The Low-Income Weatherization Program’s Multifamily Energy Efficiency and Renewables program (LIWP Multifamily) has invested heavily in disadvantaged communities, advancing decarbonization and increasing climate resilience across the state. The program utilizes California Climate Investments funding to incentivize property owners of low-income multifamily housing across California to retrofit their properties with energy efficiency measures and solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. Since 2015, these upgrades have reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and lowered energy costs, improving the livelihoods of some of the most vulnerable Californians.
Cascade Village – Courtyard: This 74-unit property has low flow showerheads, a commercial HPWH, and new lighting installed for the benefit of residents.
LIWP Multifamily is overseen by the California Department of Community Services and Development (CSD) and administered by the Association for Energy Affordability (AEA). The program prescribes a tailored set of energy efficiency measures based on what energy efficiency improvements can be made on the property. Property owners are provided financial incentives to install the recommended energy-saving features.
LIWP Multifamily is designed as a whole-building program, meaning that improvements can be made to the entire building as well as the individual units. This is essential for enabling interventions that address energy efficiency at the structural level and avoid energy losses between private and common spaces.
Low-income individuals and households pay a disproportionate amount of their incomes, often more than 20 percent, on energy costs compared to the rest of the population. The LIWP Multifamily program prioritizes serving deed-restricted multifamily properties in disadvantaged communities throughout the state, where at least 66 percent of residents live at or below 80 percent of the area median income.
To date, the program has served 12,746 households in over 20 counties across California. With over $100 million in California Climate Investments funding, paired with funding from other sources, LIWP Multifamily is expected to serve more than 20,000 households. Still, LIWP Multifamily services are so in demand in the affordable housing market that the waitlist for efficiency improvements currently exceeds available funding.
Cascade Village – Solar PV: Cascade Village also had a Solar photovoltaic system installed within the complex.
LIWP Multifamily’s goal of reducing GHG emissions incentivizes electrification, and the program continues to see an increase in the number of properties seeking fuel-switching measures. Properties served by LIWP Multifamily have reduced energy consumption by an average of 47 percent, and tenants have seen an average savings of 30 percent on their energy bills. LIWP Multifamily also incentivizes the installation of solar PV systems to the benefit of residents over property owners. Collectively, LIWP Multifamily has installed 6.4 Megawatts of solar PV and achieved GHG reductions of 266,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2). In addition to the daily energy savings, these comprehensive deep energy retrofits and solar energy installations help households to better withstand extreme weather events.
To address split-incentive issues that deter property owners from making energy efficiency investments that also benefit tenants, the LIWP Multifamily program has implemented a flexible methodology that raises incentives for projects that create energy savings for tenants as well as property owners. In order to ensure that benefits to low-income residents, LIWP Multifamily provides notably higher financial incentives for energy efficiency measures that impact the bills paid by tenants, while lower incentive rates are provided for measures that only reduce property owner expenses.
LIWP Multifamily utilizes a phased approach to projects, facilitating the flow of incentives to property owners to ensure their ability to continue investing in the program. When the wait times for materials ballooned in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, LIWP Multifamily added an additional project phase, enabling property owners to purchase materials and equipment and receive a reimbursement on that purchase. This creative adaptation proved so successful that the new phase was retained permanently. LIWP Multifamily has also expanded to include retrofitting housing for those experiencing homelessness, committing $2M of CCI funding specifically to these projects.
The long-term success of LIWP Multifamily has demonstrated that GHG emission reduction strategies that benefit both low-income tenants and owners/operators of affordable housing are sustainable and effective. In 2024, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy awarded LIWP Multifamily the “Exemplary Program” award in the Residential Weatherization Multifamily category. The program has also provided a wealth of information for CCI, the California Air Resources Board, and the State of California regarding implementation best practices, overcoming local and global obstacles, and maximizing community impact.
“Looking back, it's clear that LIWP Multifamily is a major catalyst and proving ground for the state,” says John Neal, an energy analyst at AEA. “Almost all ratepayer funded multi-family programs in the state look to the success of LIWP Multifamily.” LIWP Multifamily is proof that electrification and energy efficiency upgrades can affect significant change in GHG emissions as well as the daily lives of occupants in the affordable housing sector.