Energy Equity for Renters offers no-cost technical assistance to local governments and community-based organizations seeking to improve rental energy efficiency while also preserving or expanding housing affordability. ACEEE has offered two rounds oftechnical assistance and has advised 15 communities pursuing rental energy efficiency initiatives.
Second Technical Assistance Cohort
In 2024 and early 2025, Energy Equity for Renters provided no-cost technical assistance to 10 local governments and community-based organizations to address home weatherization, renter energy burdens, residential building electrification, and other rental housing needs. ACEEE worked with these jurisdictions to create and implement programs for rental efficiency upgrades:
- Alachua County, Florida: As temperatures continue to rise, the heat impacts of climate change are intersecting with the affordable housing crisis in a way that is threatening the health and safety of the county's most marginalized residents: low-income renters. To address this issue, Alachua County provides up to $15,000 in energy efficiency improvements to tenants making 50% or less of area median income while committing landlords to maintaining housing affordability. While this initiative has the potential to make renters cooler, safer, and more comfortable at a reduced cost, its adoption wasn't as widespread as it could be. ACEEE’s technical assistance helped Alachua County and its community partners, Rebuilding Together North Central Florida and the Community Weatherization Coalition, in troubleshooting the current energy efficiency program to reach more residents quickly.
- Burlington, Vermont: Burlington’s rental weatherization ordinance requires multi-unit dwellings over a certain energy use threshold to weatherize their buildings to reduce thermal energy use, cutting carbon emissions and keeping tenants warm in winter and cool in summer. As the city works to implement the ordinance, ACEEE’s technical assistance enabled the city to partner with community-based organizations to determine how to best share and communicate about the law with tenants, property owners, and others.
- Cincinnati, Ohio: ACEEE helped Cincinnati launch a new iteration of its WarmUp Cincy program in 2025. The updated program encourages rental property owners to make energy upgrades that lower utility costs, improve comfort, and cut greenhouse gas emissions. ACEEE provided guidance to help the city implement the program in ways that ensure that benefits reach renters and that energy improvements preserve housing affordability.
- Denver, Colorado: Working with ACEEE, the Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resilience Agency (CASR) of the City and County of Denver sought to leverage its work with community-based organizations in public outreach and engagement. The agency aims to address Denver’s foremost climate vulnerabilities: extreme heat and water scarcity. It is prioritizing building a resilient community for all while moving toward a carbon pollution-free environment.
- King County, Washington: King County has prioritized reducing utility burdens and expanding renewable energy and energy efficiency deployment in frontline communities as part of its Strategic Climate Action Plan. ACEEE’s technical assistance supported a county-led project that analyzed the utility burden on renters in frontline communities to help develop policy recommendations for improving utility bill affordability while meeting the county’s climate goals.
- New Bedford, Massachusetts: New Bedford works with landlords and community-based organizations advocating for energy-burdened renters to identify opportunities to incentivize energy efficiency upgrades in multifamily rental properties. ACEEE supported this effort by facilitating discussion and identifying lessons learned and best policy practices in other communities across the country.
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability wanted to understand how to address energy burdens for tenants in small rental dwellings. The office worked with ACEEE and local community-based organizations to understand how low-cost energy disclosure mechanisms can be used to address this challenge.
- San José, California: San José launched an incentive program and a zero-interest loan program to support residential building electrification. The city and its partner community-based organizations are eager to serve these programs to the 45% of San José residents who are renters. ACEEE’s technical support enabled the team to solicit feedback from the community to understand barriers to energy upgrades and recommend program design and complementary policies to support renters.
- Skokie, Illinois: Skokie and local community groups wanted to optimize building energy efficiency in multifamily buildings. They worked to engage with residential property owners, developers, and renters to assess the community's housing needs and determine how housing providers for low- and moderate-income households can implement energy efficiency and decarbonization measures equitably. ACEEE’s technical assistance supported the Village of Skokie and its community partners by reviewing case studies and best practices to design incentive programs for building owners and developers.
- St. Petersburg, Florida: Petersburg and its community partners wanted to identify and incorporate potential energy efficiency opportunities in their rental housing rehabilitation programs. ACEEE collaborated with St. Petersburg to evaluate existing city programs and policies to align rental housing and energy efficiency programs, including the Rebates for Residential Rehabilitation program, the utility assistance program, the city’s energy roadmap, and municipal code requirements.
First Technical Assistance Cohort
In 2022, Energy Equity for Renters provided no-cost technical assistance to five local governments and community-based organizations to address residential building electrification, housing displacement, strategies to engage property owners, and other rental housing needs. ACEEE worked with these jurisdictions to create and implement programs for rental efficiency upgrades:
- Bay Area Regional Energy Network, California: As the Bay Area Regional Energy Network, StopWaste, and the City of Berkeley promote electrification of existing buildings, they seek to incorporate renter protections into both voluntary programs and mandatory policies. These will ensure that all residents have access to healthy housing conditions and are not faced with higher energy costs, rent increases, or displacement as a result of energy-related upgrades to their buildings. ACEEE conducted and shared research on how existing multifamily retrofit programs and policies across the country are protecting tenants to help guide equitable building decarbonization strategies across the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Cambridge, Massachusetts: Renters make up 60% of Cambridge’s residential population. ACEEE analyzed the Cambridge rental housing market and helped plan and implement an equitable community and stakeholder engagement process. This helped shape Cambridge’s renter energy equity strategy with goals to improve building efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and lower energy burdens.
- Duluth, Minnesota: Duluth sought to expand existing energy efficiency programs for renters by establishing relationships and a system of communication between utility providers, community-based organizations, and landlords. ACEEE conducted research on incentives to encourage landlord participation in energy-saving programs and helped develop protocols for approaching landlords with energy efficiency strategies.
- Portland, Oregon: A broad coalition of local governments, transportation agencies, community groups, and housing advocates in Portland worked collectively to solve issues of housing displacement stemming from local transportation infrastructure projects. ACEEE technical assistance supported Portland and its community partners as they implemented an equitable community development strategy based on principles of racial and social justice, anti-displacement coalition-building, and community wealth development efforts.
- Tacoma, Washington: As the City of Tacoma considered the implementation of a municipal code or policy to incentivize or require all-electric space and water heating equipment in existing rental properties, it worked with ACEEE and local community-based organizations to identify the best mechanisms and partnerships to achieve its decarbonization goals while limiting harmful impacts on affordability.