HUD Fact Sheet: HUD Honors Earth Day, Illustrates Commitment to Fighting Climate Crisis Through Efficient and Green Community Development
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is on the front lines of the nation’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis, build resilient communities, and further environmental justice.
HUD understands the ongoing threat climate change poses to the country and world – because this crisis disproportionately impacts the people we serve. Accordingly, HUD has a responsibility to advance our climate action program by providing tools, opportunities and incentives for partners and stakeholders across the nation to advance a climate-resilient, energy-efficient future.
To help build a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient future for the communities we serve, HUD is implementing a holistic, ambitious, Department-wide Climate Action Plan. HUD’s Climate Action Plan aims to increase community climate resilience, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from HUD-supported properties, and embed environmental justice across the Department’s program delivery. Since the Action Plan was released, HUD has made significant strides towards our climate resiliency and energy goals in the following ways:
Advancing climate resilience in our most vulnerable communities:
HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD), in February 2023, kicked off the Climate Communities Initiative, a pilot technical assistance program designed to support Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) entitlement communities over an 18-month period with their planning and implementation of long-term equitable climate resilience activities and their efforts to better integrate equitable climate resilience into HUD Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plans.
CPD also published a Community Resilient Toolkit and accompanying implementation guides, including on how to use HUD funding to install cool roofs, to invest in nature-based solutions for people and the planet, to assist communities in designing and implementing a community-driven relocation program and to do single-family retrofits for energy efficiency and resilience.
HUD’s Office of Disaster Recovery published a Resilient Building Codes Toolkit to help Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grantees incorporate resilient building codes in their recovery and mitigation efforts.
HUD has also included new climate and environmental justice-related requirements for CDBG-DR funds allocated for 2020 disasters and beyond that will prioritize long-term environmental resilience and traditionally marginalized populations.
HUD published on March 24, 2023, a proposed Federal Flood Risk Management Standard Rule for public comment, proposing for adoption a forward-looking standard that considers future flood risk, increasing the Nation’s resilience to flooding, reducing the risk of flood loss, minimizing the impact of floods on households across the country, and protecting federal investments against future risk and increased harm.
Ensuring that resilient HUD-supported housing is energy efficient, with reduced carbon emissions:
HUD’s Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program (Section 202), published a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) in September 2022, that awarded points for projects that incorporate green and resilient building approaches and outcomes. More stringent energy standards are now required for baseline new construction and substantial rehabilitation with extra points awarded for those projects that lead to deeper energy efficiency and building decarbonization.
HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) published the updated Small Frozen Rolling Base Notice in October 20222 that provides incentives for small and rural housing authorities to invest in energy and water savings measures that can be financed up to 20 years.
PIH also published the updated Rate Reduction Incentive Notice in November 2022 providing incentive for housing authorities to keep 50 to 100% of savings from significant measures to reduce utility rates. The Office of Public Housing and Voucher Programs Energy Branch created and published technical assistance for PHAs and stakeholders to improve utilization of Energy Performance Contract and Rate Reduction Incentive programs. This year, as a result, HUD has seen a 25% increase in participation of the Rate Reduction program and expects it to increase.
HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing and PIH published guidance in July and August 2022 that allows residents of public and HUD-assisted multifamily housing to access cost-saving community solar subscriptions, once not eligible for HUD housing, without otherwise affecting their housing assistance.
Committing to embedding environmental justice considerations across HUD programs:
HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes and PIH announced a pair of historic Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) in January 2023 totaling $586 million, that will make homes healthier and safer for low-income families by protecting children, families, and individuals from exposure to lead and other hazards in their homes.
HUD’s Office of Environment and Energy published its Draft Departmental Radon Policy, Departmental Policy for Addressing Radon in the Environmental Review Process, in the Federal Register on January 2023 for a 60-day comment period. In recognition that radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers and kills an estimated 21,000 Americans each year, HUD seeks to protect resident lives by considering radon as part of the contamination analysis of HUD projects. This draft policy would clarify that radon must be considered in the contamination analysis for HUD environmental reviews; provide guidance on recommended best practices for considering radon; and identify the HUD programs that have established specific radon guidance.
HUD’s Office of Disaster Recovery published the Citizen Participation and Equitable Engagement Toolkit to aid CDBG-DR grantees in centering equity in disaster recovery programs through an enhanced citizen participation process.
Building interagency partnerships to advance climate resilience, decarbonization, and environmental justice across the country:
HUD partnered with the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Transportation DOT, and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to release the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization to cut all greenhouse emissions from the transportation sector by 2050. This partnership exemplifies the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to addressing the climate crisis and meeting President Biden’s goals of securing a 100% clean electrical grid by 2035 and reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. HUD’s role in this effort is to help better align transportation, housing, and community development investments.
HUD partners with DOE to support the Better Buildings Multifamily Sector, helping mission-driven owners of primarily affordable multifamily portfolios create approaches to significant energy reductions that can then be scaled across the entire multifamily housing stock. In February 2022, HUD worked with DOE to launch and recruit multifamily partners for the new Better Climate Challenge, in which partners commit to reduce their portfolio-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent over ten years. Fourteen multifamily organizations have now committed to this ambition emissions reduction goal, representing over 100,000 units of housing nationwide -- 75 percent of which are affordable.
HUD has also partnered with DOE to promote the Buildings Upgrade Prize, Buildings UP, an initiative by the DOE Building Technologies Office to build capacity to accelerate equitable, widespread energy efficiency and efficient electrification building upgrades across the country. HUD has promoted this prize opportunity among HUD stakeholders, working to ensure low-income communities are included in the energy transition. Overall, Buildings UP provides more than $22 million in cash prizes and technical assistance to support the transformation of existing U.S. buildings into more energy-efficient and clean energy-ready homes, commercial spaces, and communities.
Investing in internal training and learning opportunities for HUD staff to gain important knowledge on climate change and environmental justice issues:
HUD’s internal Climate and Environmental Justice Working Group, led by the Senior Advisor for Climate and the Office of Environment and Energy, is focused on the long-term integration of climate action and environmental justice into the Department’s programs to better achieve HUD’s mission, both through implementation of the Department’s Climate Action Plan and by raising awareness around HUD’s climate and environmental justice efforts. The group has met monthly since 2021 and is comprised of nearly 100 members at varying levels of hierarchy from across the Department.
HUD’s Office of Housing hosted housing counseling trainings with DOE to train HUD’s housing counselors about the key role of energy efficiency in boosting housing affordability and improving health, safety and comfort. The trainings also included the value of incentive programs, loan products, rebates, and other resources to help renters, homebuyers, and homeowners achieve cost savings and build wealth through energy efficiency and guidance on how to navigate federal, state and local programs in their region, including various Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) initiatives.