Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) was joined by senior representatives from the California Rural Home Mortgage Finance Authority Homebuyers Fund (CHF), Five Star Bank, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and the California Energy Commission (CEC) to announce the creation of the CHF Residential Energy Retrofit Program. The newest iteration of the program, which is making $20 million in private financing available, is designed to assist homeowners making energy-efficiency improvements to their home, reduce energy costs and the impact on the environment, and create jobs.
“Public-private partnerships such as this represent the many positive benefits that can occur when businesses and the government work together to achieve common goals, such as creating jobs, lowering consumer energy costs and meeting our state’s ambitious energy efficiency goals,” said Congresswoman Matsui. “Today’s announcement builds upon the success of a Recovery Act Program where federal funding provided the much needed capital to create a program to assist homeowners in making their homes more comfortable and energy efficient, while putting contractors back to work.”
CHF’s Residential Energy Retrofit Program was originally funded by a grant from the CEC as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The program, which began in 2010, originally received $16.5 million of State Energy Program funds via ARRA, and because of its success, was allocated an additional $12 million in funding from the CEC. With this $29 million in funding, over 1,050 homeowners throughout California received assistance with home energy upgrades from the program, including over 350 projects in Sacramento County.
Given the success of the ARRA-funded stage of the Program, CHF and the CEC pursued a sustainable avenue to continue assisting homeowners in making energy-efficiency improvements on their homes to reduce energy costs. Five Star Bank signed on to the program and announced that they are making $20 million in loan financing available to eligible homeowners for home improvements. Also joining the venture is PG&E, with an initial commitment of $1 million to begin implementing the next stage of the Program, which makes energy efficiency financing available to PG&E customers in 44 California counties.
The Residential Energy Retrofit Program is currently available to PG&E customers in 44 counties: Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Kern, Kings, Lake, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Mateo, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba.
