BEI developed the “Healthy, Affordable Homes for All” framework to chart a path toward integrated, scalable, and politically durable solutions for the housing, climate, and affordability crises.

Multiple crises are converging in American homes, with housing, energy, transportation, and insurance costs rising dramatically, and affordable housing disappearing and in disrepair. Many Americans are moving farther away from job centers in search of lower cost housing. While the public health and safety risks from climate change accelerates, millions of homes continue to burn dangerous fossil fuels.

An integrated approach to these overlapping challenges can bring relief and simultaneously improve housing affordability, lower energy bills, repair homes, and protect people from climate change. Tackling these issues together can unlock more creative solutions, improve government efficiency, and achieve durable results.

Our policy framework integrates climate action into the classic “3 Ps” housing policy framework and adds partnerships as a fourth P:

• Production: Build more affordable, decarbonized, climate-resilient homes close to transit,

• Preservation: Preserve existing affordable housing and incorporate retrofits that both lower energy bills and improve health outcomes,

• Protection: Keep people in their homes by protecting against rising costs and evictions, including during and after repairs and retrofits, and

• Partnerships: Practice community co-creation and build cross-cutting coalitions to support ambitious housing-climate wins.

The report also details:

• The benefits of addressing housing and climate goals in tandem and the risks of single-issue approaches,

• What stands in the way of housing-climate collaboration and how to facilitate integration,

• Areas where strategic investments can accelerate and scale housing-climate efforts, and

• Examples of integrated housing-climate initiatives in cities and regions across the U.S.

With this framework, government staff and community partners can collaborate across silos, build political momentum, and achieve impactful housing-climate wins that deliver healthy, affordable, climate-ready, and abundant housing for all.