October 2024 Policy Blog

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Kristen Cheriegate  |  ICAST Policy Manager ========== States Launch Home Energy Rebates Program The Department of Energy (DOE) announced that Arizona, New Mexico, Maine, and Rhode Island have launched their Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR) programs. New Mexico: NM’s HEAR will provide low-income single-family homeowners and low- and middle-income renters up to $14,000 in rebates to upgrade equipment and appliances. …

ICAST Project wins Utah Green Project of the Year

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Cinnamon Springs has recently been honored with the Green Project of the Year award from the Utah Housing Coalition. This 144-unit “naturally occurring affordable housing” multifamily apartment complex received energy efficiency upgrades that benefited the property owner and significantly improved the living conditions for the residents. Upgrades included new cold-climate heat pumps, new gas furnaces for a “dual fuel” heating …

Clean Energy Projects: Looking Ahead to 2024

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Clean Energy Projects: Looking Ahead to 2024  By Ravi Malhotra, Originally published in NH&RA Tax Credit Advisor, December 2023    At the close of 2023, it’s a certainty that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) are catalyzing a huge uptick in clean energy projects across the United States. Unfortunately, it’s equally certain that the multifamily affordable …

Heat Pump Installations Slow, Impeding Biden’s Climate Goals

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By Santul Nerkar and Madeleine Ngo  Originally published in The New York Times, Nov. 9, 2023  More Americans are buying heat pumps, an environmentally friendly alternative to furnaces and air-conditioners that can significantly lower monthly energy bills. But the pace of installations has slowed in the past year, posing an obstacle to the Biden administration’s climate plans.  Rising interest rates and inflation combined …

Tying it All Together

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Tying it All Together Timing and Key Considerations for Green Funds and Programs By Ravi Malhotra, NH&RA Tax Credit Advisor, November 2023 Federal agencies have steadily made progress in rolling out the new funds from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Multifamily property owners can fold these dollars into capital stacks for projects that incorporate solar and …

Case Study: IRA, BIL Bringing Big Pots of Money to Green Affordable Housing

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By Mark Fogarty  NH&RA November 2023 If Timed Right, Financial “Braiding” Techniques May Cover Whole Cost of Retrofits There’s a brave new world of opportunities for “green” multifamily affordable housing renovation and development coming with the ever-quickening ascendancy of green buildings. This is according to one of the early adopters of clean energy solutions in multifamily, Ravi Malhotra—founder and president of ICAST. …

Multifamily Public Housing

Decarbonizing the Nation’s Buildings ~ Ensuring Multifamily Benefits from the Push

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Ensuring Multifamily Benefits from the Push By Ravi Malhotra Tax Credit Advisor, August 2023 Since early 2023, ICAST’s articles have covered the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and their potential impacts on multifamily affordable housing. The BIL provided billions for the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) on top of the standard allocation, so for the next four …

Heat Pump being repaired

Electrification Upgrades

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A New Generation of Heat Pump Systems Increases Efficiency By Ravi Malhotra Tax Credit Advisor, July 2023 More and more states have regulations and mandates requiring multifamily affordable housing properties to decarbonize (i.e., replace the use of natural gas, oil, or propane with electricity). This can be accomplished by upgrading systems for space and water heating. Electric heat pumps are …