WASHINGTON – This week, Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Adrianne Todman traveled to New York City to participate in its annual Climate Week NYC, the largest annual climate event of its kind that convenes leaders across sectors to advance climate resiliency and mitigation and accelerate efforts to combat climate change. Since Day One, President Biden and Vice President Harris tasked agencies with leading a whole-of-government effort to address climate and delivered the most ambitious climate agenda in history—including securing the largest ever climate investment, bolstering the clean energy workforce, strengthening the clean energy economy, and advancing environmental justice to ensure that the benefits of climate investments reach overburdened communities.

Under the leadership of Acting Secretary Todman, HUD continues to underscore its role as the leading government agency driving the future of America's housing and urban development industries—ensuring that no American is left behind. This includes prioritizing critical climate actions that help communities prepare for and equitably recover from natural disasters, significantly reduce energy use in HUD-supported housing by switching to low-carbon or zero-carbon sources and address disparities in exposure to environmental and health hazards for underserved communities.

Sunday, September 22
Acting Secretary Todman provided remarks at The New York Times: Climate Symposium “Housing More People in a Warming World,” where she discussed HUD’s efforts to harness innovative building solutions to meet the housing needs of people and communities nationwide. This summer, HUD has taken a number of actions to protect the families we serve from extreme heat, including new guidance for public housing agencies that will make it easier to request relief for excess utility costs.

Monday, September 23
Acting Secretary Todman attended the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York City. This annual convening brought together business, government, and civil society leaders to drive progress on climate resilience, inclusive economic growth and recovery, health equity, the full participation of women and girls, and humanitarian response efforts to crises around the globe.

The Acting Secretary visited a Brooklyn affordable housing complex managed by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), where she announced additional funding to assist public housing residents and new actions by the Biden-Harris Administration to reduce barriers to solar energy for lower income Americans. This includes solar energy incentives for housing authorities that allow more multifamily properties to install solar energy and updated guidance to expand solar energy benefits at HUD-supported properties.

HUD also announced key actions to protect more households from the damaging impacts of extreme heat and ensure all communities are protected from environmental and health hazards that may have long-term health implications. The Department released its Extreme Heat Playbook and launched an updated environmental justice site, both of which support the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Heat Strategy to coordinate a whole-of-government approach to addressing extreme heat in America through 2030.

Tuesday, September 24
HUD officials joined colleagues from the Department of Energy at the Climate Tech Commercialization Summit, providing remarks at a roundtable focused on the built environment, HUD’s important role in building decarbonization and why centering affordable housing in climate solutions is critical to an equitable clean economy transition.

Wednesday, September 25
Acting Secretary Todman provided remarks at the 2024 Annual Climate Capital Summit in New York City, where she spoke to hundreds of leading innovators, investors, executives, and policymakers to highlight HUD’s work to boost climate resilience and energy efficiency in low-income and disadvantaged communities. There, she announced that HUD joined the Departments of Commerce, the Interior, Agriculture, Labor, Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and AmeriCorps in signing onto a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance workforce development efforts and create opportunities for residents and community members to actively participate in the transition to a clean energy workforce.
Through this MOU, HUD is now the latest agency to join the American Climate Corps, a pioneering workforce training and service initiative launched last year by President Biden to create career pathways for good-paying jobs in the clean economy. HUD officials joined AmeriCorps in partnership with California Volunteers Fund in a celebration of the American Climate Corps.

Thursday, September 26
HUD officials joined colleagues from FEMA to tour a community resiliency project being led by the NYC Housing Authority in East Harlem. The project will ultimately make the Clinton Houses, and the surrounding area that includes the highest concentration of public housing developments in Manhattan, more resilient to natural hazards such as floods through nature-based, climate-adaptive solutions.

Friday, September 27
HUD released new guidance and resources to support the rapid retrofitting and weatherization of America’s affordable housing stock. This included a new Build for the Future Retrofit Guide to leverage funds from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act to preserve affordable housing, protect residents from climate hazards, and bring down the housing and energy costs for American families.

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