Programme To Decarbonise Boston’s Housing Stock

The pilot will support building owners with energy assessments, construction management, and forgivable loan financing.

Mayor Michelle Wu has announced a pilot programme to decarbonise Boston’s housing stock by offering grants to support electrification. The Healthy and Green initiative, led by the Mayor’s Office of Housing, will support owners of two- to four-unit owner-occupied buildings with funding to jumpstart the decarbonisation and electrification of Boston’s smaller building stock.

The programme will support building owners with energy assessments, construction management, and forgivable loan financing to help accelerate Boston’s Green New Deal. “With almost 80% of Boston’s buildings requiring deep energy retrofits and decarbonisation, our new Healthy & Green Retrofit pilot programme signifies a pivotal movement toward achieving our city’s carbon neutrality aspirations,” said Michelle Wu, mayor of Boston. “By targeting the most common building type and preserving affordability, we are paving the way for a greener, healthier future for all Bostonians.”

The pilot programme will offer grants in the form of forgivable loans of up to $50,000 per unit and provide comprehensive energy assessment and construction management services. The pilot is designed to serve as a model for other communities, with the anticipation that lessons learned will be readily applicable to diverse building types and sizes beyond Boston.

The initial scope of the pilot will include building owners partnering with the Mayor’s Office of Housing’s Boston Home Centre (BHC) to provide construction management services. The retrofit work will be performed by pre-qualified private general contractors. The BHC is expanding the pool of eligible general contractors who will be eligible to bid and oversee retrofit work on individual homes. The BHC will manage the programme to ensure high-quality, sustainable retrofit installations.

 “With our Green New Deal, Boston is making investments that directly deliver climate and quality of life solutions in an equitable manner,” said Oliver Sellers Garcia, director of Boston’s Green New Deal. “The creation of this new programme is pivotal in creating a new model for equity-first multi-family housing electrification.  BHC is scaling up to become a decarbonisation department, and this pilot project will provide important lessons and proof of concept for growth in the coming years.”

Owners of the selected buildings will collaborate with BHC and partners which specialise in decarbonisation to outline the optimal green retrofit plan for each individual project. The integration of heat pumps to either supplement or replace existing heating and cooling systems will be an important component of the programme. These new heat pumps are anticipated to render homes cleaner, healthier, and more resilient, representing a significant step forward in Boston’s commitment to a Green New Deal by lowering emissions across sectors.

The Mayor’s Office of Housing is responsible for housing people experiencing homelessness, creating and preserving affordable housing, and ensuring that renters and homeowners can obtain, maintain, and remain in safe, stable housing. The department develops and implements the City of Boston’s housing creation and homelessness prevention plans and collaborates with local and national partners to find new solutions and build more housing affordable to all, particularly those with lower incomes.