Innovative Form of Financing Now Available in Lincoln After City Council Votes
LINCOLN, Calif. – The Lincoln 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).
The Placer County Board of Supervisors approved the program in 2020 and voted in 2023 to extend the program for another five years in unincorporated areas of the county, showing confidence in PACE and an appreciation for its benefits for Placer County homeowners. The county’s largest city, Roseville, and the county seat, Auburn, have also approved PACE financing for their residents, as has the City of Rocklin.
“PACE is an important program that gives residents more financing options to upgrade their homes and businesses to save on energy costs.” said Lincoln Mayor Holly Andreatta. “We are thrilled to be a partner with PACE and look forward to this option being available to our residents should they choose to use it.”
PACE financing can be used to fund renewable energy, and energy and water efficiency upgrades, as well as earthquake resiliency. Lincoln joins more than 350 other cities, towns and counties in California in making PACE Funding available to homeowners.
“It’s great to see Lincoln homeowners gaining this additional option for making needed energy, water, and safety upgrades,” said Home Run Financing CEO, Robert Giles. “I’m glad another city is adding PACE to its toolkit to help its residents make their homes and communities safer.”
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.
Drought remains a perennial problem in California so more and more homeowners are looking for additional ways to fund home upgrades to save water. 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. PACE Financing is specifically designed to be used for such water and energy saving projects.
The PACE financing model provides the strongest consumer protections of any home improvement financing product, with 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.