Milpitas Approves Financing For Clean Home Improvements

MILPITAS, CA — The Milpitas City Council has approved a measure that will give homeowners access to HERO financing, the largest residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) option in the country. HERO empowers property owners to make energy and efficiency improvements and pay for the upgrades over time through a voluntary, additional line item on their property taxes. Eligible HERO improvements, such as rooftop solar, energy-efficient windows, high-efficiency heating and cooling, and water capture systems, can result in lower utility bills, increased energy independence and greater home comfort for property owners.

“I commend the City of Milpitas for having the vision to see the incredible economic and environmental benefits that will accompany HERO’s adoption in their community,” said Robert Bendorf, Market and Community Development Manager for Renovate America. “Throughout California, PACE is helping homeowners save billions of dollars on their utility bills and equipping local governments with a vital tool to meet energy efficiency goals – a clear win-win.”

HERO’s adoption in Milpitas follows Governor Jerry Brown’s recent signing of two new laws that establish a landmark regulatory and consumer-protection framework for PACE financing. The companion pieces of legislation – AB 1284 and SB 242 – begin taking effect on Jan. 1, 2018, and significantly improve PACE financing by, among other things, strengthening contractor oversight, enhancing consumer disclosures, and requiring PACE providers to verify a homeowner’s ability to pay annual PACE assessments before extending financing.

These enhanced consumer protections build upon HERO’s industry-leading safeguards, such as live, recorded telephone calls to confirm financing terms with homeowners, written disclosures modeled on the federal “Know-Before-You-Owe": forms for mortgage lending and a guarantee that contractors do not get paid until homeowners certify that a project is done to their satisfaction. HERO also uses a data-driven contractor quality rating system that tracks customer satisfaction in real-time and removes contractors that fail to maintain excellent or good ratings. Renovate America shares the City of Milpitas’s commitment to holding contractors accountable and will foster this partnership accordingly to ensure our HERO contractors are aware of applicable city requirements.

Upgrades financed through HERO help homeowners save energy and water, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and support local jobs – all at no cost to local government budgets. Since HERO first became available in Santa Clara County in May 2014, owners of over 860 local homes have used it to make energy and efficiency improvements on their property. It is estimated that these improvements have helped create over 200 local jobs, many of which can’t be offshored or automated.

Additionally, HERO-funded energy-efficiency improvements completed to date in the county are on track to save area residents 137 million kilowatt hours of electricity over the expected useful lifetime of the products installed. That is enough energy to power over 15,000 homes for a full calendar year. These improvements are projected to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 36,800 tons over the useful life of the installed products – equivalent to taking more than 7,800 cars off the road for a year.

Homeowners interested in applying for HERO financing or who wish to learn more should visit renovateamerica.com/financing/hero/communities. Contractors interested in offering HERO financing can register at renovateamerica.com/contractors.

-Announcement by Renovate America; Image via Shutterstock