Green Affordable Housing: HUD Has Made Progress in Promoting Green Building, but Expanding Efforts Could Help Reduce Energy Costs and Benefit Tenants
Highlights
Rising energy prices and concerns about the environment have fueled interest in "green building"--resource-efficient construction and maintenance practices that reduce adverse impacts on the natural environment. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), spends an estimated $5 billion on energy costs annually in its affordable housing programs and has recently taken steps to reduce its energy costs. GAO was asked to review (1) HUD's efforts to promote energy efficiency in its programs and the use of performance measures, (2) potential costs and long-term benefits of green building in HUD's affordable housing programs, and (3) lessons learned elsewhere that HUD could use to promote green building. GAO reviewed HUD program documents and studies on green building, interviewed HUD officials and industry representatives, and made site visits to locations that use green building practices.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to better promote green building practices, the Secretary of HUD should direct the appropriate program offices to ensure completion of the regulation that would require the use of energy-efficient products and appliances for public housing as directed by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. |
The regulation that would require the use of energy-efficient products and appliances for public housing has not been completed, as of August 2013.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to better promote green building practices, the Secretary of HUD should direct the appropriate program offices to proactively work with Department of Energy (DOE) to expeditiously implement energy-efficiency updates to the HUD Manufactured Housing Code. |
Energy efficiency updates to the HUD Manufactured Housing Code have not been implemented, as of August 2013.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to better promote green building practices, the Secretary of HUD should direct the appropriate program offices to ensure that updates to handbooks are regularly completed in a timely fashion to provide more current guidance on energy-efficient and other green building practices. |
Updates to the handbooks were not completed as of August 2013, or completed in a timely fashion.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to better promote green building practices, the Secretary of HUD should direct the appropriate program offices to consider working with DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a utility benchmarking tool for multifamily properties. |
HUD has worked with DOE, EPA, Fannie Mae and industry reprasentatives on a strategy to develop common data inputs and reporting standards for multifamily properties that could lead to developing a commonly accepted multifamily benchmarking tool. HUD has been supporting Fannie Mae's work with EPA to develop multifamily ENERGY STAR index score, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2014. Once this score is in place, HUD's Office of Multifamily Housing plans to work with EPA to explore benchmarking opportunities for its assisted and insured properties.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to better promote green building practices, the Secretary of HUD should direct the appropriate program offices to assess whether the single-point incentive awarded for energy efficiency is sufficient to stimulate higher levels of energy efficiency for its competitive grant programs and consider providing nonenergy green building incentive points for these programs. |
Beginning in fiscal year 2009, HUD has generally increased the number of points awarded for energy efficiency as well as non-energy green building standards through its competitive grant programs.
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