Slow-moving stimulus money will soon be available to low-income West Ward residents in the form of weatherization grants that will lead to savings on utility bills
Posted by: Noel Jones
One of our readers called my attention to a New York Times article this week highlighting reasons for the long wait for stimulus money in most states, including Pennsylvania. Soon after President Obama took office, $5 billion was set aside under the Recovery Act for weatherization of houses and apartments nationwide, for three reasons: 1. to cut our nation's energy waste, 2. to save money on utility bills for low-income residents, and 3. to create weatherization jobs for Americans. The problem is, that only 2% of the money that has been allocated has actually made it to the weatherization phase, even though the Recovery Act authorized spending of 50% of the money by December, 2009. Below is an article from the New York Time by Matthew L. Wald and Leslie Kaufman explaining the hold-up:
Hiring Freezes Hamper Weatherization Plan
The good news is, the bottle-neck seems to be starting to open up now, and we should get to
start seeing some tangible results this year, in the form of weatherization grants in the West Ward. I posted about this before, but since that post raised some concerns and questions, Sophia at the West Ward Neighborhood Partnership has provided some answers:
Q: How is the intake going for the weatherization grants? How many residents have applied so far?
A: The intakes are going well. There are intake workers from the Weatherization program at the WWNP office every Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. This will continue through March. We are working with Diane Reynolds , (Code inspector) Dan Linaberry, (Rental Inspector) Anita Mitchell , (EACC) Laura Accetta , (W&S), Dean Young (Teen Club) and Anna Barrese to get the word out. Approximately 35 intakes have been processed so far and I have been getting phone calls every day from residents who have heard about the program from a friend or family member.
Q: Has any of the work started, or will that not happen until it gets warmer in the spring?
A: The state budget mess did postpone the disbursement of federal funds by several months. CACLV is the agency receiving ARRA weatherization funds for Northampton Lehigh Counties Commonwealth Pennsylvania
Q: Is there any hope that middle-class residents will get to take advantage of the grants?
It is a shame that the income guidelines are so low, but what we are finding is that many senior citizens on a fixed income are eligible as well as many families with children. The income guidelines are based on gross income for the past 12 months. So if someone in a family is head of household and has been unemployed for several months they are likely to be eligible. Also, if a household has received heating assistance through the county (LIHEAP) or if there is someone in the household that receives SS disability income, that makes the household automatically eligible for the weatherization program.
Q: I heard that landlord's with low-income tenants are eligible. Do you know how the income for landlords is measured? Do you know how many landlords have applied that qualify so far?
The eligibility is based on the tenant’s income not the landlords. The landlord has to agree to the program and sign an understanding that they will not raise the rent for three years as a result of the increased value of the property due solely to the weatherization received. So far, four landlords have signed agreements for their tenant(s).
Q: Is there anything else that residents should know about this program?
Keep in mind that this program is in place to reduce the amount of fossil fuel used by our nation. Heating oil accounts for about 25% of the yield of a barrel of crude oil, the second largest "cut" after gasoline. (Wikipedia)
Below is a link to a website with some nice graphics:
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3 comments:
I read the NYTimes story but this but it is still kind of an "I told you so" moment for me. Regardless of whether the state laid people off due to the econimic collapse or not, their was never going to be enough staffing to handle this program.
Think about it for a minute...there is a fairly predictable amount of federal money coming through the system each year and a fairly predicatable level of staffing required to facilitate it. What did we think would happen when ten times or a hundred times as much funding is dumped on the system all at once. This was the bureaucratic equivalent of trying to take a cool drink from a fire hydrant.
DRL
Well put. And it wasn't even the same amount of people to administer all the extra money, it was LESS people to handle it because so many were let go.
But it's finally starting to come through now, and I predict that there will indeed be some modest job creation before year-end 2010, and then going forward. That's good news--we need the jobs.
In today's Express Times, there is an article on other stimulus money, much of it for energy conservation and maintenance, finally making its way through the pipelines to create local jobs:
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1267420018122900.xml&coll=3
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