Green/Sustainable Housing

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is soliciting public comments and feedback from potential applicants of a new pilot program seeking innovative proposals for increasing the energy efficiency of multifamily housing developments.

Committees from both the House and Senate have sent deficit reduction recommendations to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (Super Committee). Several recommendations made by both parties from the House Financial Services would have significant impacts on federal housing program funding.

The US Green Building Council will host a free 3-part webinar series exploring green affordable housing development. The webinars will examine case studies to discover factors driving green affordable housing, as well as strategies for success and the benefits of going green and will explore the tools and strategies to finance retrofits of existing multifamily developments.

New financing techniques, advances in technology and expected increases in water and energy costs will spur the growth of the commercial building and public facility retrofit market to as much as $12 billion a year in the near future, according to a new publication called Efficient Buildings Today.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) last week released a report entitled, “Economic Impact of Extending the Section 1603 Treasury Program.”

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) last week released a new report entitled “What Have We Learned from Energy Efficiency Financing Programs?” that shows that energy-efficiency loan programs for building upgrades have exceedingly low default rates, ranging from 0 to 3 percent.

A recent Associate Chief Counsel Memorandum (2011-004) discusses the federal income tax treatment of the receipt of excessive payments under Section 1603 of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Environmental Data Resources Inc. has launched a new online mapping tool called the Environmental Issues Report (EIR) that shows “environmental issues” within a one-mile radius of an address.

PowerPoint presentations from the Affordable Housing Underwriting Forum & NCAHMA Annual Meeting are now available for download.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), in partnership with the Office of Native American Programs (ONAP), has just launched a new effort to support and increase sustainable construction in Native communities.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) has introduced S. 1575, the Energy-Efficient Cool Roof Jobs Act. The legislation provides economic incentives to upgrade and modernize commercial roofs by reducing the depreciation schedule for commercial roof retrofits.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released the newest version of the Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) Guidebook.