New initiative in New York is helping struggling homeowners with long-overdue repairs: 'Communities that have been disinvested in for a long time'

Some Brooklyn homeowners can now afford to go green with the help of a new program. The EnergyFit initiative is to renovate and retrofit 70 two- and three-family residences across select neighborhoods in Brooklyn over a two-year period.

What's happening?

A new program that launched in 2024 is helping families that lack the money they need for the upkeep of their homes. EnergyFit is run by three organizations with a shared common mission of fostering equitable urban development and community empowerment in New York City. The Pratt Center for Community Development, Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, and IMPACCT Brooklyn will implement the program, which is funded with federal money and private donations.

EnergyFit will help homeowners in Brooklyn repair and retrofit their homes with a transition to renewable energy sources in mind. Buildings are the largest contributors to planet-warming pollution in New York City. The new program will help homeowners cut through the red tape and bureaucracy that can complicate making the types of changes needed to make homes more sustainable.

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"A lot of these households are in communities that have been disinvested in for a long time, where people are house-rich, cash-poor, and have fallen so far behind on maintenance that to even be able to start moving towards electrification and efficiency, you've got to solve these other home maintenance problems," Rebekah Morris-Gonzalez, director of climate initiatives at Pratt, told Inside Climate News. "The benefits that will accrue are not just around carbon reductions. It is really about health improvements to households and comfort."  

Why is EnergyFit important?

EnergyFit's goal is to help streamline the process of retrofitting homes for low-income New Yorkers so they are more energy-efficient. The program has completed nearly 50,000 retrofits across the state, but less than 2% of them have been in New York City, where there are nearly 250,000 homes in low-income communities and communities of color.

"EnergyFit provides a new model for engaging and supporting low- and moderate-income homeowners in making their homes energy-efficient," according to the Pratt Center for Community Development. "By building a program that recognizes typical barriers and is designed better for their needs — such as reducing the number of points of decision making, providing a set and predictable price point, increasing incentives, simplifying complex technical language — the opportunity to increase the ability of homeowners to invest in energy efficiency improves dramatically."

What's being done about making homes more energy-efficient in other parts of the country?

Maine launched an initiative in 2019 with the goal to install 100,000 heat pumps by this year. That goal was smashed ahead of schedule. 

The Environmental Protection Agency awarded $450 million for a program to assist Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island to rapidly transition to more energy-efficient heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, and ground source heat pumps.

GreenDoor Builders out of Rochester, New York, is working to merge environmental responsibility with affordability in the housing market. The company recently unveiled its affordable, efficient home design that could be implemented anywhere.

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