HUD and the Biden-Harris Administration also announce efforts to reduce barriers to solar energy for lower income Americans
Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is announcing that the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is receiving additional funding –over $37 million in Tenant Protection Vouchers in an effort to maintain a resident-first focus during ongoing repairs. Additionally, NYCHA recently also received $7.5 million to remove lead-based paint from public housing.
HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman announced these funds today during a visit to a Brooklyn affordable housing complex managed by NYCHA. While touring the property, Acting Secretary Todman highlighted all the ways HUD is working to reduce housing costs and expand assistance for lower-income Americans. This includes boosting access to energy efficiency and clean energy, which can help lower utility bills and create more sustainable, affordable homes for the families HUD serves.
“HUD is working to ensure that all Americans have access to homes that are not just affordable, but resilient,” said HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman. “Today, I am proud not only to release more funding to help New York families, but to announce new actions to boost access to solar energy for these families. We know that solar energy can reduce both emissions and housing costs for owners and residents, and this Administration is working to ensure low-income families receive these critical benefits.”
Coordinated efforts by HUD are ensuring that solar energy benefit residents and families of America’s public housing communities and multifamily housing faster. Through President Biden and Vice President Harris’ Inflation Reduction Act, incentives for clean energy and manufacturing have driven a historic surge in solar. Since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, the US has surpassed five million solar installations that are lower Americans’ electricity bills – and more than 25% of those solar projects have been added just since the President signed the Inflation Reduction Act. Today, HUD and the Biden-Harris Administration are announcing several actions to reduce barriers and make it easier to install solar on public housing properties and multifamily housing backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This will ensure that the benefits of affordable, clean energy reach disproportionately underserved communities and families who live in multifamily housing. HUD and the Biden-Harris Administration are eliminating barriers to solar at multifamily housing and in HUD-supported public housing communities that serve low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities through the efforts outlined below.
Increasing Solar Energy Incentives for Public Housing Authorities
For far too long, solar on public housing has been slowed, because of an archaic policy which meant that when a public housing authority saved energy from solar, the property could not keep the savings. To help unlock the full potential of on-site solar on public housing properties, today HUD announces that 100% of the cost savings from solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) can stay with public housing properties when done in conjunction with an Energy Performance Contract (EPC), expanding opportunities for solar investments. HUD has updated its Rate Reduction Incentive (RRI) notice, allowing public housing authorities (PHAs) to receive cost savings from reductions in utility costs. These updates allow PHAs to retain up to 100% of the cost savings (it was previously capped at 50%) from on-site solar and community solar, helping PHAs to realize the full benefit of EPA’s Solar for Allprogram and Treasury’s Direct Pay tax provision.
Making it Easier to Install Solar on Multifamily Housing
Today HUD, FHFA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac announced a new working group to coordinate with multifamily housing developers and the solar industry to uplift industry best practices for on-site solar at multifamily properties. The working group will assess enhancements and standardization to processes and documents needed to reduce transaction costs and make it easier to install solar on affordable and market-rate multifamily housing and leverage historic IRA dollars. This effort will help the marketplace meet the demands of the housing and solar industry to cut housing operational costs, reduce emissions and increase sustainability, and enable the long-term preservation of multifamily housing.
Updating Guidance for Expanding Solar Energy Benefits at HUD-Supported Properties
During the Biden-Harris Administration, HUD has updated solar energy guidance. In 2022 and 2023, HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs and Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) published guidance on the treatment of financial benefits to tenants from on-site and community solar projects. This guidance is helping to ensure residents in HUD-supported housing across the country benefit from the expansion of these new clean energy programs.
Expanding Opportunities for Rental Properties to Adopt Solar Energy
HUD has delivered more than $770 million in funds that will upgrade more than 20,000 homes through the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program to bring clean energy generation—including solar energy—and climate resilience to HUD-assisted properties that house low-income tenants across the country. 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. Broadly, these critical investments are creating healthier, affordable, safer and more climate resilient homes and communities and advancing economic and environmental justice, a core objective of the National Climate Resilience Framework and a core value of the Biden-Harris Administration’s work related to climate change.
The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to fighting the negative effects of climate change while ensuring that every American has access to a healthy, sustainable, and affordable home, and HUD is proud to be a crucial part of this mission.