Nicholas,

Thank you for once again choosing to open the Multifamily Impact Council’s (MIC) Monthly Newsletter for a quick and (hopefully) insightful read on issues that are relevant to the world of impact investing in the multifamily sector. Since our first issue in late summer, we have added over 1,000 subscribers from across the country and continue to make great progress toward developing a framework of impact investing principles and reporting guidelines for the multifamily industry.

Since May, we have been working diligently with MIC members and Global Impact, our research and impact analytics partners, to develop the initial draft of our Impact Framework and its corresponding evidence base. Over the next few months, we will be diving more deeply into the framework with our members and other industry experts to further refine our first draft and expect to release “version 1.0” by the end of Q1. 

One of the key principles of our Impact Framework deals with the issue of climate change and sustainability. While much has been made of the opportunities to mitigate this issue by conserving water and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring that our buildings and the people who call them home are more resilient to severe weather-related events is equally important. Between 2011 and 2021, natural disasters displaced 8.5 million people in the U.S., according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. In its 2021 Climate Change Catastrophe Report, CoreLogic estimates that natural disasters affected one in ten U.S. homes, causing $56.92 billion in property damage.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) inflation-adjusted data shows that since 1980 the U.S. has averaged about eight disasters each year exceeding $1 billion in economic costs. Since 2014, that number has risen to 18 $1 billion-plus natural disasters annually. NOAA lists 15 such weather disasters so far for 2022. 

So, the impacts of climate change are here. They are affecting most, if not all, sectors of the U.S. economy, including multifamily housing. 

And it's why this month's newsletter features an outstanding piece by Laurie Schoeman, Director, Climate & Sustainability, Capital, at Enterprise Community Partners. Laurie writes about Enterprise's climate risk reduction platform (RAMP), designed to help multifamily owners, developers, and investors manage climate risk in their businesses. 



Work such as what Enterprise is doing will help our industry adjust to climate change. And I’m thankful for all the input and assistance we’re receiving from MIC members as we incorporate disasters and climate change into the Council’s framework.

Thanks for reading, 

Bob Simpson 

President, Multifamily Impact Council

PS – If your organization is interested in learning more about the MIC and our work to build a framework of impact investing principles and reporting guidelines for the multifamily industry, please let us know. We’d love to fill you in! 

Laurie Schoeman is the Director of Climate and Sustainable for Enterprise Community Partners Capital Division and sits in the Office of the President. Enterprise is the only national nonprofit that does it all – solutions, capital, and community development – under one roof. Laurie directs the efforts in the Capital division around ESG strategy development, finance, development, and management of climate risks for affordable housing across the nation.

Laurie is the co-chair of the New York State Climate assessment buildings chapter and co-facilitates Resilience21, a network of practitioners across the U.S. advancing climate risk reduction and adaptation. Laurie has an MUP. from Hunter College and a BA from Smith College.

Climate change is roiling the energy sector and posing harm to individuals and communities across the planet. For owners, developers and investors in multifamily housing, the impacts of climate change are also creating the greatest financial risks of our generation, leading to higher insurance rates, increased utility, supply, and procurement costs, and physical risk exposure.

Financial service providers to the multifamily housing sector, like Enterprise Community Partners, can play a key role in combating climate change by ensuring buildings are effectively designed, constructed, and operated to advance resilience and a lower carbon economy in an affordable way. The Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark investment in the nation’s infrastructure and communities, offers the multifamily housing community an opportunity to finance strategies for resilience in the face of a changing climate. So, what does Multifamily Housing Resilience mean?

Working with public and private sector partners, Enterprise has developed a climate risk reduction platform (RAMP) for multifamily housing that helps new and existing housing assess, mitigate, and adapt to changing conditions. All these tools, designed to help developers and partners assess and manage the climate risk of our housing deals as well as operationalize our ESG policy on climate risk, are available to partners for free.

• Risk-rate multifamily housing for climate risk vulnerability using Portfolio Protect. To help investors, developers, and owners understand which of their properties are at highest risk from flooding, fire, earthquakes, and other natural hazards.
• Assess multifamily facility for climate risk and resiliency working with the Keep Safe Florida program, a comprehensive technical support system created to help affordable housing owners with the tools and resources to assess and address threats from climate change and natural disasters. Enterprise is working with HUD to build a nationwide resilience physical needs assessment to be available in 2023.
• Mitigate and Adapt Multifamily Housing to Climate Risk using Climate Safe Housing, a set of strategies to advise developers of multifamily housing to mitigate their flooding and heat risks. The Enterprise Green Communities Standard, is the leading green building standard for affordable housing.
• Plan for Business Continuity with the Ready to Respond Building Tool. This business continuity plan sponsored by HUD and Fannie Mae, provides multifamily housing owners with the actionable framework to develop a business continuity plan to manage building assets, residents and maintain business continuity amidst any disaster.

These tools provide the industry with the foundational information necessary to build stronger deals at the very outset — and manage risk across the lifecycle of the facility. The industry is at true inflection point. With political will, regulatory support and investment resources, we are positioned to advance resilience for the multifamily housing sector, and build a stronger and more resilient nation.

Have news to share? Send your links to [email protected] and we'll do our best to spread the word in this newsletter and on our LinkedIn page.

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