LABBC CASE STUDY

PROPERTY OWNER
Retirement Housing Foundation

PROPERTY TYPE
Affordable Multifamily

SQUARE FEET
250,575 GSF

Sponsoring Organizations

769k kWh

Energy Reduction in 2019

11.3%

Water Reduction in 2019

2020 Innovation Awards: Affordable Multifamily Performance Project of the Year Finalist

“The upgrades that SoCalGas and LADWP provided to Angelus Plaza will save the project and our residents hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next decade. We would never have been able to make these upgrades without their help.”

PERRY GLENN
Vice President of Affordable Operations, Retirement Housing Foundation

CHALLENGE

The Retirement Housing Foundation (RHF), a non-profit affordable housing provider, is dedicated to improving comfort and quality of all residents, while maintaining a commitment to sustainable innovation and reducing carbon emissions.  

RHF’s Angelus Plaza property, one of the largest housing and urban development (HUD) properties in the U.S. and a subsidized community for low-income seniors in DTLA, had not seen significant energy or water upgrades for years, as funding is limited.  

Driven by a need to reduce energy consumption, lower operational costs and provide more affordable energy at Angelus Plaza, RHF sought funding assistance and cost-effective efficiency solutions that would also modernize the facility and improve the health, safety and living experience for residents. 

STRATEGY

RHF partnered with their local utilities, SoCalGas and LADWP, which collaborated to offer Angelus Plaza combined gas, electric, and water efficiency financial incentives and services. This effort maximized program participation by accounting for different types of measures available, streamlining application processes, and jointly identifying a suite of thousands of efficiency measures that best met the property’s needs with the life of residents as a top priority.  

RHF’s facility’s engineering team and staff conducted strategic planning and methodical assessments early on to ensure that the projects could be completed on time and with the greatest efficiency, utilizing a Continuous Improvement approach that began with a comprehensive ASHRAE Level II audit to identify areas of opportunity. Through the suite of programs outlined, utilities helped Angelus Plaza install thousands of energy-efficient measures including boiler and LED retrofits. 

The joint-utility effort, and the single-point-of-contact that SoCalGas introduced to the project, were crucial to the projects’ success, as they coordinated with all stakeholders to ensure transparent communication and a smooth project procurement process. As the projects posed multiple logistical challenges associated with minimizing disruption to residents, many of whom did not speak English as their first language, the property’s staff, engineering team, and utility representatives worked in tandem to implement a comprehensive communication plan that involved using translators to help bridge the language gap and inform tenants on all measures being taken.

IMPACT

This extensive two-year, $1 million energy efficiency project is estimated to save 160,000 therms of natural gas (equivalent to taking 200 cars off the road each year) and reduce annual energy costs by over $150,000. The solutions implemented on the property and in-unit, like modernized space heating and lighting systems, will reliably increase the health, comfort and safety of residents.  

This collaboration between SoCalGas, LADWP and RHF enabled Angelus Plaza to develop and execute a project that not only saves energy and cuts operational costs in the process of modernizing equipment, but also provides a roadmap for achieving additional savings over time. 

This project’s process and success provides a model for how utilities can cater to various multifamily ownership structures and provide deep energy savings in the multifamily sector. The positive experience may help to lead the way for greater conservation measures to be implemented in other RHF communities in southern California.