Introduction &
Field Guide Overview

Introduction & Field Guide Overview

Preservation through Decarbonization
Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors

Affordable Housing Preservation doesn’t just mean protecting existing affordable homes from being lost to market-rate conversion, demolition, and rising rents.  It also means retrofitting existing buildings to improve quality of life for residents, extending the useful life of the buildings they live in, maintaining local ownership, and preserving community.

While there are a range of funding and policy tools available to support Preservation, these are complex and competitive and do not explicitly address decarbonization or resilience – critical issues that have been deprioritized relative more immediate issues. 

Decarbonization, which has long been positioned as a “nice to have,” is in fact a major component of the rehab work that many affordable housing properties now need, as mechanical, electrical, plumbing and building envelope systems reach the end of their useful life. 

And resilience is no longer a future concern – extreme heat is now the #1 public health risk in Los Angeles, and 30% of affordable housing units have no cooling of any kind. 

From a sources & uses perspective, decarbonization incentives can address a meaningful portion of a property’s rehab needs, while taking advantage of deep subsidies that are less competitive than traditional capital sources – and that don’t depend upon the financial condition of the property -- while producing a range of health and social co-benefits that can position a property for additional funding from other sources.   

These challenges are driven by seven interconnected pressures facing affordable housing in Los Angeles: Housing Affordability, Aging Buildings, Extreme Heat, Air Pollution, rising Utility Bills, increasing Regulation, and limited Access to Funding. Together they make the case for urgent action.

In an environment of limited resources and compounding challenges, affordable housing providers must think holistically and implement strategies that leverage resources to solve multiple issues at once.  Decarbonization offers a foothold.  This Field Guide is designed to help.

How is this resource different?

While several roadmaps and toolkits have been published, many of these are designed to apply to all building types, are not specific to a market, and/or are written from an external perspective.

The RLA Field Guide documents our partners’ experience over the past 3+ years and distills our collective learnings into an actionable process, with supporting resources, designed by and for local nonprofit affordable housing providers in the City of Los Angeles.

Purpose  

Decarbonization has been positioned as a separate issue from affordability… as a potential pathway of preservation for affordable multifamily housing. Preservation is greener, cheaper, and faster than new affordable housing construction.  

Using This Field Guide 

This guide offers a practical roadmap for planning and completing a building decarbonization project. Each section outlines a clear process that can be adapted to fit your organization’s capacity and property types. 

You will find tools, examples, and checklists drawn from real projects across Los Angeles to help you move step-by-step through this process. From building readiness and funding strategies to construction, tenant engagement, and long-term maintenance. By following these steps, your team can strengthen housing stability while contributing to a cleaner and more resilient city.