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Strategic Objective
Increase the health and safety of homes and embed comprehensive energy efficiency and healthy housing criteria across HUD programs.
Strategic Objective
Overview
HUD has committed to creating energy efficient, green, and healthy housing as part of a broader effort to foster the development of inclusive, sustainable communities. The residential sector is responsible for fully 21 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. With approximately 5.5 million housing units assisted through its rental assistance programs, HUD’s share of this total is significant. HUD spends an estimated $6.4 billion annually on utilities (both water and energy) in the form of allowances for tenant-paid utilities, direct operating grants for public housing, and housing assistance payments for privately-owned assisted housing. Utility costs account for around 22 percent of public housing operating budgets, and a similar share in the assisted housing sector.
Reducing these rising costs—generating savings for residents and owners, as well as for taxpayers—is a key HUD priority. Significant progress has been made over the past five years with energy retrofits, healthy housing interventions, or new energy projects completed in more than 510,000 housing units.
In FY 2016-17, HUD will continue or expand energy investments in the residential sector to support the goals of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to cut energy waste in half by 2030 and accelerate clean energy leadership—both in HUD-assisted housing, as well as in market-rate housing. We will reduce barriers to financing energy efficiency as well as on-site renewable energy generation, help unlock innovative and traditional sources of capital, and strengthen codes and standards that promote energy efficiency and healthy housing.
The need to retrofit HUD-assisted housing is not limited to the efforts to increase energy efficiency and reduce costs. Housing is also an important determinant of health, and poor housing conditions are associated with a wide range of health conditions, including respiratory infections, asthma, lead poisoning, and injuries. HUD makes homes healthy and safe through several programs, led by the Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes’ (OLHCHH) lead hazard control grant programs and Lead Safe Housing Rule (LSHR) compliance. OLHCHH also educates the general public about healthy homes through a public communications campaign to help people connect the dots between their health and their home.
The production of lead-safe housing units will continue to depend strongly on the level of funding for the lead hazard control grant programs and the rehabilitation programs that make required lead hazard reduction measures in assisted housing covered by the LSHR. With funding for OLHCHH grant activities projected to be approximately level through FY 2016, and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Home Investment Partnership Program (HOME) experiencing significant funding reductions in recent years, the number of pre-1978 housing units made lead-safe in 2016 is expected to decrease.
Read Less...Progress Update
To assess our progress toward increasing the energy efficiency and health of the nation’s housing stock, HUD tracks the number of newly constructed or retrofitted housing units that are healthy, energy-efficient, and/or meet green building standards. For the FY 2016-17 APG cycle, the Secretary challenged program offices to equal our FY 2014-15 targets, matching our historic two-year performance trend of producing 160,000 green and healthy units. In light of funding challenges, such as the expiration of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funds and appropriations for key programs, the progress made in achieving the Department’s objectives for FY 2014-15 is noteworthy. Over the last two years, HUD has completed 155,853 green or healthy units, or 96.1 percent of the Department’s two-year FY 2014-15 target of 162,259. Of the completed green or healthy units, 115,664 units, or 74.2 percent, were energy-related, and the remaining 40,189 units were lead hazard control or healthy housing retrofits funded through HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes (OLHCHH) or through enforcement of the Lead Safe Housing Rule by CPD and HOME funds.
FY 2014-15 Energy-Related Units Completions by Program Office, through September 30, 2015:
- The Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD): CPD reported 8,748 energy efficient units in FY 2015 and a combined FY 2014-15 total of 16,671 units, exceeding its two-year target of 16,543 energy efficient units. Completed CPD units consist of new HOME and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)-funded units meeting the Energy Star Certified New Homes standard, as well as energy efficient CDBG-DR units built for Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief. FY 2015 totals have been impacted by lower appropriations for the HOME program, as well as decreased expenditures for CDBG new construction―down 43 percent from FY 2014. It should be noted that, while HUD completed fewer Energy Star certified units in FY 2015 than in FY 2014, the percentage of new CDBG housing units that were also Energy Star certified increased from FY 2014 to FY 2015.
- Multifamily Housing: The Office of Multifamily Housing completed 16,364 energy efficient units in FY 2015 and a combined FY 2014-15 total of 34,276 units. Multifamily Housing set an FY 2015 target for its Rental Assistance Demonstration program (RAD), with 13,770 energy efficient units expected last fiscal year. However, the Department fell well short of that target due to the delayed-rollout of the RAD program, as well as the initial production cap limiting the number of eligible projects. As a result, Multifamily Housing met 75 percent of its two-year goal of 16,364 energy efficient units. In addition to the RAD program, the following multifamily programs are included in this total: FHA Multifamily Endorsements with energy efficient features, the Mark-to-Market Program Green Initiative, Section 202 and Section 811 projects funded under the FY 2009 and FY 2010 NOFAs and completed in FY 2014-15, and the Green Preservation Plus Risk Sharing Program.
- Single Family Housing: FHA’s Office of Single Family Housing reported 5,872 energy efficient units through the fourth quarter of FY 2015, exceeding its FY 2015 target of 5,700 units. Since FY 2014, Single Family Housing has reported 6,639 energy efficient units, or 103 percent of its two-year target of 6,425 units. The overwhelming majority of these units (5,117) were financed with Section 203(k) mortgages which finance rehabilitation and home improvements in conjunction with home purchases (or refinancing of existing mortgages). In FY 2015, Single Family Housing began tracking energy efficient units completed under this program for the first time. Additional units reported were through FHA's Title I and 203(k) PowerSaver Pilot Program, FHA's Power and the Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) program. The PowerSaver Pilot Program ended in May 2015.
- The Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH): PIH reported 27,793 energy efficient units in FY 2015 and 58,078 energy efficient units since the beginning of FY 2014, exceeding the two-year target of 47,454 by over 10,000 energy efficient units. Reported PIH units include energy upgrades of existing public housing funded through the Public Housing Capital Fund (PHCF), counted as “unit equivalents”, as well as primarily new “developed energy efficient units” through mixed financing streams, HOPE VI, and Choice Neighborhoods. Energy Performance Contracts (EPC) units are reported annually and historically make up a large proportion of the completed PIH units―over 73.6 percent of completed units in FY 2014 and 63.5 percent in FY 2015.
Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes Units, through September 30, 2015:
- Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes (OLHCHH) and CPD: OLHCHH and CPD reported 18,619 units in FY 2015, and combined to complete 40,189 units in FY 2014-15. These include lead hazard interim control or abatement activities carried out by OLHCHH as well as similar activities carried out by CPD pursuant to the Lead Safe Housing Rule with HOME and CDBG funds. OLHCHH activities have been adversely affected by a number of factors, including severe winter weather conditions over the last two winters, the limited supply of certified lead contractors, and rising costs per unit. Furthermore, Lead Safe Housing Rule (LSHR) activities are tied to CDBG and HOME program rehabilitation activities. As CDBG and HOME production ebbs and flows, so too does LSHR production. Consequently, reduced CDBG funding will have significant implications for the Department's health and safety work, placing families with small children particularly at risk. Indeed, OLHCHH grantees work to mitigate environmental hazards for improved health outcomes in housing, prioritizing units where children are present. In addition to reporting on a variety of lead hazard control and healthy housing grant programs, OLHCHH also reports data on its enforcement actions.
HUD remains committed to working with DOE, EPA, USDA and other federal agencies, as well as industry stakeholders to mainstream energy efficient, green, and healthy building practices across the residential sector. In FY 2015, HUD committed to: (1) outlining a comprehensive approach to strengthen energy and green building requirements; (2) using incentives for borrowers or grant recipients to agree to green standards; (3) developing large-scale solutions and tools; and (4) assembling new sources of public and private investment in energy efficiency and clean energy across the residential sector. HUD is involved in several components of the President’s Climate Action Plan, and is working toward achieving the goals outlined in that Plan. These commitments are expected to continue through FY 2016-17.
Agency Priority Goals
FY 16-17 Agency Priority Goal:
Increase the energy efficiency and health of the nation's housing stock.
FY 14-15 Agency Priority Goal:
Increase the energy efficiency and health of the nation's housing stock.
