This report examines how budget-constrained households balance spending on air conditioning versus other essentials like food and clothing during hot weather. Using banking data from Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago, it finds that low-income households often cope with high electricity bills by reducing air conditioning use and enduring more heat. The findings aim to help policymakers identify strategies to better support these households and improve their welfare amid rising temperatures.

Electrifying heating systems with air-to-air heat pumps is crucial for achieving global greenhouse gas targets. This report uses simulations of 550,000 U.S. households to evaluate the costs and benefits of various heat pump performance levels and insulation upgrades. The analysis highlights the potential for significant emissions reductions and identifies the importance of efficiency and insulation in optimizing cost-effectiveness. It also suggests that supportive incentives and policies may be necessary to address affordability challenges and promote widespread adoption.

Low- and moderate-income (LMI) families spend larger-than-average shares of their incomes on energy bills, but efficiency improvements that would cut bills are often unaffordable. This topic brief argues that coordinating and expanding existing energy efficiency programs can help expand their reach and make them accessible to more families.

To support resilience planning, Stewards of Affordable Housing for All conducted a comprehensive risk assessment across its members’ portfolios, using free and nationally available tools. To help the affordable housing field take action, SAHF has developed a suite of tools that make it easier to navigate and respond to climate risks.

Enterprise hosted an online event featuring a panel of leaders in their field for a conversation about the current landscape of climate resilience, relevant strategies, and innovative funding mechanisms. Panelists were Krista Egger, VP, Building Resilient Futures, Enterprise (moderator); Steve Morel, CEO, Montgomery County Green Bank; Abby Ross, CEO, The Resiliency Company; Andrew Rumbach, senior fellow and co-lead, Climate and Communities Practice Area, Urban Institute; and Lauren Westmoreland, VP of Energy and Sustainability, Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future. The event also discussed the impact of Enterprise's Resilience Academies. To date, the program has supported 140 affordable housing providers across 25 states, delivering $525,000 in pass-through grants to advance climate resilience.

Compiling national outdoor air pollution data from across the government and other expert sources, this report shows the extent of the harm caused to people and the environment from fossil fuel burning equipment in homes and buildings, the disproportionate impact this pollution has on environmental justice communities and other vulnerable demographic groups, and how the use of methane gas in buildings is connected to the broader system of methane gas extraction and distribution.

The Massachusetts Decarbonization Hub helps owners of affordable multifamily housing interested in reducing carbon emissions from their Massachusetts properties navigate the complicated landscape of decarbonization. Created in partnership with LISC Boston and RMI, this site provides quick access to guides, resources, and funding opportunities currently available to support these projects. The Hub outlines some key steps to decarbonization, connects owners with technical providers, directs owners to the available incentive and grant funding programs, and showcases case studies of recent deep energy retrofit projects for inspiration.

WE ACT's Out of Gas, In with Justice pilot studied the feasibility and benefits of electrification in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) by comparing improvements to air quality and participant satisfaction between 10 apartments with induction stoves and 10 with their existing gas stoves. It is the first study of its kind to focus on the effects of residential cooking electrification with tenants in-place in an urban public housing setting with low-income residents and residents of color. This pilot offers lessons for policymakers, public housing agencies, and affordable housing providers on cooking electrification and its impact on indoor air quality, social acceptance of electrification measures, and infrastructure challenges for existing housing in environmental justice communities.

The IRA presents an immense opportunity, but delivering those resources where they are most needed is no easy task given systemic barriers that often prevent low-income and communities of color from applying for and adopting green energy opportunities. In this blog post, Decarbonization Fellow Kiera Quigley explores why new funds and programs "must center the needs and voices of environmental justice communities, or threaten to leave them behind."

Multifamily housing accounts for 20% of greenhouse gases. That makes taking advantage of unprecedented incentives and funding via the Inflation Reduction Act critical. This blog post previews new tools from Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) and Cadence OneFive to help the affordable housing sector unlock the potential of this landmark investment in affordable housing and energy efficiency.