Dive Brief:
- An apartment community in Quincy, Massachusetts, is the nation’s first construction project to use funds from the federal Green and Resilient Retrofit Program to boost the property’s energy efficiency and climate resilience.
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced last week the transaction of a $750,000 grant to Wollaston Lutheran Church, which will use the money to replace the gas heating and cooling system with a heat pump system in a building for very-low-income older adults.
- The transaction is a “milestone” for the $4.8 billion program, which will support similar projects nationwide, HUD acting Secretary Adrianne Todman said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
The Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, established under the Inflation Reduction Act, is HUD’s first program to simultaneously invest in energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate resilience and low embodied-carbon materials in HUD-assisted multifamily housing.
The GRRP provides funding for direct loans and grants for retrofit projects as well as to support properties’ energy and water use benchmarking. This money can be used on projects ranging from small upgrades to major renovations resulting in net-zero energy buildings. So far, the program has awarded $544 million to 109 properties across the U.S., HUD says, which will impact 12,600 rental homes.
“The program seeks to amplify recent technological advancements in energy and water efficiency,” according to a HUD news release.
Bauer House, the Quincy apartment community receiving GRRP funds, is a 75-unit, four-story building originally constructed in 1996. “Funding this work at Bauer and similar properties throughout the country to improve the lives of residents is exactly what the program was designed to do,” HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing Programs Ethan Handelman said in a statement.
