The information following was sent via the HUD Exchange:

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law in August 2022, provides hundreds of billions of dollars of funding for economy-wide decarbonization. This funding is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40 percent over the next ten years. The IRA includes $1 billion in funding for HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs to implement the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP), including $837.5 million for loans and grants to fund projects that improve the energy and water efficiency and climate resilience of HUD-assisted multifamily properties and $42.5 million for energy and water benchmarking of the HUD-assisted multifamily portfolio.

On September 26, HUD published a Request for Information seeking input on program design features, energy-saving measures, low-emission technologies, and resilience design measures that have proven effective in affordable multifamily buildings. In addition, HUD is seeking input on ways in which it can most effectively implement and incentivize benchmarking of energy and water consumption in assisted multifamily properties. Comments from the public are due by October 27, 2022.

The IRA also included extensions and enhancements to tax credits that can be leveraged to invest in energy efficiency, decarbonization, and climate resilience in affordable housing. Notably, the IRA increases the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) amount for solar and wind facilities installed as part of qualified affordable housing developments or placed in service in low-income communities and includes provisions to enable the ITC to work more effectively with Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties. For a full description of the energy and resilience provisions of the act, see the National Housing Trust’s (NHT) recent policy brief, The Inflation Reduction Act.