Boston, MA — To demonstrate how existing affordable housing can become more sustainable, MassHousing and the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) are announcing today the second set of awards and third round of funding from the state’s Climate Ready Housing program.
Fairweather Apartments in Salem and Prospect Place in Northampton are the second pair of projects to receive funding from the Climate Ready Housing program created for affordable housing owners to achieve deep reductions in energy use and carbon emissions in the refinancing, renovation, and preservation of their properties.
This program was created and authorized under the state’s 2021 economic development bond bill through the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) and seeded at $1.6M annually. After two successful pilot rounds, the Healey-Driscoll administration has increased program funds tenfold, making $16 million available for this third round. MassHousing and MHP are administering the program for EOHLC, with additional application and programmatic support from Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC Boston).
“The Healey-Driscoll Administration is firmly committed to addressing the housing and climate crises simultaneously,” said Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus. “The Climate Ready Housing program allows us to invest in solutions and demonstrate how to carve a path to decarbonize the affordable housing sector. Congratulations and thank you to the project owners who have taken bold steps to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels while also prioritizing affordability and quality of life.”
“MassHousing is proud to support the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s ambitious climate agenda,” said MassHousing CEO Chrystal Kornegay. “The significant expansion of the Climate Ready Housing program will position housing communities across Massachusetts to take advantage of new federal, state, and private financing opportunities, while ensuring that low- and moderate-income households lead our state’s clean energy transition. These funds will reduce carbon emissions and create a better quality of life for residents.”
“We’re excited to partner with the Healey-Driscoll Administration, alongside MassHousing and LISC, to deliver these funds to affordable properties pursuing such innovative building retrofit approaches,” said MHP Executive Director Clark Ziegler. “MHP remains committed to making sure affordable homes in Massachusetts are healthy and climate-friendly places for people to live – and hope that this first-of-its-kind program will help inform approaches that other affordable housing property owners can use to most cost-effectively reduce energy and carbon emissions. We applaud the Administration’s landmark efforts for climate action, and support the continued funding of the Climate Ready Housing program in the Affordable Homes Act to keep the state’s climate goals on track and ensure that decarbonization efforts reach the state’s low-income renter households.”
Fairweather Salem is a 127-unit housing community located in the heart of Salem. It is one of four buildings that make up the Fairweather portfolio, housing over 300 senior residents north of Boston. In 2022, Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) assembled a thoughtful team of architects, engineers, and builders to complete a feasibility study to evaluate the benefits, cost control, minimize resident disruption, and quality control, of designing and installing pre–manufactured panels (that include windows) to the exterior of the building. POAH kicked off the design and preconstruction of the project with funds currently available in Massachusetts for deep energy retrofits.
The prefabricated panels offer a noninvasive way to weatherize and improve the building’s enclosure without the need for resident relocation. This forward-thinking technology paired with the full electrification of the building systems and upgrading an existing solar photovoltaic system, will reduce the energy usage by 84% – and eliminate fossil fuels from the building.
Climate Ready Housing will support this effort with $1,000,000 which will help fund the incremental costs of moving forward with these energy- and carbon-savings measures.
POAH is excited to move forward with this project and grateful to the Climate Ready Housing program for the generous grant. “Not only will it save energy and carbon emissions and minimize resident disruption, but the concept can be replicated across our portfolio and beyond,” said POAH Vice President of Design and Building Performance Julie Klump. “That is a win for our residents, the community, POAH, and other developer owners who want to reduce energy and create healthy, comfortable homes.”
Prospect Place is the adaptive reuse of the former Northampton Nursing Home, a 72,000 square foot building constructed in 1971 and located on a 6.25-acre parcel, to create 60 affordable family apartments with sizes ranging from studios to 3-bedrooms for households whose incomes range from extremely low to moderate income. It includes preferences for people who are currently unhoused and people with disabilities.
Valley Community Development (Valley), a local nonprofit, purchased the building in 2022 with ambitious plans to decarbonize the property. The cornerstone of this effort is installation of a geothermal heat pump system that will fuel heat, cooling, and hot water. The geothermal system, combined with a large solar photovoltaic array and extensive building envelope improvements, will eliminate the use of fossil fuels at this property. These improvements are expected to reduce energy use by 77%.
The decision to re-use the existing building structure, including a massive quantity of brick, concrete, and steel in excellent condition, is a significant carbon sequestering strategy that will reduce the embodied carbon impact of the development. The Climate Ready Housing program will support this project with $500,000 to offset the costs of the geothermal system.
"We are thrilled to be awarded this funding," said Valley Real Estate Project Manager William Womeldorf. "Geothermal is a key solution to rising electricity costs and will mitigate operating costs for tenants. Geothermal has untapped potential for housing of all forms and we hope our project can catalyze new ways to look at climate readiness."
“LISC is heartened by the visionary leadership of our Climate Ready Housing awardees,” said LISC Boston Senior Program Officer Emily Jones. “With the next round of funding, we will be able to learn from and scale these innovative decarbonization solutions across a wider range of properties, leading to healthier, more comfortable, and climate-ready homes for residents and communities.”
The goal of the Climate Ready Housing program is to support projects pursuing one of the following approaches:
MassHousing and MHP are launching the third funding round today. For more information about the program, application materials, and deadlines, go to www.lisc.org/climatereadyhousing.