City office seeks pilot to retrofit multifamily housing for lower bills and resilience

The Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency (CCSR) briefed the council committee on Wednesday about a proposed pilot program to help retrofit multifamily buildings and lower utility costs for residents. Director Ben Sullivan said his office is designing an “affordable green housing retrofit” program that would aggregate federal rebates, utility incentives and potential low‑interest lending to enable building‑level retrofits — especially in multifamily stock from the 1960s and 1970s that Sullivan said is overdue for upgrades. Sullivan framed the work around a core question: “how do we help Oahu residents reduce their utility costs?” Sullivan and staff described opportunities that include heat‑pump water heaters (the presentation cited a $1,750 federal rebate component for qualifying replacements), equipment rebates from Hawaii Energy, and financing mechanisms such as Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy and Resiliency (C‑PACER) and programs through the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority. The office said the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and related programs could pay for hardware and deep retrofits but noted some federal incentives and tax credits are uncertain or have been scaled back nationally. CCSR’s approach emphasizes multifamily buildings because building‑level measures can capture longer‑term savings for tenants and owner‑occupants and because many existing multifamily units house lower‑and moderate‑income households. Sullivan said the office is looking to pilot the program in the coming fiscal year, with staff funded to do market analysis, identify eligible measures and partners, and test recruitment strategies for owners and homeowners associations. Sullivan said the program will seek to stack resources — federal rebates, Hawaii Energy incentives and targeted lending — to close the upfront cost gap that often prevents building owners from undertaking upgrades. He said CCSR will coordinate with state agencies, the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority, Hawaii Energy and local partners on program design and pilot selection. What’s next: CCSR will return with a program design and pilot plan for committee review; federal and state funding availability will affect design and the scale of early pilots.