Eden Housing Publishes Greenhouse Gas Reduction Assessments Report with Support from Enterprise Communities and HUD
April 29, 2025
– Funds supported holistic assessments of Eden Housing properties that surfaced commonalities and patterns informing next steps through data-driven insights –
Hayward, California—April 29, 2025—Eden Housing, a nonprofit developer and manager of over 160 affordable multifamily housing communities that provide stability and advance opportunity for low-income families, seniors, and other special needs communities across California, recently completed more than 30 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) assessments of its properties. This effort was made possible through $200,000 in funding support from the Wells Fargo Foundation and a $50,000 HUD Section 4 Capacity Building grant administered by Enterprise Community Partners.
Lessons learned from these assessments are summarized in a new report, Moving Toward a Carbon-Free Future for Multifamily Housing, published by Eden Housing and available on its website. The principal author is Kim Vermeer, President of Urban Habitat Initiatives. The assessed properties were identified as the highest GHG emitters in an electrification roadmap of Eden Housing’s portfolio, developed by the Association for Energy Affordability (AEA). Eden used the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® to track and analyze carbon emissions from each property. By completing multiple assessments in a short period, Eden was able to identify commonalities and patterns, group property types with similar decarbonization approaches, and plan how to align retrofits and major rehabs with the life cycle of the buildings to optimize funding and maximize benefits.
These were among the top insights derived from the assessments:
- The primary contributor to GHG emissions in the Eden Housing portfolio is water heating. At many properties, water heating is half of the total energy use, contributing at least half of the GHG emissions. In response, changing water heating from natural gas to electric heat pumps is a priority recommendation for most properties.
- At most, but not all, properties, electrical system conversions combined with other measures result in both energy use savings (reduced Energy Use Intensity) and energy cost savings.
- Retrofitting older gas water heaters with more efficient gas models is part of the strategy to reduce GHGs. At a few properties, electrification results in modest energy use savings but energy cost increases due to cost differentials between natural gas and electricity. In these situations, Eden will need to proceed carefully, especially if higher costs will be borne by residents, and address impacts of the energy cost burden.
The GHG assessments are now informing next steps at multiple scales: smaller items that can be done immediately by on-site staff; discrete projects—some funded through local and state incentive programs—that require more planning and cross-departmental coordination, and large-scale projects that will be incorporated into a major refinancing and renovation event. When all Phase 1 recommendations are completed at these properties, the emissions reduction is 2770 metric tons/year, a 71% reduction.
“Our ongoing journey toward sustainability has required consistent leadership and the support and encouragement of funders, government programs, and partners like Wells Fargo Foundation, which has been a powerful ally in our quest to provide safe, healthy, and affordable homes to lower-income residents,” said Eden Housing president and CEO Linda Mandolini. “At Eden Housing, we understand that our commitment to serving our communities must guide our approach to developing meaningful action plans. This includes not only managing energy conservation and costs, but also addressing how much our residents pay for utilities. Managing energy cost burden as a percentage of household income is an important factor that we look at when tackling the immediate needs of our residents and the broader challenges of climate change and air quality.”
ABOUT EDEN HOUSING
Eden Housing is a non-profit organization with 57 years of experience providing safe and affordable housing that helps families stay secure, allows communities to thrive, and solves many of the most pressing housing challenges facing California cities. Since its inception, the Bay Area-based organization has developed more than 10,000 affordable homes and is a leader in making its residential communities environmentally sustainable and efficient through integrating energy conservation. Eden is also known as a champion of housing policy advocacy at the local, state, and national level, supporting practices that both create and preserve affordable housing for all. Learn more at www.edenhousing.org.
ABOUT ENTERPRISE COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Enterprise is the steward of the Section 4 grants, a nonprofit capacity building program with funding available through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The purpose is to support the organizational and technical capacity of community development and affordable housing programs.