MassDevelopment has issued an $11.3 million tax-exempt bond to the Malden Housing Authority. The bond is the state agency’s first in support of a public housing authority exclusively for financing energy efficiency improvements.

The Malden Housing Authority will use proceeds to renovate and improve buildings and units in several multi-tenanted developments to reduce energy and water consumption. East Boston Savings Bank purchased the bond.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides incentives to federally funded public housing authorities that execute Energy Performance Contracts with an Energy Service Co. (ESCO) to reduce consumption. One of these incentives, the freezing of the federal subsidy related to current utility consumption levels up to 20 years, permits authorities to retain the value of reduced consumption or savings for the term of the subsidy freeze, allowing the savings to pay the related debt service. The ESCO for the Malden Housing Authority’s proposed projects, Siemens Industry, will manage the energy conservation renovation work and perform HUD-required annual measurement and verification of reductions in energy consumption.

"At a recent forum at the Malden Public Library, we heard about the need for a variety of housing options in the Metro North region," Marty Jones, MassDevelopment president and CEO, said in a statement. "We’re pleased to support the Malden Housing Authority with this low-cost financing to improve homes for low-income families, reduce the cost of utilities for the Authority’s developments and to support the Commonwealth’s goal of improving energy technologies and efficiencies, resulting in reduced cost."