Resilient Housing Retrofit Programs

Communities developing resilient housing programs should consider the following actions:

Understand Funding Landscape: Federal, state, and utility funding can be key to these programs. Understanding the available federal and state funds for your program as well as any philanthropic opportunities is an important first step.

Take Stock of Housing Age and Retrofit Needs: Understanding the landscape of local housing will help shape the type of program needed. Determining the age, common retrofit needs, mix of multi-family and single-family housing, as well as rental stock will help identify relevant case studies and develop program focus.

Build Coalitions Between Housing and Sustainability Professionals: Local leaders play critical roles in breaking down silos across climate, housing and economic development sectors to help implement solutions outlined in this policy guide. This can also help identify where there are gaps in skills needed to implement solutions and build the demand and programs to meet those needs.

Catalog Region-Specific Solutions: Leaning on the specific weather and risks in your region will be important to creating an effective program. Reaching out to community organizations to understand challenges and looking at past city programs can help identify the suite of solutions needed.

Identify Partners: Many of the case studies highlighted work with community organizations as well as developers, contractors, and others to improve effectiveness. Leveraging community expertise will help build a successful program that can seamlessly integrate with ongoing work.

Serve as a Hub for Your Residents: Programs supporting existing housing are only as useful as people’s ability to use them effectively. It’s critical that local governments create, or support the creation of, programs that provide support for stacking existing home upgrade programs available within your city through state, federal, utility, and city incentives and programs.

Invest in Workforce Development: Finding contractors capable of installing upgrades like EV chargers and heat pumps can be challenging. Growing the workforce through certifications, community college programs, and other workforce development programs can create jobs and increase overall economic benefits of a retrofit program.

Pursue Opportunities for Scalability to Reduce Cost: As cities work to meet their new housing and retrofit goals, implementing resilience and energy efficiency requirements and upgrades at scale will reduce per-unit costs.