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ResearchWorks Volume 6 Number 10 - November 2009

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RESEARCHWORKS
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PAYING FOR ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADES

Upgrading or improving an existing home’s energy infrastructure can improve the efficiency of home energy consumption. Utilities, states, and regional organizations have all sponsored programs to stimulate consumer investment in residential, energy-efficient improvements with mixed success. One of the biggest challenges is to find ways to help low-income households with the highest energy cost burdens, those with poor credit, and/or those who rent. We’ll discuss some ideas being tested for making energy efficiency upgrades affordable and review a demonstration of a tariffed installation program implemented by Midwest Energy How$martSM in central and western Kansas. 		 
 
   

POWERED BY THE SUN

Solar panel systems provide an affordable alternative for American homeowners burdened by the costs and environmental effects of heating and cooling their homes, as these systems significantly reduce both energy consumption and costs over time. We’ll explore the benefits of this sustainable approach and examine how governments and communities are encouraging the adoption of solar panel systems to combat increases in electricity use and expenditures. 		 
 
   

THE HEALTH OF OUR CITIES' HOUSING

HUD is committed to the incorporation of healthy home principles into ongoing practices, enabling communities to build sustainable healthy home programs at the local level, and supporting research that leads to healthier, cost-effective housing, especially for low-income families. Community planners and policymakers will find a useful tool in a recent assessment of the state of healthy housing in the U.S., using American Housing Survey data on 20 key housing factors related to health. We’ll review the study and its findings. 		 
 
   

REEVALUATING AFFORDABLE HOUSING POLICY TOOLS

Increasing the supply of affordable rental units and owner-occupied affordable housing is a high policy priority for HUD. In the latest issue of Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, scholars contribute research that identifies challenges to the affordable housing supply posed by outdated land use regulations, and that examines and tests various strategies for regulatory reform. In the November issue, we’ll review this current body of research and present key findings.