Case Study from the Climate Smart Housing Collective Demonstrates the Importance of Facilitating Climate and Housing Agency Relationships

As climate change and housing remain top issues facing this country and globally, the most vulnerable communities are at the highest risk of being impacted by extreme weather events and housing instability. Historically, such communities have been overlooked in clean energy funding, resulting in disinvestment and exacerbating their exposure to climate-related vulnerabilities.

To continue moving the market, the Climate Smart Housing Collective (CSHC), comprising Global Policy Leadership Academy (GPLA) and Community Sustainability Partners (CSP), with generous support from Wells Fargo Foundation, released its final case study, Facilitating Multisectoral Gatherings to Leverage Energy and Housing Funding, on its Climate Smart Housing Collective (CSHC) website.

The case study outlines how the CSHC team partnered with California Housing Partnership (CHP) and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) to facilitate a set of workshops that brought California housing, energy/climate, finance, and cross-sectoral agencies together to provide leaders with knowledge and ideas to work together and meaningfully advance shared goals. Agencies included the California Business and Consumer Services Agency,  Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), California Debt Limit Allocation Committee (CDLAC) / California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC), California Energy Commission, California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority (CAETFA), California Air Resources Board (CARB), Cal EPA, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank), Treasurer’s Office, the Strategic Growth Council (SGC), and the Governor’s Office.

These workshops ultimately contributed to the signing of Executive Order N-2-24 in July 2024 to support efforts to transform undeveloped and underutilized infill sites and buildings into housing, and a CDLAC/TCAC demand assessment was released to identify rehabilitation projects that require integrated funding for weatherization, electrification, or decarbonization upgrades.

The workshops additionally highlighted numerous lessons for facilitating multisectoral agency relationships, for example:

• Sector-specific pre-workshop relationship building and planning ensured greater buy-in and progress during workshops
• Bringing the right players to the table following the leadership of internal champions with strategic, external facilitation enabled all parties to build valuable relationships and collaborative opportunities.

As policy, programming, and investment at the intersection of climate and housing continue to develop, regionally tailored and funded solutions are crucial amidst federal unpredictability. The Climate Smart Housing Collective remains dedicated to advancing this work and wishes to highlight the dedication of our collaborators, particularly those listed in the acknowledgments in the Multisector Roadmap for Resourcing Equitable Decarbonization in Affordable Housing, as well as affordable housing developers American Family Housing, Community HousingWorks, East LA Community Corporation, and Holos Communities, which contributed renderings and details of their climate-friendly affordable housing projects.