Innovative Form of Financing Now Available in Calabasas After City Council Votes
CALABASAS, Calif. – The Calabasas City Council voted unanimously in late August to allow their homeowners to access Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) home improvement financing through industry leader Home Run Financing (HRF). Calabasas joins more than 350 other cities, towns and counties in California in approving the Program. The City of Los Angeles was an early adopter of the PACE program and Calabasas joins more than 35 other cities in Los Angeles County in making HRF PACE Funding available to homeowners.
“Calabasas has always looked for ways to support our residents and businesses, and the CSCDA Open PACE Program is an additional resource that truly impacts our community,” said Calabasas Mayor Peter Kraut. “By making energy-efficient improvements more accessible, we’re helping residents save on costs, businesses modernize their spaces, and our entire community move toward a cleaner, more sustainable future.”
“Homeowners across the Los Angeles region, including in Calabasas, need funding options to make their homes more energy efficient to cope with more frequent and more intense drought and excessive heat,” said Home Run Financing CEO, Robert Giles. “PACE can help residents fund needed home upgrades and can help build the community’s resiliency in the face of these challenges. The program can also help more homeowners lower their utility bills by adding solar panels, energy efficient HVAC, and other efficient and renewable energy systems.”
California homeowners are also looking for ways to reduce utility bills in the face of rising energy costs, both by installing renewable energy systems like solar panels, and by installing more efficient (less leaky) windows and doors and roofs. As well, drought remains a perennial problem in California so more and more homeowners are looking for additional ways to fund home upgrades to save water. PACE Financing is specifically designed to be used for such water and energy saving projects.
PACE Financing is available only through registered and trained contractors. State legislation and regulation by the state Department of Financing Protection and Innovation (DFPI) provides robust consumer protections for homeowners, including ability to pay tests; homeowner identity verification measures; recorded confirmation of terms calls conducted in English or Spanish to ensure the homeowner understands the financing; a further recorded call in English or Spanish to verify the project is complete before the contractor gets paid; third-party inspection of completed projects; rigorous contractor oversight and training; and additional protections for the elderly and low-income homeowners, among several other stringent consumer protection measures.
In the nine years Home Run Financing (previously PACE Funding Group) has been operating in California, the company has provided more than $600 million in PACE financing for more than 19,500 home improvement projects across the state. These projects have set in place greenhouse gas reductions, over the lifetime of the upgrades, of 230,500 metric tons, equivalent to taking almost 53,800 cars off the road for a year or powering 31,000 homes for a year. The water efficiency upgrades have set in place the conservation of 253 million gallons of water, equivalent to filling 12,000 backyard pools or taking 10 million five-minute showers. HRF-financed projects have created 5,400 good-paying jobs across the state.