Rachelle Macur

Hello, I'm the sustainability manager for a large urban housing authority and would like to know if there are successful case studies of housing authorities implementing a "utility savings" resident benefits program. For example, most of our residents don't pay their own utilities, as our agency receives a utility allowance from HUD. This provides challenges in encouraging residents to decrease their energy and water consumption, as they're not seeing the dollar value associated with those behavioral changes. To overcome this challenge, we're curious of any initiatives/programs that other housing agencies have implemented in putting utility cost savings towards resident programs (scholarships, community events, workforce development, etc.) as a means of incentivizing residents to implement behavioral changes.