Blog: Homelessness Ends Here

By Taylor Caswell, Caswell Strategies

Over the past several months, there has been a good deal of public dialogue on sustainable energy.  We hear a lot about solar, wind, and geothermal and how important it is to make our buildings more efficient.  I couldn’t agree more. 

However, a vital part of that dialogue needs to involve energy efficiency in publicly subsidized housing.  The operating budget of these buildings is often dominated by the utility cost, and if that is the case why aren’t we investing more in products and techniques that would make that property even more affordable?  Given the taxpayer investment via the subsidy, this only seems to make sense.  Add to this the larger global benefit that comes from higher efficiencies and lower carbon emissions, and we would seem to have a perfect marriage. 

In general, those of us who spend our days providing safe, decent, and affordable housing aren’t energy efficiency experts and don’t see opportunity right in front of us.  We may dismiss efforts to improve energy efficiency based on the short term cost and time requirements.  By the same token, energy efficiency organizations that have the expertise often don’t see the publicly subsidized market as worthwhile given the lack of funding and the complexities of government contracts and regulations.  States are suddenly seeing enormous increases in their energy efficiency budgets as a result of new funding from Washington.  In many cases they are looking for effective ways to spend those funds.  What state or local government wouldn’t want to apply a portion of these funds to facilities in which they already have investments, such as subsidized housing?  That would magnify the effectiveness of those funds by lowering long term operating costs, generating savings for the life of that facility.

There are provisions and new funds that don’t show up on any of the hundreds of housing provision summaries floating around that are absolutely applicable and should be part of the dialogue, such as the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program ($3.2b); the state energy programs ($3b), and the new DOE weatherization funds ($5b).   There are plenty of organizations and advocates out there that could work with state energy offices to design funding mechanisms for energy retrofits at buildings owned and/or used by homeless organizations.

All we need is a little creativity and a dedication to providing homes for the homeless in the most cost efficient, sustainable, and environmentally conscious way we can.  It will be worth the effort.

About the Author
Taylor Caswell is the founder and president of Caswell Strategies, a consulting firm based in New England with expertise in subsidized housing and energy efficiency.