RICHMOND, Va. - Basic steps for Virginia's affordable housing will have a huge energy efficiency payoff, according to two new studies. The National Housing Trust and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are part of a broad coalition looking at the issue.

Michael Bodaken, executive director with the housing trust, says basic measures like compact florescent bulbs, low-flow faucets, double-pane windows, and better insulation would yield big results in existing affordable apartments; $21 billion in energy savings in eight states over the next twenty years. He says in Virginia the return is nearly three times the cost.

"Tripling my investment in something that actually helps make people more energy efficient, healthier and more comfortable seems like a good thing to consider," says Bodaken.

More on how to at energyefficiencyforall.org Wednesday the Virginia Housing Coalition and Virginia Conservation Network are hosting an efficient housing press tour at the Somanath Senior Apartments in Richmond.

The studies found families in Virginia's affordable housing apartments could cut twenty percent from their natural gas consumption and nearly thirty percent from their electricity use. Deron Lovaas, with Urban Solutions at the Natural Resources Defense Councilm says this is big, low hanging fruit, which also means savings for the utilities and the apartments' owners.

He says with a little better information, incentives and financing, utilities and property owners in other states already are seeing lower energy use and better bottom lines.

"If owners and managers have a pathway to energy efficiency programs and a pathway to financing, they'll take advantage of that. We'll see savings accrue to tenants, owners and managers alike," says Lovaas.

For the owners of affordable housing such as the housing trust, Bodaken says the upgrades mean keeping units on the market longer and keeping rents down. For utilities they mean fewer unpaid bills and lower collection costs. He says there are about 400,000 affordable apartment units in Virginia and many could use the improvements.

"Older buildings with inadequate insulation, lousy windowpanes, air filtration issues," says Bodaken. "They're pretty basic. These are not exotic measures. This is something we can control and make money doing it."


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Rents in Los Angeles were already high before the firestorm earlier this year, but now a coalition of housing groups is suing six landlords for price gouging.

In California, it is generally illegal to raise rents more than 10% following an emergency declaration, but the nonprofit Strategic Actions for a Just Economy has found many units where advertised rates jumped 25% to almost 50%.

Heeyoung Linda Park, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, a co-counsel for the plaintiffs, has been watching the activity.

"When they tracked these rental prices, they found hundreds of properties illegally gouging rents, and so there were so many that they eventually had to recruit volunteers to help them track the listings and identify the worst offenders," Park said.

Attempts to reach the defendants for comment were unsuccessful. The first court appearance is scheduled for later this summer. The City of Los Angeles is seeking $62 million in damages in a separate lawsuit against different landlords.

Rodney Leggett, an attorney with the Housing Rights Center, is also a co-counsel for the plaintiffs alongside the Western Center on Law & Poverty and the California Center for Movement Legal Services.

"We find it very exploitive to sort of take advantage of people when they're most desperate, including people who have been displaced as a result of the wildfires," he said.

More than 16,000 structures were destroyed by the Palisades and Eaton fires, adding more pressure to an already-stretched rental market.


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A new report on homelessness in Colorado released by the Common Sense Institute has come under fire for muddying the waters for lawmakers and other stakeholders working to get people off the streets and back on their feet.

The report claimed an Intervention First model, where people only get housing if they agree to addiction treatment and workforce training, is more effective than the Housing First with Supportive Services approach, which it said has failed to decrease homelessness.

Cathy Alderman, chief communications and public policy officer at the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said the report does not even mention rising housing costs.

"When we see housing costs go up, when we see rents increase, we see homelessness increase," Alderman pointed out. "When we don't see more affordable housing being made available to low-income households, we see homelessness increase."

Between 2019 and 2023, Denver's already high rents rose by nearly 30%. Last year, there was a gap of more than 134,000 affordable housing units across the state for workers earning 30% of the median income or less. The Institute defended its report and said by email the public deserves to know whether their tax dollars are helping reduce homelessness, not just reshuffling where people sleep.

According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, Housing First reduces homelessness by 88% and improves housing stability by 41% compared with Intervention First programs, which Alderman called a one-size-fits-all approach.

"It said you must participate with those specific services in order to be eligible for housing," Alderman noted. "There are lots of people experiencing homelessness that don't need substance-use treatment, that don't need behavioral health. They need housing."

Housing First programs provide rapid access to housing and care teams connect people to employment opportunities, medical and mental health care and substance use treatment but the services are not required or used as a punitive tool.

Alderman stressed the model works but current investments do not meet the scale of the problem.

"If we had the housing resources and we were providing more housing with supportive services to larger populations of people experiencing homelessness, we would absolutely see a reduction in homelessness," Alderman asserted. "But we've never had the political will to do that."

Keeping more renters in their homes is one goal of a new Utah initiative.

The Utah Housing Coalition has formed a Landlord and Community Partners Coalition to cultivate better relationships and more equitable solutions for issues between landlords and tenants.

A report by the Utah Housing Coalition found a 23% failure rate in Utah's Housing Choice voucher program, which Project Manager Zoe Newmann said underscores the need for action. Multiple bills to help renters have failed in the Utah Legislature and there is uncertainty about how federal funding for housing assistance will fare in the Trump administration's spending cuts.

Newmann pointed out they are aiming to fill gaps where they can.

"We hope that by developing this system, connecting people to services that already exist in their communities, that we can start working towards a place where potentially we have our own lease that people can kind of hop onto," Newmann explained. "Because, as we all know in Utah, the lease is law."

Newmann stressed they see the need for what she calls "more holistic leases." Creating them is a longer-term goal for the coalition, which was launched last week. About 40 partners have joined so far. Learn more online at UtahHousing.org.

Data show housing affordability and availability are top issues for Utahns. Newmann is hopeful the new coalition will be able to bring stakeholders to the table, leading to improved communication, trust building and addressing what she describes as "systemic housing barriers."

"Our case managers are swamped," Newmann observed. "They have 20+ people that they're trying to manage. So, once they get someone placed in housing, just with funding and the need for these services, and then you're on to the next person. So, that continuous case management, we don't necessarily have support systems' help with that."

The Utah Housing Coalition will measure the initiative's success by monitoring increased collaboration between landlords, tenants and community-based organizations. They will also look at whether the effort improves housing stability, and can streamline pathways to mediation and other services.


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