Mercy Housing California Portfolio

Mercy Housing, a national leader in nonprofit affordable housing, was interested in lowering operating costs while also keeping tenants comfortable in a sustainable way. But securing funds to pay for energy and water efficiency upgrades outside of a refinance year was a challenge as Mercy Housing preserves, develops, and manages low-income communities. Even with incentives that are available from utilities and the government, Mercy Housing needed a more creative solution.

Mercy Housing partnered with Bright Power and Affordable Community Energy Services Company (ACE) to help upgrade around 48 properties of their California portfolio. Through our ongoing collaboration, Mercy Housing is able to utilize ACE’s innovative “Pay from Savings” financing model to complete efficiency improvements when they are needed most, rather than waiting for refinancing or taking out a secondary loan. As Mercy Housing’s energy and water management partner, Bright Power used the data from EnergyScoreCards, our cloud-based energy analysis platform, to discover areas of underperformance and to determine which properties had high-impact opportunities for improvement. Bright Power then completed energy audits at select properties and turnkey installed efficiency improvements.

Mercy Housing, Bright Power, and ACE prioritized phases of work based on factors like building performance, location, and available government and utility incentive programs (California’s Low Income Weatherization Program). ACE’s “Pay from Savings” financing approach, with funding through Reinvestment Fund, gave Mercy Housing the ability to complete the needed upgrades and use project savings to pay for the improvements over a 10-year period.