Minnesota Housing released the final version of the Climate Resilience and Housing Decarbonization Roadmap, a climate-focused guide for the Agency. It identifies specific targets for Agency activities as well as recommendations for how individual teams and programs can achieve those goals.
3 Climate Roadmap Takeaways:
1. Minnesota Housing set three major climate targets for the next decade:
- Net-zero, climate-resilient new construction by 2032 for both single-family and multifamily homes
- Major decarbonization and climate resilience upgrades in existing housing by 2035
- Full integration of climate considerations across all agency operations by 2030, including equity, planning, communications and technical support
2. The Roadmap outlines a comprehensive strategy of initiatives and recommendations.
Across existing programs, Minnesota Housing will consider how to best update standards, scoring criteria, and other tools to help single family and multifamily homes meet the climate targets. This implementation will require major coordination, resources and stakeholder engagement. The Roadmap acknowledges that success depends on strong partnerships with local governments, developers, contractors, and community organizations.
3. Climate progress will be balanced with cost considerations, housing preservation and statewide availability.
The Roadmap explicitly states that implementing the climate targets should be done in such as way as to continue to prioritize the preservation of affordable housing, by using a flexible, phased approach that considers lifecycle savings, avoids unnecessary disposal of functional systems and preserves affordability, and ensures upgrades remain compatible with critical health and safety needs across Minnesota’s diverse housing stock.
