$1M EPA grant will boost energy efficiency in Linn County affordable housing

Linn County was awarded a $1 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to create a cost-share program for energy efficiency improvements at low-income rental units.

The new effort, called the Rental Energy Improvement Program, will create a fund for landlords renting to households making less than 60 percent to 80 percent of the area’s median income. In Cedar Rapids, for example, the median household income in 2022 was $66,895. That means the target household income for units in that area would be somewhere between $54,000 and $40,000.

Landlords will be able to put the funds toward upgrades — like energy-efficient furnaces or windows, or added insulation — in their rental properties. Those upgrades will ultimately make energy costs cheaper for the tenants.

“There's that upfront barrier of trying to get renters — who might only be there for a short period of time — to initiate some of those upgrades,” said Linn County sustainability director Tamara Marcus. “Landlords, however, own that asset longer term, and so they're a much more obvious partner.”

The Rental Energy Improvement Program was designed to incentivize rental rehab and energy-efficiency upgrades — a need identified by the Alliance for Equitable Housing, a Linn County-led multi-jurisdictional collaboration developing a comprehensive housing solutions plan with action steps for housing issues identified by the community.

In its 2022 progress report, the Alliance said Linn County’s top housing issue was poor housing quality. Two out of every seven rental units were built before 1970, making them less likely to have energy-efficiency upgrades and more likely to have higher energy costs.

The new program should help alleviate those energy burdens for the most vulnerable tenants.

“I think of this program as the carrot, right? It's really a good deal for landlords,” Marcus said. “Over time, you could pair this with a policy to require that landlords disclose the last 12 months of their utility bills before a tenant signs a lease.”

Linn County is partnering with several community organizations to make the program a reality — and to make sure low-income renters can reap the benefits.

Local nonprofit Matthew 25 will conduct the initial energy audits of participating properties. It also will identify potential audit locations and help market the program to climate vulnerable communities.

The Neighborhood Finance Corporation will deploy the funding and help landlords make improvements to the rental units by reviewing bids, verifying tenant income annually to ensure compliance and ensuring landlord compliance.

The Linn Clean Energy District will track, record and report tenant energy usage and their energy bills to see how the metrics change over the course of the program. Landlords will have to install a smart thermostat at their properties to collect the data.

The clean energy district will share that data with Linn County residents and policymakers and provide feedback to improve the program.

“It's really cool to see these types of community partners collaborating on something like this,” Marcus said. “It's not just a new program. It's also those new relationships that are now being developed.”

The grant comes from the EPA’s Environmental Justice Government-to-Government program, which provides funding at the state, local, territorial and tribal levels for projects that alleviate environmental or public health impacts in communities disproportionately burdened by environmental harms.

The Linn County partners will be meeting with the EPA in the coming months to finalize their awarded funding.

For more information about the Linn County Rental Energy Improvement Program, the public can contact the Linn County Sustainability Department at Sustainability@LinnCountyIowa.gov.

Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com