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The Council for Energy Friendly Affordable Housing (CEFAH), an affiliate of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association, recently released a set of recommendations to the White House on has released a number of reports and recommendations addressed at encouraging the energy retrofits of affordable rental housing. Our most recent report, nntitled Improving the Implementation of the Weatherization Program focuses on common sense improvements to the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program. CEFAH previously released a white paper outlining critical recommendations to improve the energy performance of the nation’s affordable housing portfolio and has worked closely with congressional leaders drafting energy retrofit legislation.. 

Click here to view CEFAH's Energy Policy Recommendations. Please note you must be a member of NH&RA to view this document. To learn more about joining NH&RA & CEFAH contact Thom Amdur at 202-939-1753 or tamdur@housingonline.com.
Click here to view our Weatherization Recommendations. Please note you must be a member of NH&RA to view this document. To learn more about joining NH&RA & CEFAH contact Thom Amdur at 202-939-1753 or tamdur@housingonline.com.
Click here to view CEFAH's Mission Statement.

Below is a summary of an excerpt from CEFAH's first organizational meeting.

Introduction

The Council for Energy Friendly Affordable Housing (CEFHA) convened for its first meeting at the law offices of Goulston & Storrs on October 28, 2008 in Boston.

Several founding members had realized there is now a confluence of people working towards similar policy goals—namely, to facilitate energy retrofits for existing subsidized real estate.  The political and funding climate is ripe for such an effort, but no group represents the interests of owners and managers of Federally assisted and low income tax credit properties in a broad way.

Public policy in the area of energy efficiency has so far largely focused on high-cost and relatively low-impact technologies like solar and geothermal, or through comprehensive mandates that may be admirable and desirable, but are difficult for affordable housing developers and owners to finance and underwrite in today’s uncertain financial environment.  Furthermore, in practice it has been observed that the largest energy savings can be leveraged from relatively inexpensive upgrades in areas like water management, insulation and sealing building envelopes. 

The group identified barriers that exist to taking advantage of knowledge and techniques for greening existing affordable housing.  One is that we lack a readily available funding source for owners to access to make these upgrades.  Furthermore, there are many regulatory barriers and disincentives that prevent owners from implementing these low-cost but high impact upgrades.  At the same time, the current financial and legislative environment offers a unique advocacy opportunity. 

CEFAH was formed as an independent council staffed by the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association because there has not been a concerted effort by the development community to address energy efficiency issues from an owners perspective.  CEFAH expects to identify and carry out tasks that will be economically beneficial to owners while achieving good policy goals of energy efficiency. 
In that regard: 

Council for Energy Friendly Affordable Housing

CEFAH has identified a number of immediate tasks and goals to address as an organization:

1. Analyze existing HUD laws, rules, regulations and policies to determine which ones inhibit owners from greening properties and capturing savings, and how to eliminate those barriers.
2. Create custom ‘payback benchmarks’ for various energy saving technology and products.   This could involve analysis of savings by CEFAH members and/or hiring consultants and/or engineers to test new products.
3. Identify untapped funding sources that are attached to properties but inaccessible because of regulatory or administrative barriers.  This could include replacement reserves, borrowing against residual receipts and other sources.  An example or case-study should be developed for each source.
4. Develop model language for a new FHA loan program that would finance energy retrofits.  Ideally, the loan program would be structured as a business loan, and not structures as a mortgage with a lien on the property.
5. Work collectively to evaluate new technology for building owners (e.g. energy modeling technology, smart outlets, etc…)
6. Identify strategies to incentivize residents to conserve energy and water
7. Educate.  There are many variables that make a ‘good’ energy efficient building.  It’s been the experience that upon audit, even buildings owners thought were energy efficient could still be improved dramatically.  CEFAH will generally provide a forum to educate owners and property managers.

While CEFAH is primarily an organization of property owners, it will engage all of the various professionals, technical experts, building product providers and other stake holders.  The argument for these changes is compelling from a public policy standpoint not the least because the money is already being spent by HUD and/or the property owners in the form of utilities—creating these incentives would allow the stakeholders to spend the money differently and more efficiently.  Additionally, creating these incentives will stimulate the economy and create jobs across a number of sectors (engineers, financial services, installers, etc…) and will help make the U.S. less dependent on foreign oil.

Current Progress and Next Steps

CEFAH is currently in the process of doing a complete Multifamily HUD program audit to identify how program regulations can be improved and impediments removed to encourage retrofitting.  CEFHA will also work with owner members to conduct energy audits to provide raw data to support its legislative and regulatory agenda.   CEFAH will also begin reaching out to key decision makers immediately following the election including Representatives Barney Frank & Ed Perlmutter, key leadership at HUD and the incoming presidential administration.  CEFAH also will coordinate with other groups focused on similar policies, such as Enterprise Community Partners and the Center for American Progress, as appropriate to broaden support for our proposals.

CEFAH will also schedule an industry event or summit for CEFAH Members, technology producers and other stakeholders to discuss product innovations and advocacy efforts.  CEFAH will also work to develop its member base further.  Several firms have already made financial commitments to CEFAH and many more have expressed interest to learn more about the organization.  Some degree of financial support from its membership is imperative if we are to complete the legal work and energy consulting in a timely fashion and thus be able to take advantage of the current political opportunities.

There is likely to be at least one and maybe two economic stimulus bills passed by Congress either in a lame-duck session or in early 2009—these would be natural vehicles for promoting programs to encourage CEFAH’s policy agenda.

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