May 17; a third forum, on
transit-oriented development, is scheduled on Sept. 28 in Denver.
Vincent O’Donnell, vice president for affordable housing
preservation at the Local Initiatives Support
Corporation, spoke at the Boston seminar. LISC supports public-private
partnerships for affordable housing projects by providing short- and intermediate-term
loans and equity investments. “We act as an interface between the on-the-ground
nonprofit developers and large financial institutions,” O’Donnell says.
Developers must be convinced that higher predevelopment and
construction costs for energy efficiency improvements will pay off in the long
run through more financing options, lower utility costs, and higher property
values, O’Donnell says.
“Any developer, whether they are for-profit or nonprofit,
are extremely focused on what is practical and what is pragmatic and
achievable,” he says. “It does involve a new set of skills and a new way of
looking at things. At the end of the day, you do it because you have net
savings.”
Matt Petersen, president and CEO of the environmental
nonprofit Global Green USA, also
spoke at the Boston seminar. Green features such as solar panels and
energy-efficient windows can be funded by carbon offsets from regional
greenhouse gas initiatives, energy efficiency grants from utilities, and tax
credit financing incentives, Petersen says. But architects and affordable
housing developers need to use an integrated design approach to incorporate
green improvements into developments early in the planning process if they want
to maximize savings.
Green features for retrofits or new housing can be funded
from several sources. The Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the first mandatory cap-and-trade greenhouse gas
emissions program in the country, covers 10 Northeastern and mid-Atlantic
states. Power plants must buy carbon offsets, which are used to fund energy
efficiency and renewable energy projects. Several states and utility companies also
offer programs that fund home energy audits and rebates for solar power
installation, weatherization, or upgrades in heating, cooling, and water heaters.
The Department of Energy provides federal tax credits
of up to $1,500 for energy-efficient improvements to primary residences,
including biomass stoves, HVAC and water heater upgrades, roofing, insulation, and
energy-efficient windows, doors, and skylights. The program offers tax credits
up to 30 percent of the cost for geothermal heat pumps and solar or wind energy
systems for new and existing homes.
While energy-efficiency requirements in grants and tax
credits can help, increased government regulations also could compel developers
to install retrofits. Global Green USA lobbied for passage of AB 758 last year
by the California legislature. Under the law, the California Energy Commission must
establish a regulatory proceeding to develop and implement a comprehensive
energy-efficiency program for existing residential and commercial buildings to reduce
their greenhouse gas emissions.
The program may include energy audits, energy efficiency
improvements, financing options, and green workforce training. But the
legislation didn’t include performance-based measures so it remains to be seen
how it will be enforced. Statewide, 72 percent of California’s 13 million
residential buildings and more than 5 billion square feet of commercial space
were built before the state energy-efficiency building code (Title 24) was
passed in the early 1980s.
At the federal level, Petersen and O’Donnell both believe
the interagency Sustainable Communities Initiative by HUD, DOT, and EPA is
promising because of the potential for more targeted grant funds and support
for transit-oriented affordable rental housing. “They are all working together
in ways they have never done before, but we’re not going to see change
overnight,” O’Donnell says.