Every HUD program and office has committed to specific, time-bound actions on climate and environmental justice. Through spending and policies, these actions show HUD's commitment toward using low- and zero-carbon energy and supporting the communities we serve as they recover from recent disasters and work to increase their resilience to ongoing climate and health risks, especially among historically underserved populations.
The HUD Exchange Build for the Future electronic resource library and funding navigator is a one-stop-shop for HUD program participants to learn more about climate resilience, carbon reduction, environmental justice, and cross-agency funding opportunities. The information and resources shared build upon HUD’s climate and environmental justice work by helping communities and program participants plan and implement climate resilient and sustainable projects.
The Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) provides billions of dollars in flexible funding to help communities recover from and build resilience to climate hazards and natural disasters, particularly low- and moderate-income communities who are especially vulnerable due to current and historic discrimination and disinvestment.
Public Housing and Voucher programs include capital investments and energy incentives, along with support for major renovation projects associated with conversions to project-based vouchers.
The Office of Native American Programs administers housing and community development programs that benefit American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments, tribal members, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Native Hawaiians, and other Native American organizations.
The Office of Housing plays a vital role for the nation's homebuyers, homeowners, renters, and communities through its nationally administered programs. It includes the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the largest mortgage insurer in the world. FHA mortgage financing programs, primarily its insurance programs, enable billions of dollars of private capital to fund the purchase, refinance, construction and rehabilitation of single- and multifamily housing.
The Office of Housing includes the following program offices that are most familiar to lenders, other housing industry participants, and consumers: Office of Single Family Housing, Office of Multifamily Housing, Office of Healthcare Programs, Office of Housing Counseling, and the Office of Manufactured Housing.
The mission of the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) is to eliminate housing discrimination, promote economic opportunity, and achieve diverse, inclusive communities by leading the nation in the enforcement, administration, development, and public understanding of federal fair housing policies and laws.
The Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes (OLHCHH) was established by Congress in 1991 as the Office of Lead-Based Paint Abatement and Poisoning Prevention and was charged with protecting children and families from lead-based paint hazards in the home. In 1999, Congress expanded the Office’s mission to cover housing-related health and safety hazards more broadly, which it does through its Healthy Homes program.
The OLHCHH provides funds to state and local governments to develop and implement cost-effective ways to evaluate homes for and reduce hazards from lead-based paint, provides funds to state, local, and tribal governments and nonprofit organizations to evaluate homes for, and mitigate a broad range of housing-related health and safety hazards, enforces HUD's lead-based paint regulations, provides public outreach and technical assistance, and conducts technical studies (research) on methods of detecting, characterizing, and mitigating lead and other hazards in housing.
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In addition to the many actions program offices are taking to promote resilience, adaptation, decarbonization, and environmental justice strictly within their own programs, advancing these goals will require departmentwide, interagency and intergovernmental collaboration, including:
- Implementing vulnerability assessments for multifamily properties, including a consideration of equity and the impact on relevant protected class groups
- Developing a training series for HUD grantees and update HUD’s online tools to reflect updated floodplain risk management and wetlands protection policy
- Facilitating trainings for grantees and partners that includes climate adaptation and environmental justice, incorporating climate risk in their areas
- Developing enterprise-wide minimum data standards for utility management and risk mitigation and formulate an updated enterprise-wide approach to utility benchmarking
- Establishing points for climate mitigation and adaptation measures in competitive Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) where appropriate
- Continuing ongoing partnership with EPA to identify and investigate Public Housing and Multifamily assisted housing in which lead pollution and other contaminants of concern from National Priorities List sites could impact residents’ health
- Where contamination is found in HUD-assisted housing, working across Federal, Tribal, State, and Local agencies and nongovernmental organizations to help the impacted community identify available resources and appropriate solutions to eliminate hazards and improve residents’ overall health
- Collaborating with EPA’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization, we well as State and Tribal Response Programs, to ensure cross-agency alignment with respect to changing climate conditions brownfields policies
- Refining departmentwide radon testing and mitigation standards by rule and deliver radon training series and guidance materials to HUD customers covering topics including radon basics, regulatory requirements, and testing and mitigation best practices
- Updating Program guidance on environmental review procedures to include analysis of climate mitigation measures, adaptation strategies, and environmental justice
See the complete list of committed actions in the Climate Action Plan.
HUD Press Releases
06/21/2024 HUD Releases Updated Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan
06/13/2024 HUD Takes Action to Protect Families Against Extreme Heat
04/25/2024 Fact Sheet: HUD Prioritizes Resilient, Efficient, and Green Homes and Community Development
04/25/2024 HUD Acting Secretary Travels to Philadelphia, PA to Mark Investments in Sustainability
04/24/2024 HUD Kicks Off a Series of New Actions to Help Communities Fight Extreme Heat
03/13/2024 HUD Signs on to Historic Climate Declaration at United Nations Buildings and Climate Forum
12/06/2023 HUD and DOE Announce New Partnership to Decarbonize U.S. Building Sector at COP28
12/06/2023 HUD Launches Free Energy and Water Benchmarking Service for HUD-Assisted Multifamily Properties
07/11/2023 HUD Secretary Partners with Japan to Forge Sustainable Urban Solutions and Climate Resilience
03/15/2023 HUD Announces Overhaul of Disaster Recovery Program to Better Deliver for Impacted Communities
12/08/2022 HUD Announces Improvements to Climate-Forward Housing Program
07/27/2022 Biden Administration Announces Steps to Lower Electricity Bills for Residents in HUD Programs
02/28/2022 HUD Secretary Fudge Joins DOE Secretary Granholm to Announce Better Climate Challenge
11/17/2021 HUD Releases Agency Climate Action Plan
In Other News
01/06/2022 Secretaries Fudge and Granholm Tour NHT Communities' Green Retrofit Property in West Baltimore
11/12/2021 Around the Agencies: HUD's Climate Pitch (from Morning Energy Newsletter)
11/11/2021 Watch: Secretary Marcia Fudge Announces HUD’s Climate Action Plan at COP26