The Multifamily Affordable Solar Homes (MASH) Coalition consists of a number of affordable housing organizations with a long history of developing, owning and managing affordable housing in the state of California.  Coalition members have been significant participants in the CSI low-income Multifamily Affordable Solar Housing (“MASH”) program and plan to build on their stellar record of providing solar electric power to their low-income housing communities through the existing MASH Program and AB 693 (Eggman). Collectively, the Coalition members own and/or manage approximately 80,000 affordable dwelling units that house approximately 250,000 low-income tenants in California.

The MASH Coalition was born out of necessity.   The MASH Coalition’s constituents were participants in the CPUC’s MASH Program with numerous additional projects on the MASH waitlist, and therefore were directly impacted by AB 217, the Assembly bill that allocated $108 Million toward the MASH and SASH Programs in California, and the rulemaking proceedings instituted by the Public Utility Commission (CPUC or “Commission”) to update the program and allocate the new funds.   In late 2013, the members of the MASH Coalition and others became aware of entities reserving MASH rebates and getting paid MASH rebates that did not comply with California Public Utilities Code Section 2852 (link to letters).  After making some phone calls, our constituents wrote letters to then-CPUC President Peavey to alert him and the other Commissioners of the fact that MASH money was being paid to non-qualified affordable housing.  The Coalition continued to pursue this issue, through formal proceedings, letters to the Commission and meetings with staff, finally winning reforms to the program to ensure that only properly deed-restricted low-income housing, as that term is understood in the public policies of the state, receive the public funds allocated for that purpose. Meanwhile, Coalition members continued to reserve MASH rebates in anticipation of the release of new MASH money associated with AB 217. 

This activity caught the eye of the White House.  As a result, the MASH Coalition members collectively made commitments to President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and were part of a White House announcement about the same on May 9, 2014.  (See attached White House press release).  The MASH Coalition members accounted for 30 MW of solar photovoltaics (PV) on multifamily affordable housing counting toward President Obama’s 100 MW stated goal!

In July 2014, the MASH Coalition became a party to the Distributed Generation proceeding (R.12-11-005) at the CPUC, specifically to comment on the multifamily affordable housing point of view in the development of the new MASH rules that were promulgated as a result of AB 217.  The MASH Coalition provided comments and replies to the CPUC Energy Division’s staff proposal (see attached) and provided comments and replies to the Commission’s proposed decision released on December 15, 2014 and enacted on January 29, 2015.  The MASH Coalition was very pleased that Commission adopted many of its suggestions and significantly helped to shape the structure of the new MASH Program funded through AB 217.  The MASH Coalition was mentioned 53 times in Decision 15-01-027, and the point of view of multifamily affordable housing was a driving force behind the Commission’s decision.

Based on the lessons learned in the AB 217 proceeding at the CPUC, the MASH Coalition partnered with Everyday Energy and Assembly Member Susan Talamantes Eggman to draft legislation that would ultimately provide $1 Billion toward Multifamily Affordable Housing Solar Roofs.  MASH Coalition co-coordinator Randall Simmrin was the only multifamily affordable housing advocate to speak on behalf of AB 693 at the California Senate’s Utility and Commerce Committee hearing.  (See Mr. Simmrin’s testimony here).  Assembly Member Eggman worked closely with the MASH Coalition and formed a coalition of environmental justice advocates, social justice advocates, and the MASH Coalition (housing sponsors and advocates) and AB 693 passed both the Senate and Assembly.  On October 8, 2015 Governor Brown signed AB 693 into law.  (See link here).

The CPUC has added the implementation of AB 693 to the NEM 2.0 proceeding.  The MASH Coalition joined the NEM 2.0 proceeding as a party in July 2015 and provided proposals and comments to Energy Division Staff’s NEM Proposal as it relates to the definition of “disadvantaged communities” in August 2015 and September 15, 2015.    The MASH Coalition then responded to the Commission’s call to provide comments in response to the question of how to implement AB 693 within the NEM 2.0 framework, once again advocating for the multifamily affordable housing point of view.   Most recently, the MASH Coalition provided comments on January 7, 2016 in response to the Commission’s proposed decision in the NEM 2.0 (see link).  The final decision, adopted by the Commission on January 28, 2016, defers the design and implementation of alternatives for disadvantaged communities – the key issue for affordable housing – to a second phase of the proceeding. The MASH Coalition will participate actively, to continue to ensure that the multifamily affordable housing point of view is strongly represented. 

The MASH Coalition will continue its advocacy as the rules are developed to implement AB 693.  It is clear that AB 693 will attract many newcomers to this proceeding now that $1 billion of new funding has been secured for solar on multifamily affordable housing. The MASH Coalition welcomes the robust policy debate, and will continue to provide its insights on the development of AB 693 based on its long history of helping to shape affordable housing rules and legislation as it relates to the deployment of renewable energy, job training, and energy efficiency, toward the ultimate goal of building programs and practices as needed to bridge the “Green Divide” and make the benefits of solar power available to all Californians.