Title
Decarbonization Planning for Affordable Multifamily Housing: Frameworks, Compliance Pathways, and Implementation Barriers
Co-authors
John Beaumont, New Ecology, Inc.
Bob Dean, Elevate
Marshall Duer-Balkind, Institute for Market Transformation
Connor Jansen, Slipstream, Inc.
Jackie Montesdeoca, Enterprise Community Partners
Hailey Moll, Building Energy Exchange
Abstract
Decarbonizing affordable multifamily housing is essential to meeting climate goals while preserving affordability, improving resident comfort, and supporting healthier, more resilient homes. Owners of affordable housing face significant barriers, including limited capital, aging buildings, rising operating costs, constrained refinancing cycles, and the need to avoid tenant displacement or rent increases. Strategic decarbonization planning frameworks, including Zero Over Time (ZOT), Strategic Decarbonization Planning (SDP), and building performance standard alternative compliance pathways, offer practical approaches for aligning energy and emissions reductions with real estate decision points.
This paper examines how these planning approaches are being applied through affordable housing case studies, green certification criteria, public-sector technical assistance programs, and regulatory compliance pathways. It compares voluntary planning frameworks with emerging building performance standard requirements and highlights the role of phased implementation, business-as-usual comparisons, capital planning, and post-retrofit verification.
Findings show that long-term planning can help owners move beyond isolated energy audit measures toward coordinated retrofit strategies that reduce stranded asset risk, support funding alignment, and create more realistic pathways to emissions reductions. Regulatory alignment can also support standardization and impact what actions are cost-effective. Once owners have clear direction on next steps, securing capital and procurement strategies remains a barrier. The paper concludes that future research and program design should focus on implementation, including financing structures, incentive timing, standardized compliance documentation, resident protections, and verification methods that can help turn decarbonization plans into completed affordable housing retrofits.
