Identifying, Valuing, and Financing Climate Resilience in Multifamily Affordable Housing

In the Climate Resilience Finance Working Group’s October 2019 discussion brief, our working group outlined why climate resilience is important to all multifamily affordable housing stakeholders and how housing lenders can help drive a strategic shift toward pre-disaster resilience in the sector. In this more in-depth working paper, we explore the following questions.

• What are the challenges to enhancing the climate resilience of multifamily affordable housing?
• How are opportunities to enhance the climate resilience of a specific property identified?
• Once identified, what is needed to fund resilience projects?
• What resilience dividends (i.e. financial value) can housing owners unlock by enhancing resilience in multifamily affordable housing, even without additional incentives?
• What kinds of incentives could lenders, insurers, and the government offer to housing owners that would accelerate investment in resilient multifamily affordable housing?
• What is the role of building codes, certifications, and disclosures in driving resilience upgrades?