Clean Energy Districts of Iowa Celebrates a Big Win: Iowa Finance Authority Adds Green Building Certification Incentives to Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program
The Clean Energy Districts of Iowa (CEDI) announces a victory for affordable housing residents, energy justice, and Iowa communities: the Iowa Finance Authority (IFA) has formally added Green Building Certification incentives to the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP). Beginning with the 2026 award cycle, affordable housing developers who pursue recognized green building standards will be more competitive for LIHTC developer tax credits.
This policy change is the result of three years of coordinated advocacy, technical analysis, and statewide organizing by CEDI under the leadership of the Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition (Midwest BDC), supported by multi-year subgrantee engagement across Iowa’s local Clean Energy Districts. CEDI’s statewide project framework focused on relieving energy burden for affordable housing residents, advancing electrification, and elevating community-based voices, played a role in building momentum for this outcome.
A Multi-Year Campaign to Make Affordable Housing Truly Affordable
Through successive statewide efforts in 2023, 2024, and 2025, CEDI coordinated local Clean Energy Districts to:
- Participate in IFA’s Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) hearings
- Recruit dozens of signers from across the housing, community development and clean energy sectors
- Educate partners, developers, and local leaders on the QAP process and its importance
- Advocate for electrification and energy-efficient construction
“These changes are in part a credit to CEDI’s persistent work,” said Joleen Jansen, CEDI Senior Network Coach and project manager for the statewide initiative. “Through our involvement with the Midwest BDC Affordable Housing Working Group and our subgrantee network, we pushed for the QAP to include these green certifications for builder tax credits. Affordable housing is not affordable if residents are burdened with energy costs. New buildings and renovation projects must incorporate efficient, renewable energy technologies and electrification from the start.”
Why It Matters: Energy Burden Relief, Healthier Homes, and Long-Term Affordability
Research and experience across Iowa show that energy burden—high utility costs relative to income—is a big threat to housing stability. Moving to more efficient, all-electric homes powered by increasingly clean electricity delivers significant economic and health benefits for low-income renters.
Midwest BDC’s recommendations emphasized that:
- High-efficiency electric technologies, such as heat pumps, make homes more comfortable and provide affordable heating and cooling.
- All-electric homes protect residents from the volatility of fossil fuel prices, which disproportionately harm low-income households.
- Building electric from the start is up to four times more cost-effective than retrofitting later.
- “Electric-ready” measures, such as 240V outlets for heat pump water heaters and solar-ready conduits, can be added during construction at minimal cost, saving thousands in future retrofit expenses.
Despite developers expressing confidence that new projects were “increasingly all-electric,” IFA data show that from 2019–2023, only 38% of awarded projects were all-electric. This demonstrates the critical role of incentives and the importance of the changes now adopted into the LIHTC program.
Jacob Serfling, Director of Policy & Projects for the Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition and architect of the recommendations, praised the collaboration:
“Midwest BDC has had a consistent message to state housing finance agencies for 5 years: Energy bills and health impacts determine how affordable a home is just as much as rent, and that should be reflected in how states incentivize low-income housing developers. Making that case to the Iowa Finance Authority was a multi-year process that began in 2023. Having a state partner that didn’t get discouraged and stuck with it when our first few efforts didn’t achieve the desired result was essential—I truly don’t believe we would have seen this year’s progress in Iowa’s developer tax credits without that consistency and persistence.
Clean Energy Districts of Iowa was an ideal partner. They educated themselves and others, asked smart questions that strengthened our message, showed up in public proceedings, represented communities across the state, and successfully recruited more stakeholders to our cause. This is what advocacy collaborations are meant to look like.”
Building a More Equitable Iowa
CEDI’s advocacy reflects a broader vision shared by local Clean Energy Districts statewide: an Iowa where
- No household is energy-burdened.
- All new and existing housing is powered by clean, zero-emission energy.
- Developers prioritize efficiency, electrification, and renewable energy.
- Clean energy benefits reach the residents who need them the most.
The new IFA incentives move Iowa significantly closer to that future.
Posted: December 11, 2025
