Low-income housing not benefiting from energy efficiency schemes

Jacob Barker writes an important article on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website about the dilemma facing regulators. Those in need are not benefiting from energy efficiency incentives. In fact, this lack of benefit is more of a penalty which simply should not be the case.

Energy efficiency savings not reaching low-income households

The people who would benefit most from energy-efficiency programs are often the ones who can least afford to take advantage of them.

But a national environmental group pledges to push Missouri regulators and housing agencies to adopt new electricity conservation policies for affordable, multifamily housing.

“These are the people who need efficiency most,” said Rebecca Stanfield, a deputy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Midwest program.

Stanfield and other efficiency and housing advocates gathered at the Renaissance Place apartments Friday, near the former Blumeyer public housing high-rise at Grand Center, to release a new study on efficiency savings in similar properties.

NRDC and other national groups released the Missouri report in collaboration with a group of state policymakers and experts. The group estimates that Missouri multifamily properties with occupants who make 80 percent or less of the area’s median income — or $53,700 or less for a family of four — could reduce energy consumption by 15 percent over the next 20 years. That’s about 358 gigawatt hours’ worth, or roughly the equivalent of the Callaway nuclear power plant running at full capacity for 12.5 days.

In Ameren Missouri’s territory, the report estimates affordable housing customers could save 150 gigawatt hours of electricity through 2034.

Often, utility efficiency incentives cover only a portion of the cost of a new appliance, and lower-income households struggle to participate. But they still pay the additional charge on their electric bill that induces utilities to encourage energy-saving measures.

“Nonparticipants are often left with a higher rate and a higher bill, and that mostly affects low-income residents,” said Geoff Marke, an economist with the Missouri Office of Public Counsel, which advocates for ratepayers in regulatory matters.

Owners of multifamily housing also have less incentive to participate because their tenants often pay the utility bills, so owners don’t directly save.

The report recommends new policies specifically targeting affordable multifamily housing. Stanfield said the NRDC and others will recommend them in Ameren’s next three-year cycle of energy efficiency programs, currently pending before the Missouri Public Service Commission.

“We intend to advocate these recommendations in every forum available in the state,” she said.

One issue is that there are barriers in Missouri’s low-income housing tax credit law that could limit building owners participating in that program from also using utility-funded efficiency incentives, according to the report.

More financial incentives from utilities will be the biggest driver, proponents said, but new programs or requirements from the Missouri Housing Development Commission and other agencies could also help.

“Maybe there should be a greater incentive for owners of affordable, multifamily housing because they’re not going to reap the benefits on a monthly basis, their tenants are,” said Dana Gray, a community development coordinator for the Tower Grove Neighborhoods Community Development Corp.

There are some market incentives, she noted: Lower energy bills mean landlords are more likely to get their rent checks. Jim Armstrong, of Lockheed-Martin Energy Solutions, also said there were market benefits for owners.

“There’s an understanding that the occupancy rate goes up with these efficiency measures,” he said.

Ameren participated as an observer in the study’s development but has not yet endorsed the findings. But Tim Via, Ameren Missouri’s manager of the low-income multifamily program, pointed out that the utility had recently amended one of its incentive programs. The utility will now help with retrofits on complexes that are 51 percent federally subsidized, instead of 100 percent.

However, Ameren is exceeding its goal for energy-efficiency savings with programs already in place. Plus, Ameren has proposed reducing its energy savings target by half in the next cycle of the efficiency program, which begins next year.