Heat Pump Installations Slow, Impeding Biden’s Climate Goals

By Santul Nerkar and Madeleine Ngo  Originally published in The New York Times, Nov. 9, 2023  More Americans are buying heat pumps, an environmentally friendly alternative to furnaces and air-conditioners that can significantly lower monthly energy bills. But the pace of installations has slowed in the past year, posing an obstacle to the Biden administration’s climate plans.  Rising interest rates and inflation combined …

Case Study: IRA, BIL Bringing Big Pots of Money to Green Affordable Housing

By Mark Fogarty  NH&RA November 2023 If Timed Right, Financial “Braiding” Techniques May Cover Whole Cost of Retrofits There’s a brave new world of opportunities for “green” multifamily affordable housing renovation and development coming with the ever-quickening ascendancy of green buildings. This is according to one of the early adopters of clean energy solutions in multifamily, Ravi Malhotra. New pots of money …

TBL Fund Experts Weigh In: Scaling Clean Energy Projects on Tribal Lands

By Scott Griffin | Business Development, TBL Fund Mr. Griffin oversees TBL Fund grant and investment lifecycles. He fosters relationships with investors and grantors alike, helping develop proposals and managing document and information exchange to ensure TBL Fund has the financial resources to further its mission. Climate change threatens Tribal homelands, food sources, cultural resources, and sacred ways of life. …

Accessing Green Upgrades with EPA and HUD Funds

By Ravi Malhotra Tax Credit Advisor, September 2023 As we near the end of the year, federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are finalizing the design of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)-created programs and releasing more and more of the funds. Many of …

Multifamily Public Housing

Decarbonizing the Nation’s Buildings ~ Ensuring Multifamily Benefits from the Push

Ensuring Multifamily Benefits from the Push By Ravi Malhotra Tax Credit Advisor, August 2023 Since early 2023, our articles have covered the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and their potential impacts on multifamily affordable housing. The BIL provided billions for the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) on top of the standard allocation, so for the next four …

Heat Pump being repaired

Electrification Upgrades

A New Generation of Heat Pump Systems Increases Efficiency By Ravi Malhotra Tax Credit Advisor, July 2023 More and more states have regulations and mandates requiring multifamily affordable housing properties to decarbonize (i.e., replace the use of natural gas, oil, or propane with electricity). This can be accomplished by upgrading systems for space and water heating. Electric heat pumps are …

Taking Advantage of Federal Funds to Preserve and Construct Affordable Housing – Lessons Learned from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

If you follow blog, you know we have been hard at work leveraging opportunities created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to scale green solutions in underserved communities. For example, as previously reported, the BIL provided $3.2B for the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) on top of the $1.6B standard WAP allocation …

Electric vehicle plugged into EV charger

Leveraging Available Incentives for EV Charging Infrastructure on Multifamily Properties

by Ravi Malhotra NH&RA Tax Credit Advisor, June 2023 As demand for electric vehicles (EVs) intensifies, multifamily (MF) owners and operators are increasingly forced to explore their EV charging options. EV sales have soared, increasing by 67% from 2021 to 2022, and the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) has adopted an International Code Council provision requiring apartment communities to provide EV charging …

Old public housing photo

HUD Launches New Program to Pay for Multifamily Green Rehab

The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced the availability of  landmark funding through the new Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) to support retrofits for HUD-assisted multifamily affordable housing (MFAH) properties.    The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provided HUD with approximately $837M in grant funding and $4B in loan authority for the GRRP. This program simultaneously invests in utility efficiency, renewable …

TBL Fund Experts Weigh In: Driving Energy Retrofits in Multifamily Affordable Housing

Lee Alexander | Finance Manager Mr. Alexander supports TBL Fund by developing and executing corporate strategic initiatives relating to risk and compliance to facilitate growth and to drive process improvements and operational efficiencies. A blog published through the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Better Buildings Solution Center discussed the value of leveraging financing and renovation events to drive low-income multifamily housing …