Philadelphia Built to Last Case Study
Building for Insurability, Resilience, Energy Efficiency, and Housing Affordability: Addressing the True Cost of Housing
Built to Last provides comprehensive home repair services for Philadelphia homeowners who are low income. Created in 2021 by the Philadelphia Energy Authority (PEA), the program simplifies access to a wide range of existing home improvement programs that are complicated to navigate for homeowners, and difficult to stack. Built to Last has helped facilitate major home improvements for participants, including roof and furnace replacements, pest control, mold remediation, solar installation, HVAC improvements (including heat pump installations), weatherization, insulation, and more. The need for this program arose from the unique characteristics of Philadelphia’s home ownership landscape. The city’s high home ownership rate (49%) coupled with its high poverty rate (25%) means many low-income homeowners in Philadelphia cannot afford to maintain their properties, which are often passed down between family members for generations. Older houses that have foregone necessary maintenance and repairs are less energy-efficient, causing homeowners to spend more money on energy. Nearly a quarter of low-income households in the Philadelphia metro area spend more than 19% of their income on energy costs alone.
Dozens of low-income family repair programs exist in Philadelphia, but each requires an individual application and typically only addresses one component of home repair, creating significant administrative burdens for families. Built to Last serves as a central platform for home repair service providers to offer their services collaboratively and leverage funding and financing from multiple sources. This allows homeowners to fill out a single application rather than applying for each program individually. PEA then screens the application for eligibility for all benefits and services offered through the Built to Last platform. PEA then conducts a holistic property assessment, identifying home needs to match homeowners with appropriate service providers and applicable funding sources. Finally, PEA coordinates and manages all home improvement work with program partners. Built to Last also helps homeowners find external funding to fill in the gaps of costs not covered by existing home improvement programs, resulting in low- to no- cost implementation.
During the initial 50-home pilot, 50% of the participants reported lower utility costs. One home observed an 86% reduction in their annual energy costs, saving $1,000 a year for the homeowner. Three years after the program’s launch, an impact assessment found that homeowners who participated in Built to Last were able to conduct 50% more work on their homes in a six-month span than homeowners who did not participate. Respondents to the impact survey also reported a 19% increase in overall home comfort, which includes people having better thermal comfort in their homes and not being too hot or too cold based on outdoor temperature. As Built to Last continues its operations, it seeks to help residents avoid displacement, build community wealth, and improve the long-term quality of Philadelphia’s housing.