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Pennsylvania Performs Survey of Household Satisfaction, Finds Weatherization is a Positive Experience for Clients

Rebecca Stewart — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:30:00 GMT

Due to a large influx of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) funds, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) decided to perform a survey measuring the Weatherization Assistance Program’s (WAP) impact of services on participants and their satisfaction with the result. This survey provides a basis for future evaluation and sheds light on areas of potential improvement as well as data critical to the successful expansion of the Pennsylvania Recovery Act WAP program.

DCED received 7,044 completed survey forms from households weatherized between July 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011. Significant findings include:

Over 75% of participants were pleased with improvements to their homes, contact with local agencies, and the quality of work completed.
Over the survey period, participant satisfaction either remained steady or increased.
Employees got the highest marks, with the highest satisfaction levels in the areas of “friendly employees” and “installers of the energy efficient products.”

More than three-quarters of respondents strongly agreed that they had a good experience, that the local agency understood their needs, that the contact with the local agency was excellent, and that the improvements will make their homes more comfortable and more energy efficient.

Consumer education is a critical component of any weatherization program. Nearly all survey respondents (98%) indicated that they changed their behavior due to weatherization services. The actions taken most often include turning off lights and fans when not in the room, setting the thermostat lower at certain times of day, and doing fuller loads of laundry.

Handwritten comments show the impact and success of the program, with submissions like, “I was very pleased with the work that was done. They also took the time to fix things I did not know about. I couldn't ask for a better group of guys to do the work. They were friendly and very professional. Thank you so much.”

Performing surveys such as the one by DCED provides invaluable feedback to states and local agencies to ensure services are adequately and fully provided, and that participants are happy with the work done. We applaud the Pennsylvania DCED for their proactive approach to evaluating WAP performance and their excellent program.

You can read the full report here.

Click here for more information.

Legislative Update - WAP FY'13 and FY'14 funding

Alice Gaston — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:00:00 GMT

The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) has been in the spotlight on Capitol Hill over the last month with prodigious legislative activity around funding for FY 2013 and FY 2014, including:

(1) March 22nd – The Reed-Collins Amendment on the Budget Resolution in the Senate adding $50M to the WAP budget for FY 2014 passed in the Senate;

(2) March 28th – Thirty four Senators signed onto a Reed-Collins letter urging the Secretary of Energy to use his discretion to increase WAP funding for the balance of FY 2013 from the Continuing Resolution Level of $68 million;

(3) April 24th – Representatives Richard Hanna (R-NY) and Paul Tonko (D-NY) crafted a similar letter in the House to the Secretary of Energy asking for an increase in the WAP FY 2013 allocation;

(4) April 24th – Representatives Hanna and Tonko additionally circulated a letter to the House Subcommittee on Energy and Water Appropriations asking for an increase in FY 2014 funding for WAP. The letter was signed by over 60 House Members; and

(5) April 26th – Senators Reed and Collins wrote a letter to the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee seeking $230M for WAP in FY 2014 — that letter is now finalized and signed by 40 Senators following our all-out effort the past few days.

To date there has been no decision on FY’13 funding from the Department of Energy though a decision is expected any day now.

Click here for more information.

President Obama releases Fy 2014 budget request

Alice Gaston — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:33:00 GMT

President Obama released his Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 budget request today, nearly two months later than normal. The budget focuses on the middle class while reducing the deficit and replacing the sequester with more specific budget cuts and tax increases. You can read President Obama's introduction to the budget here.

The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) received an allocation of $184 million. This figure is up from the FY 2013 allocation of $139 million, but below the $210 million 34 Senators requested of the Administration earlier this year (see letter here). The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) received an allocation of $3 billion, the same as in FY 2013. The entire Department of Energy request including WAP can be found here. The LIHEAP request is found in the Health and Human Services request here.
Click here for more information.

The Standard Work Specifications for Single-Family Home Energy Upgrades are now available…at your fingertips!

DOE — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 16:03:00 GMT

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are pleased to announce that the Standard Work Specifications for Single-Family Home Energy Upgrades are now available via a user-friendly online tool, with specifications for manufactured housing and multifamily homes to follow.

Standard work specifications (SWS) define the outcomes of quality work, setting uniform expectations that can be leveraged for energy audits, scopes of work, quality control efforts, and training. This new tool developed by NREL enables utility administrators, weatherization program managers, training centers, home energy upgrade contractors, and weatherization workers to find, email, print, and save individual specifications to streamline their work.

The current tool is a beta version, with future versions to include a Spanish translation of the SWS, and expanded features such as an advanced search, application programming interface (API), and a how-to video.

And stay tuned for the national availability of the new Home Energy Professional Certifications, which are guided by the Standard Work Specifications for Single-Family Home Energy Upgrades

Explore the Standard Work Specifications online tool now!
Click here for more information.

Legislative Update: WAP in the FY'13 Budget

Alice Gaston — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:15:00 GMT

Today, President Obama signed the Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the federal government running through the end of the federal fiscal year (FY) in September 30, 2013. By and large, the CR pushed forward funding from the last fiscal year forward into this one. For the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), this means the low FY’12 budget allocation of $68 million was upheld for FY’13 despite the fact that the rationale behind the low FY’12 allocation—namely unspent Recovery Act and program funding—no longer holds true. The Department of Energy does have the discretion to increase this allocation within its own budget; however, at this time there has been no decision on a final WAP allocation for FY’13 by the Department.

Work on the FY’14 budget has already begun here in Washington. Though usually released near the State of the Union address in late January or early February, the President’s Budget request for FY’14 will likely not be released until later this spring. Thirty-seven Senators have already signed a letter in support of increasing WAP funding to no less than $210 million in Fy’14. (See list here).

In addition to this, last week, Senators Reed (D-RI) and Collins (R-ME) offered an amendment to increase funding for the WAP starting in FY’14 to the FY’13 Budget Resolution. To boost Weatherization, the Reed-Collins Budget amendment adds $50 million in budget authority for FY’14 in Function 270 (where WAP funding is housed). It subtracts a corresponding amount in Function 920 in FY 14 to pay for the $50 million add. The smaller numbers in the attached amendment are adjustments to outlays reflecting the spend out of funds. Also, it adds a provision in the Deficit-Neutral Reserve Fund to Invest in Clean Energy and Preserve the Environment that includes low-income weatherization and energy efficiency retrofit programs.
Click here for more information.

Recap of the Orientation for New and Existing Weatherization State Directors & the 2013 NASCSP Mid-Winter Conference:

Alice Gaston — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:29:00 GMT

Orientation: Monday & Tuesday

The Mid-Winter Orientation plays a critical role in the success of not only the State administrators of WAP but of the network as a whole. These two days provide comprehensive information that is unparalleled and the opportunity for members to network with colleagues and get answers to their most pressing questions.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) staff leads the WAP Orientation. Attendees heard how the program operates and their responsibilities as WAP State administrators. DOE staff began with an overview of the legislative and statutory elements of WAP, while providing updates on changes (and predictions/expectations of changes) that will occur in 2013. Network partners like Joel Eisenberg, from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, explained how WAP has the highest impact for users with a high-energy burden. In addition, this year Cynthia Simonson, of Simonson Management Services (SMS), kept things lively by rewarding trivia winners with Girl Scout cookies during their discussion of monitoring and state plans. Kelly Cutchin, also of SMS, reviewed how to write technical guides and manuals as well as health and safety guidance to ensure success for each and every home weatherized.

Orientation continued on Tuesday with presenters speaking about program management; regulatory items, such as the OMB Circulars; and monitoring. The highlight of the day was the demonstrations of WAP’s new initiatives and online resources. DOE even got in on the action and presented WAP Orientation with an open source online training program through the National Weatherization Training Platform. In addition, NASCSP’s Jenae Bjelland, Director of the Healthy Homes Initiative, gave attendees an overview of how the initiative ties in with the work they’re already doing and showcased the training and technical assistance online tools and resources via www.WxPlusHealth.org.

NASCSP Mid-Winter Conference:

Wednesday:
During the WAP committee meeting, Bob Scott, Director of Energy Services at NASCSP, gave out Weatherization Day awards to States who held events or got Governor’s Proclamations, recognizing the efforts of our members. WAP members also got a legislative update on pertinent issues like sequestration, fiscal year 2014 funding, and the political picture here in Washington DC. There was also time to collect questions and concerns to share with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and with the network. These questions are critical and will likely lead to some productive discussions during Thursday’s Federal Perspective sessions.

In addition to the committee meetings, Jenae Bjelland, Director of the Healthy Homes Initiative at NASCSP, held a general session about the Weatherization Plus Health initiative and shared the features available at the WxPlusHealth.org website and demoed the new Weatherization Plus Health Mobile App, which walks technicians through health and safety issues commonly seen in low-income homes. The app should be downloadable in the near future. Lynette Praster, from Pennsylvania, walked State directors through how they decided to start a Weatherization Plus Health approach in her State and the process through which they have integrated services across programs.

Thursday:
This year, the WAP track started off with a new format—regional roundtable discussions. Attendees discussed common issues and potential resources, as well as questions to ask our federal DOE partners later in the day. A session on work quality focused on new DOE initiatives in addition to veteran WAP Director Cal Steiner’s effort to move the workforce forward and ensure a superior product. The afternoon included a discussion with DOE staff. NASCSP members followed up on the questions generated from the morning’s roundtables and received an update on changes and innovations that are coming.

Friday:
The focus in the morning session was on looking at the WAP in a new funding era and pursuing leveraging partnerships. Federal partners from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) were on hand to discuss the give and take between WAP and Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) while members discussed their strategies for dealing with a changing fiscal landscape and efforts to ensure WAP remains relevant. NASCSP Weatherization Plus Health Consultant, Lisa Kesecker, introduced the soon to be available Income Generation and Leveraging Manual, which will provide a guide to grantees in finding new funding sources, securing partnerships, and moving us forward. Stay tuned – we will let you know when the new manual is available.

Click here for more information.

EVENT SUMMARY: Strategy for Action to Advance Healthy Housing

Alice Gaston — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 13:53:00 GMT

On Monday, February 4th, the federal Healthy Homes Work Group (HHWG) held an event at the National Building Museum to launch the new Advancing Healthy Housing: A Strategy for Action. The Strategy lays out the goals and priorities of the HHWG to advance healthy housing initiatives for the next three to five years nationwide. The event also highlighted the publication of HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing’s new radon testing and mitigation requirements for Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured multifamily mortgage applications for new construction and significant rehabilitation, and certain FHA-insured refinancing programs. These important steps show that the federal government is taking home health seriously and Weatherization Plus Health is ready to step up to the plate.

The event featured leaders from the six federal agencies who make up HHWG, as well as non-profit partners focused on energy, health, and housing issues. The agencies that created The Strategy introduced themselves and provided an overview of the five goals of the Strategy:

Goal 1: Establish Healthy Homes Recommendations
Goal 2: Encourage Adoption of Healthy Homes Recommendations
Goal 3: Create and Support Training and Workforce Development to Address Health Hazards in Housing
Goal 4: Educate the Public about Healthy Homes
Goal 5: Support Research that Informs and Advances Healthy Housing in a Cost-Effective Manner

Speakers emphasized the effect that healthy housing initiatives have on low-income families by improving their health and safety, as well as the complementary role that the low-income Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) can play. David Poneman, DOE Deputy Secretary and Anna Garcia, Program Manager for DOE Office of Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs highlighted the thousands of people WAP put back to work while weatherizing over one million homes during the Recovery Act period. They also noted WAP saves families in the range of $200-$400 in income that can then be used for other necessities like food and medicine. Other partners, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), applauded DOE and WAP’s unheralded commitment to energy efficiency and existing health and safety component. Attendees took time to recognize WAP Furnace Specialist Carl Harvey’s life-saving work – truly an example of WAP’s impact and reach.

WAP is a key player in the advancement of healthy housing initiatives, touching more low-income homes than any other program. To learn more about how WAP works with healthy homes, visit WxPlusHealth.org.

Please watch a video recording of the event. The federal Advancing Healthy Housing: A Strategy for Action and the Radon Notice will be live soon.
Click here for more information.

WeatherizationPlusHealth.org

Alice Gaston — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:53:00 GMT

Introduced fall 2012, the Weatherization Plus Health web portal (www.wxplushealth.org) provides valuable data, resources, and tools to connect low-income community energy and health providers, as well as citizens, with much needed services and resource information to help impact community health planning.

WxPlushealth.org key features:

Find a Provider
A web based mapping tool created for this site is enabling member community services providers to locate easily providers of complimentary services such as remediation of radon, lead paint, or mold. With the location of the community action agencies, health home grantees (including radon, lead, and asthma) and even training providers, Find a Provider is helping to make community collaboration and Weatherization Plus Health more effective.

Geo Explorer
NASCSP’s advanced spatial data exploration tool allows users to overlap map data relevant to the mission. With filtering tools, all data from Find a Provider, the service areas of Community Action Agencies, and a wide range of demographic and political data, users can easily identify spatial trends. Data includes: Radon zones, climate zones, non-rural areas, home type, median income, poverty information, owner occupancy, age of structure, and total household count.

Also included in the site are training events, best practices, and technical expertise resources. This is the first comprehensive complication of WAP and Healthy Homes Resources on the web. Check it out today: www.wxplushealth.org.
Click here for more information.

BPI’s New Building Science Principles Certificate of Knowledge Available

Alice Gaston — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:11:00 GMT

BPI launched its eagerly anticipated BSP Certificate online exam and companion Reference Guide last month for professionals who need to know how homes work but don’t need the hands-on technical skills required of BPI certified professionals. Passing the 100-question online exam verifies a basic knowledge of building science. The Reference Guide helps prepare candidates to understand how various systems of the home interact to maximize energy efficiency and protect occupant comfort, health and safety. The BSP certificate requires no hands on training, and is not a BPI Professional Certification. Learn more and register for the exam at www.bpi.org/certificate.
Click here for more information.

Looking back on Weatherization

Alice Gaston — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:05:00 GMT

State & Local Energy Report is proud to present the documentary film Filling the Gaps: The History of the Weatherization Assistance Program. Produced in partnership with the National Association for State Community Service Programs, it tells the complete story of the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). Through interviews with the pioneers of WAP, the film shows how a modest plan to put people back to work grew into a sophisticated, technologically driven program that's played a major role in advancing building science.

Filling the Gaps looks back on the full history of WAP, from the Carter administration to the present, pausing for an in-depth look at ARRA that celebrates its achievements and counters the misconceptions. At its core, Filling the Gaps is the heartwarming story of the hardworking men and women of weatherization who have dedicated their lives to helping those who need it most.

To view the trailer of the video on the State and Local Energy Report website, click here.

From the State and Local Energy Report.
Click here for more information.

Weatherization Plus Health Training in 2013

Alice Gaston — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:07:00 GMT

The Weatherization (Wx) Plus Health initiative improves the health, safety, and energy efficiency of homes for low-income families through the coordination of services and programs within communities. The Department of Energy (DOE) and National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP) invite you to find out more about this innovative initiative and ways for you to get involved at the Wx Plus Health Trainings.

AGENDA WILL FEATURE:

Overview of Wx Plus Health
How State & local agencies can get involved and enhance services
Funding opportunities available for Wx Plus Health initiatives
Preview of the future Wx Plus Health website
Best practices to address barriers, develop solutions, and implement Wx Plus Health

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

CAA Executive Directors, Planning Staff, and Board Members
State and Local Wx Staff
State and Local CSBG Staff
State CAA Associations
Lead, Asthma, and Pest Management Staff
Healthy Homes Providers

Wx Plus Health Regional Trainings will take place next year in:

Kansas City, MO l March 12-14, 2013
Columbus, OH l April 22-24, 2013
Portland, ME l May 7-9, 2013
Bozeman, MT l July 16-18, 2013

Click here for more information.

Senators Sign Letter in Support of WAP

Rebecca Stewart — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 09:08:00 GMT

This month, Senators Reed (D-RI), Snowe (R-ME) and Bingaman (D-NM) circulated a letter in the Senate asking President Obama to restore WAP funding to no less than $210 million for Fiscal Year (FY’14) as well as continue funding the State Energy Program (SEP) at $50 million. The text of the letter can be seen below.

Over 37 Senators signed onto the letter, the most number of Senate signatories on a letter of this kind in recent memory (list of signatories at the end of this post).

LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT

November 19, 2012

The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to request your support for two key programs within your Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14) budget proposal: the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and the State Energy Program (SEP). Specifically, we urge you to ensure that your budget submission provides no less than $210 million for WAP and $50 million for SEP.

Since 1976, the Weatherization Assistance Program has helped more than 7 million low-income families save money by improving the energy efficiency of their homes, freeing up finite resources for other essentials like food and medicine. Indeed, weatherization saves households on average up to $400 per year on their heating and cooling bills. In addition, this successful program supports American construction, small business, and manufacturing jobs, and a study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory found that for every $1 invested in the program, weatherization returns $2.51 in benefits to households and society. Restoring funding for WAP to $210 million will ensure that all states have the resources to help reduce the burden of energy prices on low-income families.

The State Energy Program allows states to assist with the development of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, and effectively works with the private and public sectors to produce significant returns. Another study, also by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, found that every dollar of SEP federal funds are leveraged by $10.71 of state and private funds, and result in $7.22 in annual energy savings. We respectfully request that this program be funded at $50 million.

We recognize the challenges on the discretionary budget for FY14, and believe in the prioritization of programs that support jobs, assist with the nation's economic recovery, and help meet important goals like improving efficiency and reducing pollution. In this spirit, we believe that investments in programs like WAP and SEP that reduce costs for individuals, businesses, and society, and create greater economic competitiveness for our nation, should be maintained.

Thank you for your attention to and consideration of these important requests.

Signatories
Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
Max Baucus (D-MT)
Mark Begich (D-AK)
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Benjamin Cardin (D-MD)
Bob Casey (D-PA)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Chris Coons (D-DE)
Al Franken (D-MN)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)
John Kerry (D-MA)
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Carl Levin (D-MI)
Joe Lieberman (I-CT)
Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
John Rockefeller (D-WV)
Bernard Sanders (I-VT)
Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
Tom Udall (D-NM)
Jim Webb (D-VA)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Click here for more information.

Weatherization Day 2012

Alice Gaston — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:27:00 GMT

Another successful Weatherization Day has come and gone. This year, eighteen different states held events or public information sessions, including ten Mayoral and Governor's Proclamations from states as diverse as North Carolina, Idaho, and Kansas. While Hurricane Sandy delayed some events on the East Coast, New York got longtime WAP supporter Representative Paul Tonko out at a site demonstration blowing sidewall insulation.

A list of Weatherization Day events, news clips, invitations, and proclamations can be found on waptac.org here. If you do not see your event listed, or have more information you'd like to share including pictures or invitations, please email info@waptac.org.

Holding site demonstrations, writing letters to Governors or Representatives, and doing public information campaigns are not activities reserved solely for Weatherization Day. In the coming months, support for WAP nationwide will be critical as we go through the lame duck period of Congress and beyond into the 113th Congress. For tips or ideas, http://waptac.org/Public-Information.aspx.

Click here for more information.

New Online Tool Helps Improve Safety and Energy-Efficiency of Low-Income Homes

NASCSP — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:23:00 GMT

WASHINGTON — The National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), launched a new website today, WxPlusHealth.org, to connect low-income families with much-needed services and funding to reduce their homes’ health hazards and energy costs. The website provides vital tools and support for the network of service providers, vendors, and community services agencies that comprise the Weatherization Plus Health initiative?a nationwide effort to improve the health, safety, and energy-efficiency of homes for low-income families.

WxPlusHealth.org brings together two complementary but otherwise isolated Federal programs to improve the effectiveness of both. The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) helps lower home energy costs, while the healthy homes initiative seeks to mitigate the health hazards associated with substandard housing. DOE recognizes that both efforts require a similar set of services and the home improvements that both provide can be done more efficiently in coordination.

“Most low-income families are eligible for both programs, because of this overlap we can now deliver more comprehensive services to vulnerable families and make local agencies even more effective. That’s going to make a huge difference in a lot of peoples’ lives during these tough times,” said Steve Payne, President of the National Association for State Community Service Programs Board of Directors and Director of the Department of Commerce, Community Services and Housing Division in Washington.

The website uses advanced, interactive mapping technology to connect WAP and healthy homes providers to each other and to their clients. Besides finding local service providers, users may access demographic and climate data, find service territory and political boundaries, identify training opportunities, and more. For the agencies and businesses of the Weatherization Plus Health initiative, WxPlusHealth.org provides extensive resources to expand their technical expertise through training programs, networking opportunities for sharing best practices, and online video and photo galleries.

“In addition to searching for partners in the community, agencies can also view health and housing data within their service area, enabling them to adjust programs to address needs that are currently underserved,” stated Timothy Warfield, Executive Director of NASCSP.

“WxPlusHealth.org is a really creative way for these Federal programs to maximize the impact of the funds they spend. In these difficult times, it’s important that necessary services reach the people who need them as quickly as possible,” declared Payne.
Click here for more information.

New Jersey’s BCCAP Expands Training at Weatherization and New Green Technology Training Center

DOE — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:39:00 GMT

Bergen County Community Action Partnership (BCCAP) celebrated the opening of a $1 million Weatherization and Green Technology Training Center in Garfield, New Jersey, on October 4. State and county legislators and representatives from federal, state, county, and municipal governments joined students, family members, and staff at the grand opening.

During the ceremony, 80 students from a U.S. Department of Energy-funded weatherization training program were honored for their achievement. Expanding on its 20 years of experience in vocational training, BCCAP has conducted weatherization training for the past two years and looks forward to continuing its efforts in this labor-demand field.

“Our students feel our training has helped them get their lives in order and gain the skills they need to get jobs. Now that they are working, they are so grateful. Our training program brings many positive changes to the community,” says Figen Tabakci, Director of Education and Training for BCCAP.

BCCAP converted a warehouse into the new weatherization-specific training facility that now includes a diagnostic house equipped with working boilers, furnaces, and hot water heaters. Practice labs and classrooms with the latest computer technology are also available to students. A $1 million grant provided by the U.S. Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program paved the way for the building improvements. The County of Bergen, through the Bergen County Improvement Authority, played an important role by authorizing tax-exempt bond financing for the construction.

“Our students have been energized by the new facility because it makes a difference in how we can teach weatherization. They are very proud of it,” says Ms. Tabakci.

BCCAP offers a full spectrum of adult training programs in its state-licensed vocational training school, complemented by English as a second language classes and a New Americans Program. BCCAP has been a leader in the community for 45 years, responding to residents’ needs and creating programs that encompass energy efficiency and sustainability, financial literacy, sponsorship of a federal credit union, special needs housing, and real estate development.
Click here for more information.

Three weeks until Weatherization Day!

Alice Gaston — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:29:00 GMT

Weatherization Day is on October 30th, just three short weeks away! Now is the time to complete your own State plans, urge sub-grantees to finalize events, and think about other ways to recognize the day in your state.

A Governor's Proclamation is a great way to celebrate Weatherization Day and show your State's and Governor's support for the program. State and Governor advocacy was key to securing WAP funding in 2011 and may prove critical in this time of tight fiscal policy. We encourage you to work with your Governor's office to secure a Proclamation and show that your state values the WAP.

Last year, nine states issued Governor's and mayoral proclamations, including Washington State, Idaho, Ohio, Oregon, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Michigan (the proclamations can be seen here). Not sure you can get a Proclamation in time for Weatherization Day or having trouble planning an event before the election? No problem! Weatherization Day events work year round.

Tools to help draft and implement Governor's Proclamations are available on WAPTAC.org under Public Information. Templates are available here, and step by step instructions for how to get a Proclamation are in the Weatherization Day Toolkit here. Still not sure how to go about getting one? Email waptac at info@waptac.org for support.

Click here for more information.

One Million Homes and Counting!

Alice Gaston — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:45:00 GMT

One million homes weatherized and counting! Thank you to everyone who participated in the millionth home celebration last week. NASCSP would particularly like to thank the South Central Community Action Partnership (SCCAP) and the Community Action Association of Lehigh Valley (CACLV) for their work in putting together site demonstrations to mark the event.

In Idaho, technicians demonstrated blower door technology, a computerized energy audit, lead safe weatherization techniques, infrared scans of a wall with insulation gaps, and CO testing on a gas range. The event continued with a luncheon and speakers at the Twin Falls City Park. Speakers at the event included Ken Robinette, Executive Director of SSCAP; Greg Lanting, Mayor of Twin Falls; Rep. Stephen Hartgen, Idaho House of Representatives; Shawn Barigar, CEO of the Twin Falls Chamber of Commerce; Leon Mills, Twin Falls County Commissioner; Bob Scott, Energy Services Director at NASCSP; and other stakeholders, including representatives from Idaho State government, Idaho Power, and GreenFiber Insulation were present.

In Pennsylvania, Sealair, Inc. demonstrated air sealing and cellulose dense packing for exterior walls on a 1905 home that lacked any insulation. Speakers at the event included homeowners Andrew and Lee Ann Garton; CACLV representatives; Donald Mathis, President of the Community Action Partnership; and Alice Gaston, WAP Program Assistant at NASCSP.

Some press highlights:

The one millionth home celebration is just the beginning in highlighting the success of the WAP. October is Energy Awareness Month and October 30th is Weatherization Day, a perfect time to let your community, Congressional and state representatives, partners, and media know how successful your program is. Need a few ideas on how to celebrate? Get ideas from past years on waptac.org here. Please send any information about events, proclamations, etc. to info@waptac.org so we can collect and place on waptac.org for future reference!

Let the celebration begin!

Click here for more information.

Legislative Update: Sequestration

Brad Penney — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:53:00 GMT

The White House has released a report detailing the impact of the $109 billion in cuts that will be imposed by the sequester in January if Congress does not meet certain spending reduction targets (i.e. $1.2 trillion in cuts over the next ten years). According to the report, the cuts would result in an 8.2% across the board spending cut in all non-exempt, non-defense discretionary spending. Both the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) and the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) fall into this nondefense discretionary spending category and would be cut from their current levels in the Continuing Resolution — $677.3 million and $68 million respectively.

There is a good chance Congress will undo the sequestration because of the concerns about the impact of the cuts on defense. As the sequester is written, defense cuts cannot be taken from personnel or military bases, leaving the cuts to fall disproportionally on the discretionary portion of the defense budget. If the automatic sequestration is undone, Congress must adopt another plan that cuts $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next 10 years, so this is far from settled.
Click here for more information.

Upcoming DOE WAP State Manager's Meeting

Alice Gaston — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 16:11:00 GMT

It’s already been two years since the last Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Assistant Program (WAP) State Manager’s meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. This year, WAP State Managers will be meeting in Atlanta, Georgia September 12th through 14th to discuss changes to the program and the future of the WAP. Sessions include the Federal Perspective on upcoming guidance, health and safety requirements, and national evaluation results; WAP Work Quality on quality assurance; WAP Training and Certification; Weatherization Plus 2015; LIHEAP and WAP; and Weatherization Plus Health.

You can follow the conference on a new website the National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP) created: www.nascspevents.org/ that will have real-time updates, photos, and information about the conference. You can also follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #nascsp12 and #weatherization. Conference presentations and materials will be posted following the event here.

See you in Atlanta!
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Menda Richardson back at DDOE WAP after tour in Iraq

Alice Gaston — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:09:00 GMT

We are happy to report that Menda Richardson is back at the District Department of Energy (DDOE) Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) after a tour in Iraq as part of the US Army Reserve! We sat down with Menda to discuss her time in Iraq and life back in Washington, DC:

What was your experience in Iraq like?
Menda: My experience in Iraq was a good one. I met people that I will never forget. Some of us keep in touch. My area of focus was called “Operation Clean Sweep” which allowed me to travel quite a bit over there. Each area was just as hot as the last area visited. The unit of over 300 soldiers was called the 77th Sustainment Brigade and its purpose was to support in the closure of the Iraqi bases. We were successful and a part of history. I hate that so many people lost their lives over there. I was able to see for myself how easy that could happen. It changed me in many ways.

How does it feel to be back in Washington?
Menda: It is great to be back. I missed family and friends to include my bear of a dog. She would not let me out of her site, once I returned. My family went through serious medical drama while I was gone. Beyond all the sadness, the family is doing very well.

Is DDOE glad to have you back?
Menda: Yes and I have resumed my old position. The notice to my office was very short prior to my departure and Lance Loncke was pulled from his position to fill in while I was gone. He had worked with weatherization previously and had a better understanding of the policies and regulations. One of the biggest adjustments was between both me and my staff reconnecting. I was truly missed and that is a good feeling.

We are truly grateful to have Menda back working on the WAP safe and sound. Everyone please join us in thanking Menda for her service and her work in the District. Thank you Menda!
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Energy Efficiency: A Bright Idea

Rebecca Stewart — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 13:25:00 GMT

These days, it seems like all anyone talks about is jobs and an ever gloomier economic outlook. It has even become a meme to respond to a question or begin a sentence with an ever-so-ironic, “well, in this economy . . .” Congress is mired in partisan bickering and a clear solution for how to solve the myriad very real problems facing the nation remains hazy. However, there is one sound investment out there that has always been and remains to be a winning combination of economic stimulator, job creator, wallet-fattener, and all around good investment: energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency, while routinely invoked as an easy way to save a few bucks or make your home more comfortable (never mind that energy audits can find life-threatening carbon monoxide leaks or mitigate asthma triggers) also strengthens the economy as a whole by creating demand for small businesses and contractors to provide services. Additionally, retrofits provide immediate and visible savings to the home or business owner, who can then spend those dollars on other goods, thus reinvesting in the local economy. Additionally, every bit of energy we avoid using lessens the pressure on our dwindling non-renewable energy supplies and makes investment in potentially environmentally degrading fracking, foreign oil from hostile countries, or other unsavory options unnecessary. This avoided expenditure also means that harmful chemicals are not released into the atmosphere, hastening climate change. Energy efficiency can also provide a “bridge” between our old energy economy, dependent on coal, oil, and natural gas, and a new energy economy, using renewable energy sources. So why is the public not clamoring for more?

The fact is, the initial investment in building retrofits or high efficiency vehicles can seem dauntingly high and, as any homeowner knows, building improvement projects can be time consuming and frustrating. Plus, the types of building retrofit measures installed are often invisible and may seem not worth it, despite the proven savings. The Energy Information Administration estimates that 41% of total U.S. energy consumption comes from buildings, 22% of which comes from homes. This energy usage is comprised of over 70% of national electricity and 50% of natural gas consumption. This is a huge untapped market energy savings can total 25% (approximately $500 annually) for residential and 50% for commercial properties. One factor holding back large retrofit projects is the tight financial markets, which have made it harder for businesses to get financing and so business owners have shifted their priorities elsewhere.

President Obama has demonstrated his continuing support of broader energy efficiency efforts, requesting a 52% increase in energy efficiency for FY2013. While this is a step toward energy independence, much more remains to be done. Efforts to stimulate demand should include a wider array of financing options for home and business owners; tax rebates and credits for the purchase of larger goods, such as energy efficient appliances and high efficiency vehicles; and a clear message that, while an “all-of-the-above” strategy for energy is expedient in the short-term, renewable energy is clearly the sustainable option and energy efficiency provides an important stepping stone on the way to a clean energy future.
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Weatherization Plus Health: The Connecticut Efficient Healthy Homes Initiative

Ryan Ward — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:34:00 GMT

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Weatherization Plus Health Initiative provides a national platform for increasing partnerships among organizations serving the health, housing, and energy needs of low income families at the state and local levels. One example of such a partnership is the Connecticut Efficient Healthy Homes Initiative (CTEHHI), which brings together a major Connecticut utility company, a children’s hospital, various state agencies, local governments, and nonprofit partners to create an effective referral network to cost-effectively weatherize homes and improve health and safety conditions.

This article is part of an ongoing series from the National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP), which is implementing Weatherization Plus Health on behalf of DOE. Each piece will highlight best practices and guides at the intersection of energy, housing, and health. NASCSP and DOE believe that Weatherization Plus Health can be a vehicle for showcasing the talents of the Weatherization Assistance Program’s (WAP) network and bolster the case for more funding for the WAP network as well as organizations that tackle housing-related health hazards. By simultaneously addressing energy efficiency and health and safety in low income homes, CTEHHI provides a blueprint for collaboration that puts the WAP network’s creativity and innovation on full display.

The Connecticut Efficient Healthy Homes Initiative
CTEHHI, led by The United Illuminating Company (UI) in partnership with the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund (the Fund) and Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P), is a great model for agencies looking to implement a Weatherization Plus Health approach. It has mobilized partners, including local governments, nonprofits, and healthcare providers, that provide weatherization, lead abatement, and other housing-related services to comprehensively address energy efficiency and health and safety issues in homes throughout Connecticut. As a result, UI and its partners are confident that they are stretching every dollar for the benefit of their low income clients, while putting the partnership in a better position when competing for federal funding for health, housing, and energy needs.

How It Started
The Connecticut Children’s Medical Center’s Lead Action for Medicaid Primary Prevention (LAMPP) project is an early intervention and prevention program that educates the public about the dangers of lead poisoning and remediates lead hazards in low income homes. Funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), LAMPP has made over 1,400 homes lead safe since 2003. Through previous work with community action agencies across the state, LAMPP was familiar with the WAP program and the health and safety measures it can complete. They also knew that UI and CL&P ran a low income weatherization program funded by ratepayers through the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund.

LAMPP was convinced it could use new partnerships with UI and CL&P to leverage funding for additional health and safety measures and, along with other partners, build a sustainable model for addressing all of the health, housing, and energy needs of its low income clients. After approaching UI and encouraging them to apply for a DOE Weatherization Innovation Pilot Program (WIPP) grant, UI competed successfully for this funding to streamline programs between partners, thereby cutting costs where services overlapped. By partnering with UI and CL&P and integrating energy and health services, LAMPP has since been able to secure additional grant funding from HUD to continue its good work.

How Does it Work?
UI and CL&P are the lead partners in CTEHHI because of their capacity to address energy efficiency and major health issues. Intake, processed through many different partners, is used as a means to refer low income clients to UI and CL&P. CTEHHI sends a team to a client’s household to perform both an energy assessment and a healthy homes checkup that includes client education on identified home health and safety issues. The team installs energy conservation measures, such as energy efficient light bulbs, simple air sealing measures, and water-saving measures. Based on the results of the energy assessment and health and safety checkup, one of two scenarios occurs:

UI generates a work order and a weatherization crew re-enters the home to perform a more comprehensive installation of weatherization measures, such as furnace tune-ups and insulation, as well as health and safety measures, following DOE WAP Health and Safety Guidance 11-6. A third party then completes a final inspection of the work.
If there are instances where the weatherization program cannot address certain issues, leading to a deferral, UI generates a work order in consultation with partners to cost effectively address health and safety concerns that cannot be addressed through UI and CL&P’s weatherization program. Once partners address these concerns, the agency generates a referral so that UI and CL&P crews can proceed with completing weatherization, including health and safety measures, as described above.

Partnerships
Developing mutually beneficial partnerships is at the core of CTEHHI’s success. Current partners of CTEHHI include Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust, the City of New Haven, the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut Department of Public Health, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, L. Wagner & Associates, NauVEL, NeighborWorks New Horizons, and Yale-New Haven Hospital. Three roles for partners offer models for best practice:

Intake and outreach, including providing referrals into CTEHHI
Providing guidance on program structure and process, leading to partner investment in success
Referrals to and from CTEHHI for health and safety

To create and maintain fruitful partnerships, it is essential that the larger group understands each organization’s mission. In 2010, UI started its first meeting with a “status assessment” that queried all partners on questions, such as:

What health and safety interventions do you provide?
How many units can you contribute?
How much funding do you have available?
How do you rank your priorities?

The status assessment informs CTEHHI’s use of referrals among its partners. In addition, CTEHHI makes a deliberate effort to reach out to all partners to update them, maintaining a sense of community and trust. “Chris [Corcoran, Project Manager of LAMPP] and I know each other’s phone numbers by heart,” Julia Hatton, Project Manager of CTEHHI at UI said, stressing that these types of personal connections can be transferred to the work the group performs collaboratively. Partners also take turns hosting a bi-monthly meeting to keep each other informed of their work, show off their facilities, and discuss strategies for moving the initiative forward.

These meetings also provide an opportunity to reaffirm commitment to the initiative, as partners are reminded why it is beneficial for their organization to be involved; namely, it enhances their capacity to offer additional client services, making their interventions more efficient and cost-effective. CTEHHI ensures that the referral process is easy by equipping partners with tools, including brochures and necessary forms for admission into the program, as well as flow charts describing the process their clients will go through when they reach CTEHHI. This provides partners with the assurance that UI and CL&P will take good care of their clients. Finally, the meetings offer a chance to discover additional cost-sharing opportunities.

Challenges
An early focus on program development enabled CTEHHI to confront a series of potential barriers often faced by other weatherization programs around the country. These include:

Varying income eligibilities for different programs
Varying interventions that are achievable depending on client location and available funding in a client’s jurisdiction
Administrative and logistic differences between programs

To address the question of differing income eligibility guidelines, CTEHHI created a chart that provides an easy visual for partners to determine program qualifications. CTEHHI also created a verification system so that proof of income presented to partnering programs is sufficient for CTEHHI’s purposes of determining client eligibility. In addition, LAMPP and CTEHHI make joint presentations to educate partners about the various programs available for clients and their income eligibility differences.

To facilitate referrals, CTEHHI created a health and safety checkup to be performed at the initial weatherization visit that includes referral opportunities for additional health and safety interventions.

Lowering barriers that separate programs is an ongoing effort. Part of CTEHHI’s strategy has been to demonstrate to their vendors and contractors that they are already a healthy homes program. When UI and CL&P crews realized that their work includes healthy homes measures, it generated excitement. Weatherization crews already receive training that includes Lead Safe Weatherization and EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule (regarding lead paint); enhancing this capacity in the area of healthy homes, crews have been offered cross training through the National Center for Healthy Housing’s Healthy Homes Essentials course. LAMPP and other partners have provided energy efficiency education to their healthy homes crews to show the health and safety work being completed during weatherization. Cross training on both the energy and health sides of this collaborative has strengthened partner engagement.

The Path Forward
CTEHHI’s approach has created a comprehensive strategy for energy, housing, and health. WAP agencies can learn from their example of partner engagement and thinking through potential barriers in expanding program capacity.

Often housed in Community Action Agencies, WAP agencies have a host of partners within their own agencies that they can engage for referral opportunities, intake purposes, and client education. They can also collaborate with utility companies, faith-based groups, and other nontraditional partners to pursue any opportunity to expand client services. To build the program capacity necessary to secure funding for a comprehensive initiative, WAP must engage their partners effectively, plan ways to overcome barriers, start small with achievable initiatives, and tout their successes with data. Through Weatherization Plus Health and by following the lead of model programs like CTEHHI, WAP agencies can demonstrate their capacity for innovation as part of the nation’s largest program that reduces energy bills and improves health and safety in the homes of low-income families.

For additional information about potential partners in utilities in your state, visit the LIHEAP clearinghouse website at www.liheap.ncat.org and select “State Snapshots”.

For More Information:
Department Of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Plus Health Initiative, visit :
www.nascsp.org/Weatherization-Plus-Health.aspx

SEE THE ORIGINAL POST AT STATE AND LOCAL ENERGY REPORT
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WAP @ the White House: Quick Facts from the Event!

Alice Gaston — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:58:00 GMT

NASCSP would like to thank everyone who participated and attended (either in-person or via the live stream) the White House’s Weatherization Supply Chain Industry Event on June 15th! Additionally, we know there were a lot of numbers and statistics given today that you might have missed, so here are some quick facts from the event provided by the Department of Energy.

WAP’s Impact on American Families

Over 7.3 million families have been served by the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP)
Low-Income families, on average, spend 15% of their income on energy costs
Reducing energy costs means these families have more money to spend on food, medicine, and other essentials

WAP’s Impact on American Workers

25,000 living-wage jobs are supported by WAP
Workers are highly trained and make up the largest energy efficiency retrofit workforce in the nation
These workers form a foundation of skilled individuals to support the growth of a private home energy retrofit industry

WAP’s Impact on American Businesses

Over 10,000 local, American businesses are supported by the activities of WAP
WAP provides a marketplace for innovation in the in the energy upgrade industry and supports the growth of American businesses

You can watch video of the event on waptac.org here: Part 1 & Part 2.

Source: DOE’s The Weatherization Assistance Program: An American Industry handout

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PY 2011 Weatherization Funding Survey now available

Alice Gaston — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:47:00 GMT

The NASCSP 2011 Program Year (PY 2011) Funding Survey is now available on waptac.org here.

The NASCSP WAP Funding Survey is the only comprehensive measure of all funds, including non-DOE funds, used in the Program. Each year, the survey catalogues the funding and production levels for each Grantee of the Program as well as the source of that funding including the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), utility funds, and state funds among others.

Some highlights from this year include:

An estimated $1,088,197,305 will be available to Grantees of the WAP PY 2011 (April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 for most Grantees and July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 for other Grantees) in regular DOE, LIHEAP, and Other funds, such as utility funds.
A national network of Grantees, local agencies, and private contractors will use these annual grant funds to weatherize an estimated 175,722 low-income homes.
In PY 2011, the WAP will leverage approximately $835,770,559 in federal, Grantee, and private funds, or approximately $3.31 in federal and non-federal resources for every dollar invested by DOE.
Grantees may budget a portion DOE funds as “leveraging funds” to be used in initiatives to garner additional funding from sources outside of the traditional network. In 2011, 17 Grantees designated $2,236,685 for this purpose, an increase of $126,501 over 2010, as well as $10,145,630 of Recovery Act funding. When compared with Other funding, this represents a match of 1,0632 percent, which shows that the WAP network leveraging activities have been highly successful. These figures include all Other funds, such as those from utility companies, State general funds, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and rehabilitation grants, but do not include LIHEAP funding.

The composition of funds changes over time, the below graph shows how the distribution of DOE, LIHEAP, and Other funds has changed since 2001.

Past year’s funding surveys are also available on waptac.org here.

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Energy Out West

Jim Gunshinan — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:31:00 GMT

The Energy Out West conference is held every other year and began in 1996 when a group of people doing weatherization work in the Northwest thought they could help each other do it better. The current president of Energy Out West (EOW) is Mimi Burbage, who should be familiar to readers of Home Energy and anyone in weatherization. Mimi brings that independent, Alaska, straight talk style to whatever she does, from heading the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation to her work for EOW. This year the conference is in Boise, Idaho, which some people call the Northern Austin and I can see their point. It’s not just about potatoes around here. Good food, good music, and great public art are in abundance.

The core conference began this morning, after coffee and scones, with some introductions and welcome by Carol Gates, from DOE’s Golden Field Office. Carol recounted some of the successes of the last few years and WAP’s part in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. Here are some brag facts:

• More than 700,000 homes weatherized that will save $6.6 billion over the life of the measures; or $350 million each year.
• WAP ARRA efforts created the third highest job numbers, at 13,230 as of the 4th quarter of 2011.
• 377 MBtu of energy saved over the life of the measures; or 19 million MBtu per year.

The keynote speaker was Chris Gardner, the real life version of the man the actor Will Smith played in the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness.” He is funny, wise, original, and very memorable. He does a much better job of being himself than Will Smith did. He somehow integrates a very healthy positive self regard, honesty, compassion, and deep humility. Unique and inspirational.

It was a full day and I didn’t come close to taking in everything that was offered. Sue White of American Indian Professional Services, Inc., as she has done for years, talked about the financial side of running a weatherization agency. (She recieved the EOW President's award—see photo.) Thomas Brunet of California American Water put the fear-of-drought in all his listeners. He highlighted Monterey, California for using half as much water as they used only several years ago, through the outreach he did to encourage conservation, and by the city implementing a tiered payment system. The city uses about 2.5 kWh to move a unit of water from the source to the user. Compare that to LA, which uses almost 7 kWh to move the same unit of water. Then Bob Scott of the National Association of State Community Services Providers (NASCSP) depressed us, but not too much, by recounting how poorly the WAP program is being treated by the current dysfunctional Congress. He announced free beer at the reception after his talk, provided by Saturn Resources Management, and promised more hope for tomorrow.

For the original post on homeenergy.org, please click here.
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DOE Backs Four New Professional Certifications

Sam Daugherty — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:57:00 GMT

Four new weatherization and home energy professional certifications will be introduced in June by the Building Performance Institute, Inc. (BPI). These voluntary certifications cover the most common job classifications in the weatherization and home energy upgrade industry: energy auditor, retrofit installer, crew leader, and quality control inspector.

BPI will pilot written and field practical exams in June. Registration for these exams is now open online at www.bpi.org/pilot. Scheduling of pilot exams will begin in May. Eight hundred people are sought for the initial testing.

The results of the pilot test cycle will be used to set passing scores for the national exams. Candidates who take the initial exams and meet passing requirements will be among the first group of professionals to earn these certifications. In the fall, BPI expects to give the exams across the country.

"The emphasis is on field experience—being able to demonstrate practical ability to do the job. It's not about taking a class and taking a test. It's a demonstration of experience and the quality of work," says Josh Olsen, policy adviser for the Weatherization Assistance Program, U.S. Department of Energy.

The new credentials will meet the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) 17024 standard, which is the international benchmark for personnel certifications across all industries. Under ISO 17024, each new certification is developed and administered using international best practices, such as cross-disciplinary peer review and industry validation of technical materials.

The U.S. Department of Energy and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed the framework for these certifications in partnership with the Weatherization Assistance Program. They will not replace or interfere with professional certifications in the building trades. They are intended to support the four most common whole-house home performance job roles.
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Tips for Starting a Healthy Homes Program

Rebecca Stewart — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:04:00 GMT

NASCSP’s healthy homes staff has recently completed its Weatherization Plus Health conference swing to six different regions across the country. A key component of these conferences was a “Promising Practices” panel session, which provided audience members with an opportunity to question presenters on how they got their initiatives off the ground. Many presenters were able to motivate attendees to begin work on healthy homes initiatives in their communities, convincing them that creating the capacity to expand their reach and the services they offer doesn’t have to be complicated. Below are some key points for the creation and sustainability of a successful healthy homes program.

1. Don’t reinvent the wheel:
One of the most common mistakes organizations make when trying to incorporate healthy homes into their programs is trying to do too much too soon. Organizations have to take a sober look at what is achievable within their means, and aim for those goals first. By starting small you can get buy in from staff and those responsible for helping implement new program objectives. Often these small goals include ramping up client education efforts, and coordinating cross training between partner organizations. These strategies usually result in an extremely efficient way to provide healthy homes interventions. By creating cost-effective, comprehensive solutions concerning a few small goals, agencies can improve their capacity to take on a bigger workload, and as a result, plant the seed for future grant money.

2. Develop Partnerships:
Relying on the knowledge of partners is the best way to create the capacity needed to more comprehensively address the needs of low-income families. One organization cannot have the expertise in all areas of healthy homes. In order for a healthy homes initiative to work, it’s critical that the right people perform the right tasks. Therefore, it is important to partner with as many organizations as possible, creating an effective referral network that can truly provide a hand up to low-income families. Sharing the workload among partners is critical to maintaining buy in and excitement for new initiatives.

3. Data Collection:
The most compelling way to argue that your initiative is successful is by proving that you are getting significant bang for your buck. This requires a data collection/tracking system that can measure homes completed and health improvements. Many of the presenters said they began tracking data with in-depth questionnaires administered to clients prior to providing services. After homes were serviced, they would then administer a series of follow up calls to track the level of client health improvements over time. This allowed presenters make the case that they were in a position to ably manage scarce resources.

4. Start Now:
Some cuts in funding for weatherization and healthy homes grantees are likely for FY 2012. Those programs who can comprehensively meet the needs of clients with fewer resources will shine the brightest. Since implementing these initiatives takes time for planning, obtaining buy-in from staff and partners, and developing tools to measure the success of new programs, it is best to go ahead and evaluate what can be achieved now, and work toward obtaining those goals. Integrating a healthy homes component into State and local weatherization programs will be an effective way for the Weatherization Assistance Program to further prove its adaptability and sophistication. The time to begin is now.
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One-Touch: Saving Money and Improving Health Through Collaboration

Lynne Snyder — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:59:00 GMT

When resources are scarce, leveraging program dollars through coordination of housing-related programs can improve outcomes for clients and programs alike. This is at the heart of One Touch, a model for collaboration between energy conservation services, healthy homes programs, and housing rehabilitation efforts that is generating early successes around the country.

When the National Center for Healthy Housing launched One Touch with the City of Boston in 2005, targeting the neighborhoods of Dorchester and Roxbury, they focused on:

• Well-known causes of ill health and disability in children,
• Low-cost interventions that offer a big return on investment, and
• Improving efficiency through coordinating services delivery, so that a household has one intake or “touch” rather than many interactions with different agencies.

For Boston children, housing-related health and safety issues such as asthma, lead poisoning, and falls in the home could be addressed through relatively low-cost and effective measures. These included referrals for smoking cessation for residents, integrated pest management instead of using pesticides, weatherization to improve air sealing and insulation, and addressing moisture build up through ventilation and minor home repairs to fix leaks.

The Boston pilot demonstrates the value of the One Touch approach for clients, agencies, and funders. Lowering high rates of asthma and lead poisoning improves the quality of life and life chances of children, while promising cost savings to the state Medicaid program. Installing energy-saving appliances and conservation measures reduces home energy bills, lessening financial burdens on households and improving indoor air quality at the same time.

A great example of the success of One Touch Boston is 7 Sussex Street, a single family brick rowhouse purchased by an income-eligible family using HUD HOME and private financing. Through the Residential Development Program of the City of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development, city program staff and NCHH advisors walked through the development of a rehabilitation work plan, producing a set of specifications that contractors successfully implemented within the budget constraints. Coordination at the point of intake for the housing unit itself –the preparation of a scope of work for rehabilitation –reaped benefits in terms of greater energy efficiency, lower bills, and better health for children. The Boston effort also involved work with the City’s Department of Neighborhood Development to incorporate healthy homes building practices into the City’s rehab specification.

With funding from HUD’s Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention and support from the US Department of Agriculture, entities are scaling up and piloting One Touch in three new locations: the city of Manchester, New Hampshire, the counties of Merrimack and Belknap, New Hampshire and Omaha, Nebraska. These locations focus on coordination and referrals during intake, using three new tools and approaches:

1. Short checklists, providing an energy and health checkup, that add 15- 40 minutes to intake (varies by project as checklists are tailored to meet local needs);
2. New client education; and
3. Expanded scope of work for housing repairs.

Both New Hampshire community pilots use One Touch checkup forms for homes visited by WAP or Head Start to determine the opportunities to leverage program services through referrals. The chart below details the needs of homes determined in the initial checkups performed by Merrimack Belknap:

Intervention Need	Number of Units
WAP	91 units
Asthma	24 units (17 with children, 7 with Adults)
Lead	47 units
Pests	12 units
Moisture	63 units
Smokers	12 units

In addition to agreeing to use the energy and health checkups as part of intake, the New Hampshire pilot partners began to negotiate Memoranda of Understanding among the health, housing, and energy programs to facilitate referrals on behalf of clients at the point of intake. Partners also agreed to expand the scope of repairs permitted under selected programs, for example, adding moisture and integrated pest management interventions to weatherization.

Partners at the Omaha site include a mix of public agencies similar to the New Hampshire and Boston pilots (health, housing, and energy), as well as new public partners (the Omaha Public Power District, and the DOE Better Buildings project), and nongovernmental organizations including the Healthy Kids Alliance, Habitat for Humanity, and Rebuilding Together. The initial group of 40 homes in Omaha’s One Touch project participate in reEnergize, an energy upgrade funded through an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (ARRA and local funds). Over the summer of 2011, an expanded group of partners began using the energy and health checkups together with referrals and coordinated services provision.

Each year in both New Hampshire and Nebraska, public programs that deliver health and energy services help thousands of low-income families. Publicly administered housing renovation and rehabilitation programs benefit hundreds more. Using the One Touch approach to identify areas where coordination and referrals for healthy homes and energy interventions are cost-effective builds working relationships among partners committed to improving housing for low-income families, promising both economies of scale and program sustainability.

Sources:

Kate Kuholski, Ellen Tohn, and Rebecca Morley. Healthy Energy-Efficient Housing: Using a One-Touch Approach to Maximize Public Health, Energy, and Housing Programs and Policies. J Public Health Management Practice, 2010, 16(5) E-Supp, S68–S74.
Ellen Tohn (Tohn Environmental), Beverly Drouin (NH DHHS), Ryan Clouthier (Southern NH Services). “One Touch Healthy & Energy Efficient Housing New Hampshire Pilot,” Unpublished The National Center for Healthy Homes with Peggy Hegarty-Steck, NCHH; Naomi Mermin, Naomi Mermin Consulting; Ellen Tohn, Tohn Environmental Strategies. “Boston One Touch Action Steps for Healthier and Greener Homes for Boston Families”, (2008). Available at www.nchh.org
Presentation, NASCSP Weatherization Plus Health Regional Conference, Portland, ME (May 2011). Available at nascsp.org .
Personal Communication with Ellen Tohn, Tohn Environmental Strategies, October 2011.

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Weatherization Plus Health: The Next Step for WAP

Rebecca Stewart — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:57:00 GMT

The connection between health and housing seems clear: we spend most of our time inside our homes, and our surroundings have a great impact on our well-being. What may be less obvious is the connection between health and the home’s energy efficiency. Preventable medical bills, rising energy costs, and wages lost due to illness cost Americans hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Nearly six million households have moderate to severe physical housing problems, placing them at increased risk for illnesses and injuries. On top of that, low-income households are disproportionately affected by high energy bills; these households spend 14% of their income on energy costs, compared with 3.5% for all other households. The lowest of low-income households spend far more than that.

The Weatherization Plus Health initiative, implemented by the National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP) on behalf of DOE, seeks to establish a link between the low-income Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and healthy-homes programs nationwide, ensuring that homes served by these programs are safer, healthier, and more energy efficient by bridging the gap between these complementary services. I work for NASCSP as the project coordinator for energy services, which supports both WAP and Weatherization Plus Health, assisting in this project.

WAP’s mission is to reduce energy costs for low-income families—particularly for the elderly, people with disabilities, and children—by improving the energy efficiency of their homes while ensuring their health and safety. For many years, innovative service providers have creatively leveraged resources to deliver more comprehensive services than are allowed under DOE WAP regulations. For example, the Bellingham, Washington, Opportunity Council has leveraged a wide variety of resources to bundle services and enable employees to address residents’ specific health problems and provide appropriate health-related home retrofits. (See “Case Study: Opportunity Council of Bellingham, Washington.”)

Another leader is the city of Baltimore, Maryland, which must turn away some weatherization applicants because its housing stock is too degraded. To combat this problem, the city launched several projects to partner with health organizations, create a coordination team, facilitate roof replacements, and digitize files to merge applications and ensure that they are reviewed quickly, helping to coordinate resources and services.

Addressing Health and Safety
WAP already considers health and safety when retrofitting a home; it is a cornerstone of the program and is incorporated into the mission statement cited above. The program’s comprehensive whole-house approach recognizes that a house consists of interdependent parts and that any modification of these parts should take into account the interaction between the occupants’ behavior, the building envelope, and the mechanical systems. Modifications to one part of a house can lead to unforeseen consequences in another.

Health and safety was not a main focus of WAP until the early 1990s, when the use of blower doors and advanced air-sealing techniques became common. As WAP technicians developed their expertise in air sealing, the potential impact of these procedures on indoor air quality (IAQ) became apparent, spurring more emphasis on health and safety issues. Significant air sealing can affect IAQ through moisture, by-products of combustion, air pressure and backdrafting, and airborne chemicals and pollutants. Poorly performed weatherization can exacerbate existing problems or even create new ones. Conversely, properly performed weatherization can solve some problems and create a healthier indoor environment by conducting combustion appliance zone (CAZ) testing and ensuring a proper draft.

Using DOE and other WAP funds, weatherization technicians can usually address health and safety issues related to heating systems, work lead safe, solve some moisture problems, correct minor electrical and plumbing problems, add or repair ventilation, and provide educational material to residents. In fact, WAP has been a leader in instituting the widespread use of these techniques and standardizing processes for low-income homes nationwide. Although this approach has led to the safe weatherization of millions of homes over the 30-year history of the program, the focus on energy efficiency restricts the use of funds to address more extensive, comprehensive remediation and mitigation projects, including those for asbestos, lead, radon, or structural deficiencies. The result is that projects of this kind are often deferred.

This is not likely to change any time soon and it is not likely that its mission will be broadened to include major health and safety projects (see “Evaluating DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program,” HE, July/Aug ’10, p. 22). Energy savings, and energy savings per dollar invested, will remain the major focus of all the metrics analyzed in the current national WAP evaluation. Health and safety measures cost money but typically provide no energy savings. In order to qualify for WAP funding, health and safety expenditures must meet a stringent criterion—namely, that it is necessary to eliminate the hazard in question before, or as a result of, the installation of weatherization materials. This restriction is reasonable; funds are limited and WAP’s primary mission is to promote energy conservation.

Case Study: Opportunity Council of Bellingham, Washington
What does a WAP and healthy-homes collaboration look like? The following case study will give you a good idea of how it works.
Ms. Jones applied for energy assistance through the Opportunity Council (OC), a private, nonprofit community action agency serving homeless and low-income families and individuals in Island, San Juan, and Whatcom counties in northwest Washington State. The Opportunity Council offers services that range from addressing immediate and crisis-oriented needs (food, emergency shelter, eviction prevention) to long-term programs that promote self-sufficiency in the community (early childhood education, home weatherization). See “Restoring Indoor Health, One House at a Time,” HE, Jan/Feb ’04, p. 24.

During the eligibility appointment, staff asked whether anyone in the household had asthma, allergies, or other respiratory problems. Ms. Jones responded that both she and her daughter had been diagnosed with asthma. After staff explained the OC’s Weatherization Plus Health program to her, Ms. Jones expressed an interest both in the weatherization program, for help lowering her energy bills, and in a Healthy Home visit, to see if anything could be done that might help with her family’s asthma. She completed the application for the Healthy Home visit, which would schedule her with the OC’s in-home educator trained in conservation education and healthy-home environmental assessment.

The initial education and assessment visit identified several opportunities to improve the indoor environment in Ms. Jones’s house. Later, the OC educator noted high humidity, possible mold staining the bathroom, a leaky roof, incomplete ground cover, old carpet in the bedrooms and living room, and evidence of mice and pesticides in the kitchen and pantry areas.

The OC educator worked with the OC’s weatherization/home repair project coordinator and Ms. Jones to complete the improvements. The OC used home repair funding to repair the roof and weatherization funding to upgrade the ventilation in the bathroom. Weatherization funding was used to complete the ground cover, improve the insulation over the bedrooms, and conduct combustion safety testing of the old and inefficient heating system. The system failed the test and was upgraded using Sustainable Energy Resources for Consumers (SERC) funding. (For more on the SERC program, see “DOE’s WAP: Two New Programs Push the Envelope,” HE Sept/Oct ’11, p. 28.) The crew completed pest exclusion (by plugging holes with copper wool embedded in foam) at the same time as they air sealed the crawl space.

The OC’s privately funded Healthy Homes program changed out the old carpet in two rooms to hard-surfaced, easily cleanable flooring and also provided a HEPA vacuum for the new area rugs. The Healthy Homes funding paid for a green cleaning kit that uses nontoxic cleaning products, walk-off mats at the entryways to minimize dust coming into the house, and dust mite-resistant mattress and pillow covers. The educator and Ms. Jones worked together—the educator gave Ms. Jones a digital humidity gauge to monitor the humidity levels in the house, and she learned the benefit of opening the windows when the indoor humidity rises above 60% in the winter. She also learned the importance of exhausting moisture out of the house and agreed to use her bathroom fan for at least 40 minutes after every shower.

This partnership of funding sources and programs worked. Ms. Jones anticipates lower energy bills, and she and her daughter feel good about the improvements made to their home. From what we know, the work has also reduced conditions known to aggravate asthma symptoms.

WAP and Healthy Homes
WAP providers may be wary of healthy-homes programs, especially since so many health and safety components are taken into account in the course of regular weatherization services. These include, but are not limited to, combustion appliance safety and CO abatement, replacement of unvented space heaters with vented ones, lead-safe work practices, moisture control measures, building tightness assessments, and installation of exhaust fans and added ventilation when necessary. However, with effective partnerships and smart strategizing, WAP and healthy-homes practitioners can work together to achieve the dual goals of health and energy efficiency in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible.

The healthy-homes movement is a comprehensive approach to combating disease and injury in the home. The federal agencies involved include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, EPA, and now DOE. The Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, through its Green & Healthy Homes Initiative™, has initiated community-based, healthy housing intervention programs to test and evaluate combining energy efficiency and healthy homes. The National Center on Healthy Housing, through its National Healthy Homes Training Center, provides evidence-based training and technical assistance, as well as evaluation and hands-on guidance in this field. Scientific evidence links substandard housing to poor health—a finding that has helped to drive the creation of these projects (see “Integrating Energy Efficiency and Healthy Homes,” HE July/Aug ’11, p. 38).

Healthy homes providers take a holistic approach to the coordinated mitigation of housing-related hazards, rather than addressing them one at a time. Drawing from the experience of healthy-homes programs, the Weatherization Plus Health program is developing means to integrate the seven principles of healthy homes into the WAP process. WAP providers will ultimately be able to use a system of referring clients to agencies and programs that may be able to address their health and safety problems better. Services are intended to be coordinated so that the homes can be weatherized properly and safely. The seven principles are as follows:

Keep It Contaminant-Free. Many contaminants pose health threats. The most common of these contaminants are listed below.

Lead and lead-based paint can cause learning difficulties and neurological problems. While WAP adheres to the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule and follows strict lead-safe weatherization work practices, it has little money to spend on lead abatement. Healthy-homes projects can often perform more-extensive remediation measures, such as replacing windows that have lead-painted frames.
Environmental tobacco smoke can cause lung cancer, heart problems, and sudden infant death syndrome. Healthy-homes programs often educate clients on ways to stop smoking.
Radon can cause lung cancer. In homes where radon may be present, precautions should be taken, based on the EPA Healthy Indoor Environment Protocols for Home Energy Upgrades, to reduce the health hazards posed by the presence of radon. WAP crews install ground vapor barriers tight to the foundation perimeter where site conditions permit, and are allowed to test for radon in locations where it is likely to be present. While WAP doesn’t usually allow weatherization professionals to perform remediation, the latest DOE guidelines allow remediation where weatherization work is known to have worsened radon levels and when those levels are above the EPA action level of 4 picocuries per liter (4 pCi/l). The remediation work in those cases would probably involve venting the radon away from the house.
Asbestos can cause cancer, specifically mesothelioma, a rare cancer that occurs in the thin layer of tissue that covers the viscera. Energy upgrades can disturb asbestos. Updated DOE WAP health and safety procedures address work on homes with asbestos siding, asbestos pipe insulation, and suspected vermiculite or asbestos in attic insulation. Partnerships with healthy-homes programs can help to remediate situations that may be beyond WAP’s capability to address.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can cause asthma, allergies, and headaches. To control VOCs, technicians must control the source. This can be done by using no- or low-VOC products, sealing containers of VOC products and storing them away from air intakes, removing unwanted VOC products, ventilating the home properly, and ensuring adequate air sealing between the garage and the home.
Carbon monoxide can cause headaches, fatigue, and even death. Unvented space heaters should be removed and combustion appliances should be properly tested for spillage, draft, and CO.

Keep It Pest-Free. Pests can trigger or cause asthma and allergies, transmit disease, bite, contaminate food, and lead people to overreact and ignore the directions on pesticide labels. Pesticides also pose many risks. They can cause eye, nose, and throat irritation; skin rashes; stomach cramps; and nausea. They can damage the kidneys and the central nervous system, and they can increase the risk of certain cancers. The principles of integrated pest management (IPM) include keeping pests out to begin with, eliminating hiding spots by changing the landscape, storing and disposing of food properly, keeping the kitchen clean, and killing the existing population using traps and appropriate pesticides. Often pests can be prevented from entering the home under the WAP air-sealing measure by blocking holes with wire mesh or concrete before caulking or foaming. (To learn more about IPM, see “Integrated Pest Management in the Home,” HE, Nov/Dec ’04, p. 36.)

Keep It Clean. Clean homes help reduce pest infestations and exposure to contaminants. Strategies for keeping homes clean include installing hard-surface flooring, which is easy to clean, and educating the client on proper and effective cleaning methods and products.

Keep It Dry. Moisture on household surfaces can lead to mold growth, and mold in a home can cause many health problems, such as upper respiratory tract symptoms, including coughing, wheezing, asthma, and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Sources of moisture are poorly managed rainwater or groundwater, plumbing leaks, household sources such as cooking, and condensation of moisture-laden air on cold surfaces. WAP typically installs ground vapor barriers and can address some drainage problems—for example, by installing gutters and downspouts to divert water away from the foundation. Healthy-homes programs may address severe mold and moisture problems that WAP cannot mitigate.

Keep It Well Ventilated. Increasing the fresh-air supply in a home can improve respiratory health. This can be achieved through whole-house ventilation strategies and assessment of existing fans and exhaust. The implementation of ASHRAE 62.2-2010 will further ensure proper home ventilation in WAP and in the home performance industry at large.

Keep It Safe. Most injuries to children occur in the home. Falls are the most frequent cause, followed by injuries from objects in the home, such as cuts or scrapes from sharp corners, sharp objects, burns, and poisonings. Prevention strategies include installing grab bars, adequate lighting, and handrails; removing trip hazards; repairing stair treads; and completing minor repairs.

Keep It Well Maintained. Poorly maintained homes are at risk for contaminants, moisture, and pest problems. Deteriorated lead-based paint in older housing is the primary cause of lead poisoning, which affects some 240,000 U.S. children per year. WAP professionals frequently see poorly maintained heating systems, with all the associated problems. Client education on the importance of maintenance is the primary strategy for keeping homes safe.

Helping Collaboration Happen
Healthy-homes programs following the seven principles exist throughout the nation in a loose confederation. Funded through a variety of federal, state, and local sources, these programs vary widely in scope and focus due to regional needs. Locating a provider of a particular service and navigating the web of nonprofits and other entities providing those services can be challenging. This is where the Weatherization Plus Health initiative steps in.

The connection between WAP and healthy homes is clear: WAP already enters hundreds of thousands of low-income homes every year, has a component to address health and safety and a willingness to expand these services, and is a partner with the Community Services Block Grant. This federal antipoverty block grant provides core funding to local agencies to reduce poverty, revitalize low-income communities, and empower low-income families to become self-sufficient. In so doing, it provides a groundwork for leveraging additional resources and funding.

Using the principles of healthy homes, Weatherization Plus Health seeks to connect WAP and healthy-homes providers in an effort to ensure that low-income homes are best served with comprehensive services to address their energy efficiency, as well as residents’ health and safety needs. To do so, NASCSP is creating a number of resources and providing extensive training to facilitate ongoing communication and cooperation between the providers of these complementary services.

A major goal of the project is to identify existing partnerships and then learn how those partnerships can be expanded to serve every county in the nation. NASCSP will produce reports for each state and territory that detail the existing WAP and healthy-homes infrastructure, highlight successful partnerships, and identify possible pathways to future collaboration. These reports will also show where increased cooperation between agencies and providers could improve the provision of services to needy families.

In tandem with the state reports, NASCSP is creating a publicly accessible web site that will map healthy homes and WAP providers nationwide. This interactive application will be available to the general public and will show simply and easily where and how one can get assistance for any particular health, safety, or energy efficiency issue within a specified area.

Training and technical assistance are critical components of Weatherization Plus Health. To that end, NASCSP offers training through conferences, webinars, or other means, to facilitate partnerships and to disseminate best practices throughout the network. These best-practice models and resources will be available publicly online and will detail models of collaboration and proven successes.

In 2011, NASCSP and DOE convened six regional conferences to bring together WAP and healthy-homes providers, identify gaps between existing partnerships, and encourage new opportunities for partnerships. Targeted participants were any interested parties who worked in the fields of energy efficiency or health and safety. They included state directors of WAP, state and local WAP staff, state public health officials, state associations and community action partnerships, Community Services Block Grant staff, community action associations, healthy-homes practitioners, local health departments, health professionals, researchers and advocates focusing on energy efficiency or healthy-homes issues, and housing and community development agencies. These conferences were successful and will be followed up with six additional conferences in 2012 that will track and expand upon the work done at the previous conferences and in the intervening months.

Weatherization Plus Health promises to deliver important resources to the WAP and healthy-homes networks, and to improve housing nationwide. We know that weatherization works to reduce energy usage for low-income consumers. By combining weatherization and healthy homes, the Weatherization Plus Health initiative will work to reduce energy bills while improving the home environment. This will result in healthier homes, healthier families, and ultimately, a healthier nation.

Read the original from Home Energy Magazine at homeenergy.org

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Weatherization Degree at Montana State University

Alice Gaston — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:53:00 GMT

The Montana Board of Regents has approved the offering of the Montana Weatherization Training Center's one-year degree, noted as the "Certificate of Applied Science in Residential Building Performance."

The 33 credit degree is comprised of DOE Weatherization Standardized Curriculum courses, on-line courses as well as optional/elective credits for internships and special emphasis content dealing with weatherization. While the degree will be offered by Montana State University (taught at the MT Wx Training Center), for national student access, IREC accredited and partner (with MSU and the MT Wx Training Center) Weatherization Training Centers throughout the United States will also be able to offer core degree courses and internship credit to students at their center.

The degree is anticipated to be offered in the fall of 2012.

For more information, visit the Montana Weatherization Training Center website at http://www.weatherization.org/

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President Obama's FY'13 budget request

Brad Penney — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:26:00 GMT

Monday, February 13th, the Obama Administration submitted its FY 2013 budget to Congress, asking for $139 million dollars for WAP in FY 13. While the figure is not closer to the $175 million regarded as the minimum necessary to sustain a national program, viewed through the prism of the budget cutting frenzy that is underway in Washington, D.C, the cut could have been deeper. All domestic discretionary programs were subject to across the board cuts in the President's budget.

This is a challenging time for discretionary programs like WAP and we will need your help in our fight to sustain it nationwide. WAP has been a highly successful and effective investment in the American workforce and for low-income families nationwide. It is the largest residential energy conservation program in the nation and performs a vital role in reducing the burden of high energy prices on low-income families. The Recovery Act WAP has been a resounding success and has improved the homes and lives of over 600,000 low-income families through the end of 2011, while supporting over 15,000 jobs. These successes have not been adequately communicated in DC.

Our task this year is a challenging one: we face the likelihood of a long term Continuing Resolution which ties WAP funding to the unacceptably low $68M number contained in the Omnibus bill enacted in December. This will make it very difficult for DOE to keep all state programs funded at sustainable levels. But the value delivered by this program will, we believe, ensure that we succeed in securing the long term survival of the WAP program: no other federal program succeeds as WAP does in training and employing thousands of workers in green-collar jobs that cannot be exported; in saving low-income families money by cutting down on energy bills; and in reducing our dependence on foreign oil. WAP has met the challenge in the past and we will do so in the future.

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WAP Ranked 2nd in Recovery Act Jobs in 4Q2011

Alice Gaston — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:08:00 GMT

The Weatherization Assistance Program moved up to 2nd out of approximately 200 federal programs in the number of direct jobs created or retained, at 13,186 for the fourth quarter beginning October 1 and ending December 31, 2011. You can see the rankings by clicking here. Since the first quarter 2010, WAP has been ranked in the top 10 in the number of ARRA jobs created, a clear indication that Weatherization Works!

WAP not only creates jobs but has met the goals of the Recovery Act three months early. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu recently highlighted this exceptional achivement with a press release congratulating the Network for weatherizing 600,000 homes ahead of schedule. You can read the press release here. This story is underscored on the recovery.gov homepage, the main repository for all Recovery Act grant information. You can read the positive WAP story here.

With the tough legislative season ahead, it is critical that we share successful stories like these with our Networks and Congressional delegations to highlight the successes of WAP during ARRA and beyond. An easy way to get the word out is to tweet the message below on your Twitter account:

#Weatherization ranked 2nd out of 200 #RecoveryAct programs for jobs created in 4Q2011. Spread the word, Weatherization Works!

Blog posts, messages to Congressional delegations, and newspaper articles about your own programs are all ways to get out the message that Weatherization works and should continue in these tough economic times.

For more ideas about Public Information strategies for WAP, please visit the Public Information Campaign section on waptac.org here: http://waptac.org/Public-Information.aspx

Thanks for all that you do to ensure the success of the ARRA WAP!

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GAO Releases Study that WAP On Track

Alice Gaston — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:21:00 GMT

The challenge by the President was steep: weatherize over 600,000 homes across the nation in three years. Difficulties in meeting this goal abounded from Davis-Bacon wages to Historic Preservation requirements, from new reporting obligations to training qualified workers. After only two and half years, however, the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) is on target to exceed its goals, confirmed in a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Published in December 2011, the report found WAP on track to meet and to exceed the goals set by the Obama Administration under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act).

Often termed the “Congressional watchdog,” GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency that, on behalf of Congress, investigates how effectively and responsibly government funds are spent. Despite a number of unflattering hearings in Congress about WAP in the last year, the GAO’s long-term study of the Recovery Act WAP concluded definitively: WAP is on target to meet the production goals of the Recovery Act.

The report, titled “Progress and Challenges in Spending Weatherization Funds,” had four main objectives, to: “examine (1) the status and use of weatherization grant program funds under the Recovery Act; (2) the challenges, if any, that recipients faced in implementing the weatherization program under the Recovery Act; (3) the extent to which the weatherization program under the Recovery Act has achieved its energy and cost savings goals; and (4) the changes, if any, over time in the quality of the FTE data reported by Recovery Act recipients (state-level agencies), particularly by weatherization program recipients.”

The agency polled all 58 Grantees of the Recovery Act funding and interviewed stakeholders including officials from the Department of Energy (DOE), national associations focused on low income housing, and 10 state and territorial offices charged with overseeing WAP. Conclusions from the report are largely in line with experiences states and agencies have expressed about the Recovery Act: Davis-Bacon and Historic Preservation requirements slowed the implementation of the program, leading to low expenditures in the first year, but the Program picked up steam considerably in the second and third years. The GAO provided no new recommendations for the program and was overall positive about the achievements of WAP and the work done by States and agencies.

DOE publicized this positive report from the GAO with an announcement by DOE Secretary Chu in December, stating that WAP met its Recovery Act production goals three months early. "Today the Department of Energy marks a major milestone: we have weatherized more than 600,000 low-income homes and put thousands of people to work through the Recovery Act," said Secretary Chu. "Across America, DOE's successful Weatherization Assistance Program has increased the demand for energy-saving products and services, created thousands of skilled jobs, and helped families to reduce energy waste and save money."

The bottom line: WAP has not only met but exceeds the goals of the Recovery Act with the proof to back it up. These are reports and press releases that the Network should be proud of and use in Public Information Campaigns when talking about the program. After negative Inspector General reports and scores of bad stories in the press, WAP is finally getting the recognition for the hard work done across the nation to help low-income families live in safer, healthier, more energy efficient housing.
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FY 2012 WAP Appropriatons

Alice Gaston — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:29:00 GMT

A FY'12 allocation for the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) came out last week at $68 million, $65 million for program funds and $3 million for Department of Energy Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA). This is a cut off $106.3 million, or 60%, from FY'11. This number is not final, but it is part of a final omnibus spending bill that is awaiting final approval by Congress. To view the Congressional report, click here and scroll down to page 78. Additionally, the bill contains language that allows Secretary Chu to waive the regular funding formula. To view the language, click here and scroll to page 40.

The State Energy Program (SEP) will receive $50 million, the same as FY'11, and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will receive $3.5 billion, a cut of $1.2 billion from the FY'11 appropriation of $4.7 billion.
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Public Information and Weatherization Day

Rebecca Stewart — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:42:00 GMT

Another successful Weatherization Day has come and gone. State offices and agencies worked together throughout the country to demonstrate to fellow citizens and policymakers that Weatherization Works! Governors around the nation issued Weatherization Day and Energy Awareness month proclamations and state and local weatherization agencies held events to showcase the important work being done in weatherization to local, state, and federal officials.

A highlight of the many successful events was a post-weatherization site visit by Representative Jim Langevin (D-NJ) in West Warwick, New Jersey. One of his constituents, Ms. Anna Golderese, was so impressed with the weatherization services she received from the Westbay Community Action Agency that she wrote to the Congressman in praise of the program. In response, the Congressman visited her home to see the weatherization work done on her home firsthand. As a result of this publicity and educating a particular policymaker, he is now co-sponsoring a letter to House members with Representative Paul Tonko (D-NY) for increased weatherization funding for FY2012. Currently, WAP is slated to receive $33 million in the House appropriations bill, a cut of $141 million dollars compared to FY2011. This is a vivid example of how a local or regional event can change the complexion of politics and weatherization on the national stage.

Another shining example is New Mexico, which had a successful event in conjunction with Santa Fe Community College earlier this year. Attended by Congressional as well as state delegation members, the event highlighted the success of the WAP in the state, the Energy $mart Training facility, and presented awards to local utility companies for supporting the program. This got the word out to community partners that weatherization does not operate in isolation and that the program is a smart investment and partnering opportunity.

These are just a few examples of how states and agencies connected with policymakers and stakeholders on Weatherization Day this year. In a time when all programs are on the chopping block for cuts by Congress, events like these are crucial to show policymakers that weatherization helps their constituents live in safer, cleaner, more energy efficient homes while creating jobs. Several recent site demonstrations have focused on newly hired and trained workers demonstrating WAP work, reinforcing both the technology and the jobs and skills development component of the program and NASCSP encourages this focus for future events.

While we know that you are all tremendously busy, we strongly urge you to conduct ongoing public information campaign activities. We firmly believe that when someone actually observes firsthand the advanced diagnostics and energy efficiency installation techniques utilized by WAP that these override the negative stories profligate in the news media with the actual state-of-the-art work, job-creating, energy burden easing work achieved throughout the country, and often subsequently become supporters of and hopefully advocates for the program.

Site visits while Representatives are at home, press releases for milestones reached, and public service announcements are all examples of steps you can take anytime during the year to show that weatherization works. Additionally, publicizing the additional benefits of weatherization beyond energy savings can provide a powerful impact. For example, a recent story in Pennsylvania highlighted how a carbon monoxide detector installed during the course of regular weatherization work alerted a family to a potentially dangerous leak in their home. The headline is: “Woman says Weatherization Saved her Family” – what could be a more effective narrative? These are stories we hear about every day in the Network that should be shared with the public to underscore the importance of weatherization as more than just a mere energy efficiency upgrade. Weatherization can and does save lives as well as energy.

For more information on any of these and other PIC ideas, please visit the Public Information section of waptac.org.
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LIHEAP funds release for FY12

Alice Gaston — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:46:00 GMT

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made a total of $1.853 billion available in first quarter LIHEAP block grant funds under the FY 2012 continuing resolution (CR). These funds represent states’ first quarter requests of FY 2012 funds, up to 95% of those requests, based on the FY 2012 President’s budget request level of $1.98 billion. This means that states requesting 95% or less of their annual allocations in the first quarter will receive their full requests. States requesting over 95% in the first quarter (96% to 100%) will receive 95% under the CR limitation. The current CR expires on November 18.

Funding Level of $1.98 billion
HHS determined that, for purposes of this initial release, to use the President’s Budget request of $1.98 billion as the basis for computing the CR funding request. Since there is uncertainty of the final funding level, using this level allows Congress to complete their funding negotiations without impinging on Congressional funding prerogatives to use another funding level.

HHS released significantly more LIHEAP funding for this CR period than is made available for most other programs. Under the current CR, most programs have been allocated 13.39 percent of base funding levels. Recognizing that many states need to begin their winter heating programs and that a disproportionate share of LIHEAP funds are spent early in the year, we released a significant amount of funding within the framework of the CR while final FY 2012 funding decisions are being negotiated for the program.

Recovered Funds Released
A small amount of no-year (or X-year) appropriated funds totaling $35,933 is also being released as part of the first quarter distribution. The $35,933 represents recovered LIHEAP funds from past years’ appropriations that do not expire and were recovered due to lack of drawdown. All states, and one tribe and one territory, will see these additional funds as part of their first quarter award. (Allocations of the $35,933 that were calculated to be less than $25 were not awarded.)

Table
A table showing the grantee allocations of first quarter funds for states, tribes, and territories under the 95% CR limitation, can be downloaded here.
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WAP ranks 7th in Job Creation for Recovery Act

Rebecca Stewart — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:51:00 GMT

The federal low-income Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) ranks seventh out of approximately 200 federal programs funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act ) in jobs created or retained with 14,090 for the third quarter beginning July 1 and ending September 30, 2011. WAP has consistently ranked in the top 10 in job creation and retention since the first quarter of 2010. Beginning in 1976, The U.S. Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) has made homes of low-income families more energy efficient, safer, and healthier nationwide, with 6.7 million homes served as of 2010.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) granted $5 billion to the network. This investment has been a resounding success and has improved the homes and lives of over 534,208 low-income families through August 2011. This is just a fraction of the 38.6 million households that are eligible for Weatherization services in the United States.

To see the ranking on Recovery.gov, please click here.

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WAP Briefing on the Hill

Alice Gaston — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:54:00 GMT

The Northeast-Midwest coalition hosted a briefing in conjunction with the National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP) and the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) Tuesday, October 17th in the Capitol Visitor’s Center in Washington, DC on the importance of the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and the State Energy Program (SEP).

Speakers for the event included David Terry, Executive Director for NASEO; Arley Johnson, Director of Government Relations, NASCSP; Jo-Ann Choate, Program Manager, Maine State Housing Authority; Ron Rees, Executive Director, Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development (COAD); and Malcolm Woolf, Director, Maryland Energy Administration.

Arley Johnson opened the event, speaking about the history of WAP, its successes under the Recovery Act, and the need for future funding to ensure continued success. David Terry followed Arley and introduced the SEP and state energy offices, their purpose, and some examples of successes in allowing states to determine the recipients of energy funding.

Ron Rees spoke next on the success of WAP in the state of Ohio. He played a short video on a project currently underway in Murray City, OH where COAD is going door to door and weatherizing every home in the small city. He mentioned the impressive Recovery Act statistics from his state: nearly all ARRA dollars expended, with over 35,000 homes weatherized since 2009, almost 140% of their original Recovery Act goal. COAD was responsible for over 8,400 of these units thus far and will reach nearly 9,500 by March 31, 2012. These achievements and the nearly 1,200 jobs created in Ohio were a result of the Recovery Act, he added, and will disappear unless funding to the program is maintained.

Jo-Ann Choate followed Ron, speaking about Maine’s experience with WAP. Weatherization originated in Maine, Jo-Ann reminded the crowd, as ‘winterization.’ Maine has remained a cutting edge leader in the field of WAP, pioneering initiatives such as a joint venture with Chevrolet to sell carbon credits from weatherized homes to finance additional weatherization units. Leveraging projects like these are one of the reasons Maine has been successful not only in the Recovery Act but with regular program funding as well, both in job creation and in saving low income families in Maine money and saving energy overall. Jo-Ann echoed Ron’s sentiment that only with continued funding could Maine continue to leverage funding to sustain their weatherization network.

The program ended with Malcolm Woolf from Maryland speaking about the work of SEP in his state. Through innovative programs and funding, SEP has created jobs, saved energy, and increased the state’s renewable energy portfolio. Without continued funding, he maintained, SEP would not be able to further energy investments like these in Maryland.

The briefing was a success with over thirty-five Senate and House staffers, key decision makers in their offices, attending. Future discussions will continue on an individual basis with these staffers based on the briefing. A big thank you to Ron Rees, Jo-Ann Choate, and Malcolm Woolf for participating in the briefing.
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What Do We Do Now?

Jin Gunshinan — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:42:00 GMT

After the ARRA funding runs out at the end of March, 2012, what do we do? That was the big question on the minds of attendees today at the 2011 National Association for State Community Services Program (NASCSP) Training Conference in Seattle. At the same time everyone felt the need to recognize the huge success achieved by WAP in the three years covered by the ARRA finding, especially because of recent criticism of the WAP program in Congress: WAP is on track to weatherize up to 700,000 homes by next April; more than 15,000 direct jobs were created, and by a conservative estimate 30,000 were created indirectly, including the jobs of manufacturers of audit equipment, weatherization materials like insulation, and equipment such as insulation blowers; more than $5 billion worth of energy savings is being achieved over the life of all the home retrofits; and there have been great strides in weatherizing multifamily buildings, a previously neglected housing sector. In fact, more than 90% of the homes weatherized in the last three years in Alaska have been multifamily buildings. In New York it's more than 70%.

John Davies, Director, Building Performance Center, Opportunity Council, Bellingham, Washington, outlined the challenges:

lack of state and federal funding in the near future
maintaining the infrastructure of equipment, space, and trained staff
how to market to a whole new group of potential homeowners/clients
overcoming the non-profit mentality in the minds of staff who may not know the real market value of their work in homes and the public perception that they can get weatherization services for free

Jennifer Somers, Team Lead for Training and Technical Assistance/Policy Advisor, Office of Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program, U.S. DOE offered, if not cut and dry answers, at least some directions to go in. DOE has helped create 39 training centers in 29 states. Those centers are being used already to train technicians to perform more than weatherization—Weatherization Plus Health. A pilot program in New Hampshire is developing a "One Touch" audit approach, where auditors assess a home's safety, air quality, and other health factors in the initial visit. DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is developing a Healthy Home Assessment Audit Tool, as well as a Multifamily Home Energy Assessment Tool.

Somers also mentioned a $5 billion backlog of retrofit needed for HUD housing. DOE's Bob Adams says "It took us a long time to figure out how to partner with organizations like HUD, but we have and it is working. The best thing is that now we have greater advocacy for our work in Congress. HUD too wants us to get the money to do the work they need done." Collaborations with NIH, the CDC and other organizations in the area of healthy housing hold great potential for the future of weatherization. There is much evidence piling up in academic journals and elsewhere that shows that children in clean, dry homes with good air quality do better in school and have to visit the emergency room much less often with asthma attacks. Weatherization Pus Health is a natural fit.

Davie's added to the list of directions the WAP community can go in, and thrive. Just as we are beginning to understand the need for healthy housing the kids, as the nation gets older there will be a greater need to provide healthy housing for seniors. Weatherization agencies can combine grant funds with private company investment and offer whole house retrofits to middle and high income families. New energy codes in Washington State (and elsewhere) require duct testing when a furnace is changed out. Some states are investigating the idea of requiring a home energy audit be preformed before an existing home is sold. And weatherization agencies and contractors can offer environmental services such as lead, asbestos, Radon, and mold abatement. And the many training programs around the nation can keep training people to do all kinds of home performance work.

It's not a happy time now. Joel Eisenberg of Oak Ridge says about the pending end of ARRA funding, "It was a lot more fun on the way up." But people are not too discouraged. When one door closes, new ones open. At the NASCSP Training Conference in 2016, I'll bet we'll be saying things like, "No one expected this. Who knew we would be thriving the way we are thriving now?" Retrofitting homes on Mars may be a stretch, but a thriving home performance market nationwide—with guidance and regulation from the government, but not a whole lot of money—sure isn't.

Jim Gunshinan is an editor at Home Energy Magazine. This article was originally published September 22, 2011.
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Senate passes WAP FY2012 appropriation

Alice Gaston — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:20:00 GMT

The Senate Committee Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development approved the Energy and Water Development bill for FY 2012. The bill contains $1.796 billion for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) in the DOE budget, with $174.3 million of this amount for the low income Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). While the EERE allocation is $116 million below that in FY’11, the WAP allocation remains at FY’11 levels.

The Senate bill must still face a full Senate vote and be reconciled in a Conference with the House passed bill , which currently slates WAP to receive $33 million, an over 80% cut from FY’11. Given the end of the Federal Government’s fiscal year on September 30, at least a short-term Continuing Resolution is likely.

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Saving Time, Money and Energy with HVAC

Philip J Reed — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:54:00 GMT

Do you sweat in the summer and freeze in the winter just to keep costs down? If so you need to understand that it doesn’t have to be that way.

Having a professionally installed HVAC system is something you need to seriously consider because your home, your business, or even your warehouse should never be at the mercy of the elements, not to mention your family or your staff.

There are easy solutions to both your heating and cooling needs and they can all be rolled into one easy installation. Having an HVAC system installed in your home or business will not only save you discomfort but it will also save you time AND money.

Sound too good to be true? Let me assure you, it isn’t.

A proper HVAC system, one specifically designed for you individual needs is the fastest and easiest way that you can cut costs and ensure efficiency because they are designed for you. Imagine a retail outlet with a continually opening door trying desperately to keep up with that constant influx of outdoor temperature in the middle of July in the desert or the same scenario at a restaurant in January in the middle of the Midwest. It isn’t efficient and it’s literally hemorrhaging money out of your pocket with every person opening that door. It simply doesn’t work.

Economically, we need to tighten our belts and many people don’t think to recognize the biggest waste in their monthly expenses and that outdated or inefficient heating or cooling systems are an unnecessary drain on your financial resources.

Not only does a professional installation afford you a warranty, but it will also insure that your technician has gone through the proper (and rigorous) HVAC training that enables them to both install and service your system. Their HVAC training will also give YOU the benefit of someone who can look at your individual needs, evaluate cost versus efficiency, and then come up with a plan that will benefit your home or business.

Doing it right the first time will save you time and money so don’t drop the ball when it comes to comfort. Look into your options and know that finding a proper system for your needs is worth the effort and will give you the return of comfort and savings for years to come.

Article contributed by Philip J Reed, in affiliation with Redstone College.
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Great-granddaughter writes ‘Grandma and Grandpa prayed for people to help us.’

Arkansas Community Action Association — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:09:00 GMT

The girl of 12, who lives with her great-grandparents, Eldred and Lagail Grant, near Wynne in Cross County in northeast Arkansas, handed one of the weatherization workers for Crowley’s Ridge Development Council (CRDC) in Jonesboro a letter after they’d made improvements on the 35-year-old mobile home they live in.

In orange and green and red crayon, and pencil, on an 8 by 10 inch piece of plain white paper that had been folded to make a card, it said on the cover: “Thanks CRDC.”

Inside, the printing in pencil said: “Dear CRDC, you don’t know how much we appreciate this. . . My grandma and grandpa prayed for people to help us on our trailer. So when she got the call, she said, ‘God is doing his job.’ So I want to say thanks. Thank you CRDC.”

The girl, Kaganlee Dannyelle Parker, and her brother, Phillip Odom, 5, have been cared for by the Grants since their mother, Crystal Parker, 31, died four years ago. (Another great-grandchild, Colt, 15, lives with the Grant’s daughter.)

Eldred Grant, 72, is retired from working for the sheriff’s office, as jail administrator; Mrs. Grant, 75, worked for years in a home health program; they live on their Social Security income. (They have two sons, a daughter, an adopted daughter “and raised another boy,” Mrs. Grant said in a recent telephone interview.)

They bought the three-bedroom mobile home – 12 feet by about 65 feet – just before they were married, and kept it up the best they could, Mrs. Grant said, adding, “We’ve had to keep it up for it to last this long.”

They did some weatherstripping and their son, Wesley, replaced about half the floor.

Still, much air came in, from around the doors and the windows and from under the floors.

They relied on an infrared heater, and two window air conditioners.

“We babied the heater, and we’d hang something over the back door when it got real cold. You do what you have to do; you know what you have to do.”

They couldn’t afford to make more improvements, especially after getting the children from their father, which required hiring a lawyer, who told them that they could pay him when they could.

Mrs. Grant heard about weatherization, and called the agency; it sent an application, which she filled out and returned. She later called, and “lo and behold,” the next day, in July, workers appeared, informing her that the family was eligible for the service, free of charge to those of low and moderate income.

In two days, they patched cracks and holes with caulk, foam, and lumber; put in baseboards, especially around the new flooring; put in 10 vinyl windows; installed a vented space heater and an ENERGY STAR refrigerator; reinstalled their air conditioners after taking them out to put in new windows; sealed the floors and the roof; put a door on the hot water heater and an exhaust fan over the cook stove; and provided compact fluorescent light bulbs and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

Still to come are two doors that were specially ordered.

The work cost $6,438, according to Kenny Gunn, CRDC’s weatherization director.

The Grants had no idea of the extent of the work that would be done, Mrs. Grant said. “It was shocking to Eldred and me. We still can’t believe it; we still go outside and look at those windows; it’s just amazing.”

She called weatherization “God’s blessing” and stressed that they sought the service for the children. “It’s for the kids; this is for the kids; now, I know my babies are going to be warm. . . It means so much to this family, to our lives.”

She said the children suffered “much trauma,” adding that Kagan had said to her that she knew that “you and papa will take care of us.” She said: “We done so much praying, and then God sent us three angels,” a reference to Danny Brewer, David Scholl, and Bobby Carr, who did much of the work. (The other workers were Ricky Smith, Layton Thien, and Shane Thigpen.)

All, she said, “were nice, precious.”

When she learned about her great-granddaughter’s letter, she asked her about it. “Kagan said, ‘Mama, the Lord blessed us, and I wanted them to know how much we appreciate it.’ I started crying.”

Weatherization Director Gunn said, “It touched everybody’s heart, because it was a true conviction; it was the truth.” He said weatherization “is a highly emotional program,” for clients and workers, “because it has to do with providing a basic human need – a decent house. . . It gives people hope that they can have a better home, better lives.”

Brewer was surprised by the letter, “because you rarely see something like this from a child. To get such notice, at such a magnitude, was astonishing. . . It makes you feel very good” to know “our work gives such satisfaction and happiness. People do care; they do care about their homes, and want to make them better, safer.”

He said the mobile home was “very much a livable home” before they improved it, despite the warped, swollen aluminum frames that kept the windows from being opened and other problems. “But it’s so much better now; we made major improvements, and beat the goal we set for air flow.” They reduced it from 2,786 cubic feet per minute (cfm) “plum down to 1,989 cfm,” even before the new doors were to be put in. (Air flow is measured by a fan-like machine called a blower door.)

Brewer, who repaired termite-damaged homes for 12 years for Terminix, said, “I love the work; I hope I get to stay until I retire” because weatherization “has such a large impact on the lives of those who truly need the help.”

He was struck by the Grants’ devotion to their great-grandchildren. “They’re overseeing their well-being with great love and care; they are good grandparents.”

Mrs. Grant, an only child, said her parents, who were farmers, as were her husband’s parents, raised 25 other children whose parents weren’t willing or able to care for them. “We was all brothers and sisters,” she said, adding that the children included “a black boy whose father was dying and who asked my daddy if we could take his son, who was 7. He lived with us till he married. . . Daddy said those kids had a right to have something, had a right to be loved.”

She reported that Phillip had just graduated from kindergarten and was preparing to enter first grade and that Kagan plays softball and that “I never miss a game or a practice. . . We do things together, we have discussions at the table, and we know where they are at all times.”

She said: “The good Lord is blessing us to raise these kids. They’re putting a spark in our life. Having them has made our life complete.”

She collects clothes for other children, organizes activities for them during the summer and after school, and takes them to their church, the Valley View Baptist Church.

"Truly, if you love the Lord like you say you do, then all the kids is everybody’s; they’re not just one person’s kids. Kids is everybody’s kids. Kids is the most beautiful things in the world. God can’t give you anything better than these kids. . . We need to love these kids. So many, all they want is for you to put an arm around them and say, ‘I love you.’ How hard is it to tell a kid you love them?”

The Grants’ home is one of nearly 1,000 CRDC has weatherized in the last year with funds from the federal Department of Energy (DOE), which established the Weatherization Assistance Program in 1976, based on work that had been done by community action agencies; the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA); and the Arkansas Weatherization Program, a state Public Service Commission-approved collaborative with the seven investor-owned utilities, which contribute to work on a customer’s home that’s “severely energy-inefficient.” (The Grants are customers of Entergy Arkansas and CenterPoint Energy, which, together, contributed $1,500 to improve their home, according to Gunn.)

Despite the ARRA-powered expansion, many of those eligible won’t be able to be served because of a lack of fuller funding; the agency has about 1,000 on its waiting list.

Since it was begun, the regular, DOE-funded weatherization program in Arkansas has injected more than $115 million into communities throughout the state to improve more than 70,000 homes, making them more energy efficient, safe and healthy and enabling clients to save income to pay for other necessities. The agencies will have received $48 million in ARRA funds, over three years, by March, 2012, to improve an additional 5,5878 homes. As of the end of July, they had improved 4,542 with the funds.

To see the letter Kaganlee Dannyelle Parker wrote, please click here.
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Weatherization Day and Energy Awareness Month: Time to Get Ready!

Rebecca Stewart — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:59:00 GMT

As the Recovery Act period concludes on March 31, 2012, it is more important than ever to get out the word about WAP and make the case to policymakers, stakeholders, community partners, and the public that the Program remains a sound public investment for the nation. A great opportunity to showcase your program, put on a site demonstration, or engage in other public information activities is October, which is Energy Awareness Month, culminating with Weatherization Day on October 30th. The Weatherization network has faced so many challenges with the expansion of the program due to the Recovery Act, and now faces a new phase of trying to maintain those gains. We need to celebrate the numerous successes of the network. The network is well on its way to meet the Obama Administration’s goal of weatherizing 600,000 homes and has ranked 8th in jobs created and retained for ARRA projects for the last several quarters. Emphasizing jobs in the energy efficiency retrofit market particularly resonates as a focus in the current political climate.

While these accomplishments are surely noteworthy, a perception of failure and misspent funds persists. Unfortunately, bad news makes better headlines than good news. The best way to fight bad publicity and coverage in the news is to be proactive in getting positive stories out there. NASCSP has created and updated a number of tools to help you create, market, and distribute success stories, as well as plan events and celebrations which can all be found on waptac.org under Public Information.

Social Media 2.0 (coming soon)
As a follow up to last year’s Harnessing the Conversation: Raising the Awareness of the Weatherization Assistance Program, NASCSP has created a follow up guide: Social Media 2.0: Managing Social Media Effectively. As internet use grows, more people are turning to various social media outlets for information about issues and causes they care about. These issues can range from signing petitions and making online donations to seeking volunteer opportunities. Nonprofit organizations have responded to this demand by steadily increasing their presences on social media channels, invoking strategies such as launching an organizational blog or building a Facebook page or a Twitter profile.

For the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), social media presents a range of opportunities. Chief among them is to provide a stream of positive information about the WAP. Social media allows the network to drive multiple success stories of weatherization and deliver these directly to journalists, the public, and policymakers. Additionally, social media offers a cost-effective way to market your organization, publicize events, raise funds, and generally spread the word about the benefits of weatherization.

The key to social media is to work smarter, not harder. Sites like Facebook and Twitter understand the difficulties social media can present and have introduced features on their sites to make things easier for the average user, primarily through the integration of features across platforms. This guide will demonstrate how to employ those new features successfully to make using social media easier and more accessible. An online version of this publication will be available with additional content, including videos demonstrating how to implement the material discussed within. A note will be made in the print edition when additional material is available in the online portal.

WAP Storytelling Manual (coming soon)
WAP's Public Information Campaign raises awareness of the WAP and its many benefits – for individuals, the public, the environment, and local communities nationwide. Narratives or stories can bring WAP work, challenges, and successes to life. Stories are essential communication tools for helping the public, your partners, lawmakers, your potential funders, and other stakeholders understand how the WAP works and for whom it works.

Often, the people writing these stories at an organization are not specially trained and have to make time in their busy schedules to do so. To help you make these stories as effective as possible and building upon the CSBG side of NASCSP’s work, the NASCSP Energy Services has created the WAP Storytelling Manual. The guidelines in the manual are intended to help with the challenging task of communicating the story of weatherization to others.

Recent research about how the public understands stories and narratives tells us a lot about how to choose approaches and write effectively. NASCSP has distilled that research into this guide to writing a narrative as powerful as the actual events and concrete results.

Weatherization Day Planning Kit 2011
Each year, NASCSP updates the Weatherization Day Planning Kit as a guide to help plan your event. Weatherization Day was conceived as a way to focus local, State, and national attention on WAP and the work performed by dedicated members of the WAP network. Capitalizing on DOE’s declaration of October as Energy Awareness Month, weatherization programs across the country make a strategic push to raise the public’s awareness of the work we do every day.

The Kit provides ideas on how you can publicize your program in your community, State, and region. The kit offers specific tips and guides for activities that have been successful in weatherization agencies nationwide including Weatherization Day Governors’ Proclamations, press releases, energy fairs, and site demonstrations. These strategies can all lead to greater networking and leveraging opportunities, enhanced relationships with elected officials and potential partners, and a reinforcement of team building and morale with state and local WAP staff.

Weatherization Site Visit Demonstration Kit 2011
On-site technical demonstrations provide a great opportunity to showcase the benefits of the WAP to select national, State, and local community leaders. The impact of actually seeing a home weatherized is very powerful and speaks for itself. In an hour or less, on-site technical demonstrations tell the best story of how weatherization works. These events also allow a weatherization agency to highlight the impact of WAP on jobs, training, and energy efficiency.

Demonstration guests are impressed with the diagnostic approach, attention to health and safety, and proven cost-effectiveness of the taxpayers’ investment. Invitees experience the client’s circumstances, observe the energy-efficiency diagnostics used in the program, and learn how weatherization services help the family residing in the home.

Other Materials
In addition to the above, NASCSP maintains extensive information on a number of Public Information Campaign strategies, including press releases, creating videos, radio interviews, and print media as well as maintains a current list of local media outlets nationwide so that you can get your stories into the right hands.

All materials referenced above can be found at waptac.org under Public Information. Now is the time to start thinking about Energy Awareness Month, Weatherization Day, and your role in the Public Information Campaign. At this critical time for WAP, a widespread and resolute effort by the Weatherization network to show and tell the story that Weatherization Works would provide a much needed boost to positively influence the perception of the program. Please consider getting involved and send your stories, templates and ideas to us at rstewart@nascsp.org!
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WAP Ranked as 8th Highest Job Creater Q2

Alice Gaston — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:57:00 GMT

WAP ranked as the 8th highest ARRA job creator for the second quarter of 2011. This is the third quarter in a row that WAP has earned this distinction.

With national unemployment sitting at 9.2%, the jobs created through the WAP program in the struggling housing industry are vital. Congratulations to the WAP Network for all of the hard work and dedication it takes to create these jobs while at the same time improving the lives of low income peoples and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

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Washington Leveraging: A Success Story

Rebecca Stewart — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:34:00 GMT

As the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) reaches the end of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) period on March 31, 2012, States and local agencies are looking to the future. To sustain the program and ensure the uninterrupted provision of quality services to low income people, the network is exploring innovative partnerships and initiatives. WAP creates good, green jobs and helps reduce our reliance on foreign oil. Additionally, no one wants to scale down the ramped up programs and lay off trained workers, especially as the effects of the recession persist. The uncertainty of future Department of Energy (DOE) funding exacerbates these concerns. States around the nation have taken the lead in connecting with energy efficiency and low income stakeholders to find alternate means to fund the WAP in a post-Recovery Act age. Below are profiles of two States that leverage a significant amount of funds to bridge the gap between low income energy efficiency retrofit needs and the available resources, as well as to continue the pace and breadth of the Recovery Act WAP going forward.

Washington State
Washington State leveraging efforts, which provided $8.3 million to WAP in PY2010, were originally funded with Petroleum Violation Escrow (PVE) charges, or oil overcharges, comprised of the fines oil companies paid in response to their violation of federal oil price caps in the years following the OPEC oil embargo in the 1970’s. In Washington, the state initiated a matching program to contribute $1 to each utility dollar spent, significantly leveraging the utility funds. The state requires at least a dollar for dollar investment by utilities. As the program progressed, Washington realized that some flexibility would be beneficial for the program and now allows in-kind matches, such as the utility performing energy conservation work. Utilities also started to contract directly with local agencies to perform these services. Originally, the state hoped these dollars would provide an infinite revolving resource. However, due to the huge demand for matching funds far in excess of expectations, the funds did not become a permanent revolving loan fund. For the first 10 years of the initiative, efforts were funded strictly through PVE, but as PVE funding ended by the mid to late 1990’s the state transitioned to capital funds from a housing trust fund sustained by the sale of bonds. By 2000, capital funds became the sole source of funding for matching utility funds.

Once the amount of available funds is established each year, the state issues a county planning estimate based on heating degree days and low-income population to determine the proportional amount of funds appropriate for each jurisdiction and sets leveraging goals. The local agency in that area then works with utilities, landlords, and other interested parties to raise matching funds. The three involved partners (the state, local agency, and utility) then sign an agreement that commits the utility to providing a specified level of funding and stating that the state will match it once the utility reaches its goals. Once the contract is executed, the local agency sends in reports to confirm the funds disbursed and work done. With the utility effort confirmed, the state releases the matching funds.

The Washington WAP network uses utility funds for traditional weatherization energy efficiency services as well as repairs in support of those measures. Local agencies have flexibility within what DOE and utilities cover to provide comprehensive services. As the economy recovers, Steve Payne, Managing Director of the Housing Improvements & Preservation unit in the Washington Department of Commerce, which administers the WAP, hopes to expand efforts to promote additional repair and rehabilitation work.

As in Massachusetts, Payne encourages using DOE funds as allowed to pursue leveraging efforts. In Washington, DOE funded leveraging efforts spurred the establishment of The Energy Project, which serves as an advocate for the network, works with the Utilities and Transportation Commission, and utilities, and looks for untapped opportunities. For instance, if a utility wants a rate increase, The Energy Project can argue that this will adversely affect low-income ratepayers and ask for protection for those ratepayers, such as bill assistance and/or weatherization funding. Payne advises creating a similar group saying, “You have to be at the table. Investor owned utilities will have advisory groups you can be a part of, especially leading up to rate cases.” Establishment of a steering committee comprised of the state and local agencies can provide oversight and approve future plans. Payne notes, “These efforts are complicated – to have someone who can be the expert and advocate on behalf of local agencies makes the likelihood of success even greater.”
Going forward, these utility funds will become more important as the Recovery Act winds down. Additionally, in Washington, a voter initiative set conservation targets for the state’s utilities to meet by 2020, which provides an opportunity for increased funding.
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WAP FY'12 Funding Update

Alice Gaston — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:57:00 GMT

The US House of Representatives Energy and Water Subcommittee has allocated $33 million for the Weatherization Assistance Program in FY’12—$30 million to be distributed by formula to States and $3 million for DOE T&TA. Representative Tonko (D-NY) and Representative Bass (R-NH) proposed an amendment to the House Energy and Water FY’12 Appropriations bill to increase this allocation, as well as the State Energy Program and Building Technologies Program, to FY’11 levels. The Tonko-Bass amendment would have raised WAP’s allocation to $141 million; however, the amendment failed to pass on July 12, 2011.

This is not the final WAP allocation for FY’12 as any final spending must be reconciled in the Senate as well as approved by President Obama. Additionally, the recent debt ceiling talks may have an impact on any future spending bills.

Continue to check back on the blog for further FY’12 WAP DOE funding updates.

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WAP Storytelling

Rebecca Stewart — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:59:00 GMT

As the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) moves into the post-Recovery Act era, telling its story is more important than ever. To maintain funding levels and staffing, the network will need to attract new partners and the best way to do so is to show that the WAP is a proven, time-tested, cost-effective and ultimately very successful program. The WAPTAC website has many tools to assist with this goal, primarily found here in the Public Information tab. However, our colleagues on the CSBG side have gone farther and published a Storytelling Manual with the assistance of Economic Opportunity Studies. This manual provides guidelines and strategies to most effectively communicate your message to the wider world – that Weatherization Works. Below are some tips and guidelines based on research about how the public understands poverty and how to create a narrative that will have the most impact.

Frameworks and Frames
A person’s framework is a complex structure of personal beliefs. It influences the way the person sees any story you frame in your own narrative and how he or she tells his or her own story. The following fleshes out some of the more common frames and how to address them.

Poverty and Poor People: Since hard work and family are still the fundamental American values, Americans identify with a person whose work ethic is unquestionable, who is striving for a better life for her or his family. Our strong individualistic bias leads us to value work, perseverance, and also ingenuity. Experts advise that advocates for low-income Americans to use the term economic insecurity instead of poverty and to refer to low-wage workers instead of working poor or poor. Most people can identify with the terms that suggest insecure employment and hard work, but they find “poverty” and “poor” to be ambiguous.
Opportunity: Opportunity is a valued American concept. The WAP creates opportunity through job creation and training, among other things. Americans generally believe that if your work facilitates opportunity, the economy is fairer. Showcase how your program has helped create ways for people to become self-sufficient and valuable members of the workforce.
Government Programs and Organizations: Americans tend to be skeptical of “government” and “programs” per se. They are uncertain about what works in government and also how their taxes are spent. Many are discouraged by experience or propaganda that says government can never work. At the same time, most Americans generally support the categories of government initiatives offering opportunities for education, training, and employment; that provide some security for people in old age; or for those who are ill or disabled. Therefore, the most effective success story for an organization, according to the research findings, is one that showcases the responsible, informed leadership and management behind a program. Responsible leaders are seen as those whose goals are building new jobs and strengthening the economy for the long term; they focus on strengthening the community as a whole.

Create Your Narrative in Five Strategic Steps

Choose stories that illustrate frames and focus on the values and goals of the WAP. Be sure they reflect shared basic values, such as supporting working families, supporting the economy, opening new opportunities, and expanding economic security;
Begin with a widely-shared framework, a broadly shared concern;
Continue with a description of the problem itself, in this case energy efficiency and jobs for low income Americans; frame it in terms of the categories people recognize and respect;
Lay out the well thought-out and effective solution as implemented; and
End with a description of the outcome, and if appropriate, future expectations.

This five-step strategic approach to story-telling may seem counter to many conventional communications practices. For example, many stories in the network focus on an individual’s history. Using this five-step approach will strategically frame your story so it is more likely to connect with the audience in ways that will help them understand what America should be doing to address economic insecurity, energy efficiency, and job training in this country.

This is just a taste of the much wider ranging document, which can be found on the NASCSP website. Additionally, we will be updating the document and tailoring it to meet the needs of the WAP network and you will be advised when it is available. Thank you for all of your hard work and let’s get the story of our success out there!

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WAPTAC Updates

Alice Gaston — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:16:00 GMT

You may have noticed the WAPTAC.org homepage was updated a few weeks ago. The new WAPTAC.org homepage features the WX Plus Health Initiative with information about the initiative, opportunities to register for regional conferences, and information from past conferences. Additionally, new buttons were added to the right side of the homepage for easier navigation.

A few features were moved to accommodate the changes. Ask the Experts, Meet our Experts, and Expert Questions and Answers have all been moved to the Best Practices tab on the Homepage. All other information and pages remained the same.

Other new changes to look forward to in the coming on WAPTAC include an updated Health and Safety section to reflect the changes in WPN 11-6.
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Weatherization Plus Health Regional Conference Update

Jeff Wojciechowski — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:43:00 GMT

The first ever Wx Plus Health Regional Conference took place last week, May 23-25, in Portland, Maine. Attendance numbered over 100 and participants gathered from across New England and beyond. The Department of Energy (DOE) hosted the conference with the goal of fostering new partnerships between practitioners of weatherization and healthy homes. Representatives from the DOE, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Department of Labor (DOL) all joined the proceedings.

Healthy Homes and WAP have the potential to be extremely complementary, but many practitioners of one program are not fully familiar with the other. One major conference goal was to provide an opportunity to clear up any misconceptions about these two programs. Thus, to begin, participants attended one of two concurrent sessions: an Introduction to WAP for Healthy Homes providers and an Introduction to Healthy Homes for WAP providers. Each presentation explained the mission and methods of its selected program and allowed time for audience interaction and questions.

After establishing a shared understanding of WAP and Healthy Homes, the conference delivered several resources to help participants set the foundation for future cooperative efforts. For example, one session featured successful WAP-Healthy Homes partnerships that discussed best practices for collaboration. Another critical component was a set of facilitated meetings for each participating state. These sessions encouraged conference attendees to brainstorm shared priorities with potential partners in their community. The effort was overseen by trained facilitators, and participants were able to take from the meetings a roster of prospective partners and a set of outcomes for which their new partnerships might strive.

There will be five additional Weatherization Plus Health Regional Conferences this year with similar content. To learn more, please visit the Weatherization Plus Health page on WAPTAC.
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Success Story: Indiana

Rebecca Stewart — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:01:00 GMT

The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA) is committed to growing Indiana’s economy through housing development and community revitalization. One way of accomplishing that goal is through the weatherization program, which IHCDA has been administering for Indiana since 2006.

In 2009, Indiana received $131,847,383 in federal ARRA stimulus funding for the weatherization program, representing a 1000% increase over its annual DOE weatherization budget. IHCDA would typically service 2,000 homes annually, but with the ARRA funding upwards of 20,000 homes will be weatherized through 2012. Reducing the energy burden of low-income Hoosier households is indeed impactful, and the addition of federal stimulus funding has increased that tenfold.

In response to this extraordinary level of funding and demand for service, Indiana added 10 new organizations to their existing provider network. All of these agencies had relevant experience in providing home energy conservation or rehabilitation related activities. These organizations helped an already exemplary network of providers reach more homes, faster, than ever before.

In addition to the expanding network, when Indiana received weatherization stimulus funding, Governor Mitch Daniels decided to change the name of the program for Indiana to Home Energy Conservation to encompass more educational outreach efforts encouraging Hoosiers to reduce their energy consumption and thus the state’s overall energy load.

Indiana has spent an average of $4,185.59 per home through weatherization activities. From the beginning, Indiana chose to limit the average investment per home to $5,000 rather than the $6,500 allowed under ARRA guidelines. This determination was based on a study of Indiana’s historical weatherization performance which showed a reduced return on investment above $5,000. To maximize the total investment, Indiana decided to put the additional $1,500 toward the next home. As a result, Indiana will weatherize even more Hoosier households with recovery act dollars.

With a large number of additional trainings needed to meet demand and in order to fulfill the programmatic goals and timelines, IHCDA quickly realized that a reorganization of the traditional three week BPI training was needed. Therefore, IHCDA and their partners reconfigured the training into a comprehensive three day training for contractors held at several educational institutions including Ivy Tech and AC/C Tech. Another need for the new structure was that many of the contractors were not only new to weatherization, but federal programming in general. In addition to contractors, auditors completed a five week intensive course including classroom and field work conducted in partnership with the Indiana Community Action Association (INCAA).

Through the first quarter of 2011, IHCDA’s Home Energy Conservation Program has trained 2,450 contractors and 135 auditors.

Combining IHCDA’s planning and the hard work of the provider network, to date, Indiana is over 77% of the way towards their overall goal, having performed Home Energy Conservation activities on 15,957 of 20,678 units planned to be completed by the spring of 2012.

Program Highlight:

Each year, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels presents Governor’s Public Service Achievement Awards to state employees who stretch taxpayer dollars and save the state money. This year Chelsey Wininger, Paul Krievins, and Deb Hepler, of the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA), were among the 85 state employees who received such an award from the Governor. They were nominated for their work in creating and implementing a centralized purchasing system for weatherization sub-grantees, which has saved the state more than $1.4 million dollars in materials to-date. The savings realized with the centralized purchasing system allowed sub-grantees to weatherize an additional 285 homes.

When Indiana was awarded $133 million through the federal stimulus program to weatherize homes, Governor Daniels charged IHCDA and the Department of Administration to use the state’s bulk buying power to secure aggressive prices on high-dollar, high-volume materials. The team devised a system by which steeply discounted furnaces and fiberglass insulation were held at a central location until a sub-grantee needed the products. This state-of-the-art supply chain solution ships the materials purchased by sub-grantees to all 92 counties within 24 hours of order placement and streamlines material tracking by providing real-time delivery information.

The $1.4 million saved through the centralized purchasing system was part of the more than $20 million saved by the other state employees honored with a Governor’s Public Service Achievement Award. IHCDA staff continues to value and embraces the culture of performance encouraged by IHCDA executives and the Governor.
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WAP FY2011 Funding Announced

Alice Gaston — Fri, 20 May 2011 16:16:00 GMT

Funding for WAP FY2011 have been announced at $174.3 million. Kathleen Hogan, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency at the Department of Energy, announced the news at the State and Local Government Clean Energy Summit on May 19. Within the $174.3 million, $3 million will be set aside for DOE Headquarters T&TA, with the remaining $171.3 million to be distributed by formula to States. There will be no innovative grants for FY2011.

Considering the budgetary circumstances and tight federal budget, this figure is a victory for the WAP.

A big thanks to those whose hard work and dedication everyday affect positive change in the lives of low-income Americans.

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WAP hits new Milestone: 400,000 homes

Alice Gaston — Thu, 12 May 2011 11:52:00 GMT

The Weatherization Network hit a new milestone: weatherizing over 400,000 through March 2012. This is well on the way to the 650,000 mandated by the Recovery Act for WAP!

The Network should be proud of this great achivement. While there is a lot of work left to be done in the months ahead, it's important to recognize the substantial work and impressive performance of Grantees to date.

Keep up the good work!
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Louisiana Training the Next Generation of Weatherization Workers

Alice Gaston — Tue, 10 May 2011 10:50:00 GMT

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) invested $5 billion in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) to promote energy efficiency, train workers for the burgeoning green economy, and help low-income families reduce their energy bills during a difficult economic time. The Louisiana Association of Community Action Partnerships (LACAP) embraced the opportunity the influx of federal funds provided to enhance their own workforce with a new Baton Rouge Weatherization Training Center. Now fully operational, the training center provides workers with valuable skills in weatherizing homes.

The Recovery Act gave the WAP an unprecedented chance to expand the depth and breadth of an already successful, 30-year-old program. Charged by the DOE and the Obama administration to weatherize 650,000 low-income American homes by March 2012, state offices around the country sought new workers and contractors to meet this challenge. Many people think of replacing windows and doors and maybe a little weather-stripping when they think of weatherization; weatherization in the WAP, however, far exceeds those simple measures. Technicians must learn a comprehensive, house-as-a-system approach coupled with the latest in building diagnostics to meet DOE standards and regulations. Recipients of weatherization services receive the highest quality work in the energy efficiency retrofit industry.

LACAP, an organization comprised of forty-two community action agencies operating in all sixty-four parishes in Louisiana, established a training center in Baton Rouge to meet the administration’s challenge as well as to train the next generation of weatherization workers. Located in an industrial warehouse, the new LACAP training center opened in July 2009. The site boasts 11,000 square feet of classrooms, hands-on props, demonstration houses, and a full-size training mobile home. By combining classroom instruction with real-world demonstrations, weatherization workers better learn and understand the fundamentals before they are sent out into the field.

“I don’t see how you could weatherize a home without training,” Ray Sharkey, owner of Public Construction, said. Mr. Sharkey added weatherization to his home repair business’s portfolio after demand for workers increased. Despite the significant dip in the housing industry during the Great Recession, the move into weatherization allowed Public Construction to retain their twelve staff members and put some of them through the weatherization programs at the Baton Rouge center.

“I was really impressed with the training center,” Mr. Sharkey added, noting that after several trips to the Baton Rouge site he and his staff “had learned something new to take back with them into the field.” Now Mr. Sharkey uses his weatherization training not just on the federally funded, DOE homes but also on private HVAC contracts as well. He hopes to enter the growing middle-income market for weatherization services in the future with his trained workforce.

To date, the LACAP training center has taught over 110 classes to more than 350 community action agency staff and weatherization contractors such as Mr. Sharkey. The more than 15,000 hours of instruction has certainly contributed to the 2,761 homes weatherized in Louisiana through February 2011.

Contributing to those production numbers is Jeremy Robinson of Tangi Energy Conservation. Laid off as a result of the 2009 recession, Mr. Robinson heard about weatherization from a friend working at Tangi. Today, Mr. Robinson owns Tangi Energy Conservation and weatherizes eight to ten homes a month with his crews for the State of Louisiana. The WAP was such a boon to his business that he had the opportunity to hire three more workers to keep up with demand, a number of whom trained at LACAP’s Baton Rogue center.

“WAP has been a tremendous asset as far as I’m concerned,” Mr. Robinson said. “It helped me get a job, and I help homeowners have a more energy efficient, comfortable home.”

Other training centers like the LACAP’s in Louisiana have been established throughout the United States with Recovery Act funding. To date, more than thirty-five centers exist across the nation in diverse climactic and housing stock areas such as Maine, Florida, Indiana, and Montana. Each employs the high technical standards established by the DOE under their standardized curricula, coupled with local standards and techniques specific to each state’s region. The creation of these training centers has laid the foundation for a solid, well-trained workforce in green, living-wage jobs.

As the cases of Mr. Sharkey and Mr. Robinson demonstrate, a well-trained workforce helps not only the low-income people served by the WAP, but also the small business owners and workers who can use the training to enter the growing energy efficiency retrofit market. This is a win-win for all: It creates jobs, reduces America’s carbon footprint, and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.

To see other Recovery Act funded Weatherization Training Centers, please click here.
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WAP Remains 8th in Recovery Act Jobs

Alice Gaston — Wed, 04 May 2011 11:56:00 GMT

The Weatherization Assistance Program remained ranked 8th out of approximately 200 federal programs in the number of direct jobs created or retained with 14,832 for the quarter beginning January 1, 2011 and ending March 31, 2011. You can see this by clicking here.

WAP has consistently been ranked in the top 10 in the number of ARRA jobs, a clear indication that Weatherization Works!

Thanks for all that you do to ensure the success of the ARRA WAP!

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NASCSP Staff goes to WX Training

Alice Gaston — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:57:00 GMT

Last month, seven adventurous NASCSP staff members headed off to the New River Center for Energy Research and Training (NRCERT) in Christiansburg, Virginia for weatherization training. A mix of CSBG, WAP, and the new Healthy Homes Initiative (HHI) staff, we all wanted to learn more about the fundamentals of weatherization our field technicians face every day.

Our training class was comprised of twelve students: seven NASCSP staff, two WAP administrative support staff from Virginia weatherization offices, and three weatherization technicians. Training began with the basics of building science. We learned why weatherization works by exploring the difference pressure and airflow can have on the energy efficiency of a home, how thermal and air barriers work together to warm or cool the home, and some of the established best practices to measure and seal common problems. Props such as blower doors and mock-attics at the training center helped to demonstrate further some of the concepts learned in the classroom.

After we understood the fundamentals of why we were air sealing and tightening a home, we graduated from the classroom into the workshop. The five experienced trainers started us off by weatherizing boxes rigged with typical air sealing opportunities such as chimney chases and ductwork pipes. We tackled each box and afterwards the trainers tested our air sealing prowess by attaching a fan to each and demonstrating where we still had air sealing opportunities. After countless tubes of caulk, single-part foam, and foam board, we were ready to move on to the (almost) real thing.

The final test came on the third day of training when we were tasked to seal a mock home, replete with an attic and a basement. Teams of four worked throughout the morning to seal chimney openings, recessed light fixtures, plumbing stacks, and attic access hatches to DOE standards. After only a few hours of work in near ideal conditions, everyone had a much greater appreciation for the arduous work our weatherization technicians do every day in the field.

The week wrapped up with a test which the NASCSP staff passed with flying colors. Overall, we found it both fun and interesting experience to see the more technical side of the WAP. Don’t be surprised if you see us walking around with mastic or two-part foam sticking to our clothes in the future - we’re thinking of starting our own NASCSP weatherization crew now that we know the fundamentals. Or maybe, on second thought, we’ll just leave it to the professionals.

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Legislative Update: FY2011 WAP Funding

Alice Gaston — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:38:00 GMT

The FY2011 federal budget is nearly complete. Republican and Democratic leadership in the House, Senate, and White House agreed to a compromise late Friday April 8th minutes before a deadline for a partial government shutdown loomed. A one week Continuing Resolution (CR) was quickly passed by all chambers on April 8th, giving legislators until the end of this week to draft and pass a final spending bill to fund the federal government through September 30, 2011.

The House released the final version of this spending bill late April 11th. Among the $38.4 billion in reductions is a cut of $438 million to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) account, an almost twenty percent reduction from FY2010 EERE appropriations. This figure includes $30 million in rescinded unobligated balances as well as $292 million in earmarks delineated in previous CRs. Therefore, the House’s most recent spending bill outlines $116 million in new cuts to EERE compared to FY2010. This places total EERE funding for 2011 at $1.835 billion. Additional cuts of interest include a $390 cut to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) contingency fund.

While specific figures are outlined in the bill, the House does not specify where in the EERE account those cuts originate. It is unknown at this time what level WAP will be funded. DOE will make that final determination once the spending bill has passed. The House is expected to vote on this measure Wednesday afternoon in order to pass it along to the Senate for their approval which is expected.

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Community Action Agencies Continue to Fight for Low-Income Families

Jim Gunshinan — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:21:00 GMT

I began my trip last week with a few days visiting my father, two sisters, and a bunch of nieces and nephews living just north of Washington, D.C. in Maryland. Both my sisters have recently been treated for cancer, so it was very good to see them happy and healthy. My older sister lost her job around the time she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. After her COBRA insurance ran out she was able to join the high-risk pull for health insurance provided through the state of Maryland.

My father is a former NASA engineer who retired early to take care of my Mom when she was dying of cancer. Dad has a pretty good retirement plan. In his working days, he traded the higher pay he could have received working for a private company with lower pay but solid government benefits. When you see the weather satellite images during the local news weather report, chances are my Dad was somehow responsible for the performance of the satellite.

From visiting my family I traveled just a few miles south and west for the mid-winter meeting of the National Association of State and Community Services Providers (NASCSP). My Dad dropped me off at the hotel where the conference was held. As we made our way south along Wisconsin Avenue we passed what seemed to me like several blocks of newer buildings that are part of the National Institutes of Health.

I came to the same NASCSP meetings in 2009, right around the time that the Obama Administration was pushing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) through Congress. ARRA provided $5-billion to the DOE Weatherization Assistance Program. I described the atmosphere at the 2009 NASCSP meetings as like “drinking water from a fire hose.” Many community action agencies were preparing to double and triple their staff; buy equipment; and weatherize two or three times the number of homes they were used to weatherizing in half the time.

Their lives in 2010 were tough. Everyone from state attorneys general and the federal Office of Management and Budget to the Department of Labor and the National Historic Preservation Program were looking over their shoulders, demanding a level of accountability that would ruin most other agencies. There was some bad press about wasted funds and corruption and only back page, below the fold coverage of the successes. But the success of the weatherization program is clear. The program created more than 15,000 jobs in the last quarter of 2010. More than 330,000 homes were weatherized through ARRA so far, mostly in 2010. For every dollar spent almost two dollars has been returned to the economy in the form of savings on utility bills and increased economic activity. The health benefits of homes made healthy through weatherization for families and children is hard to calculate.

NSCASP and the Opportunity Council in Washington State announced a partnership with the Department of Energy on the Healthy Homes Initiative, which will determine the most cost effective way to make homes healthy as well as energy efficient. The performance metrics for healthy homes are:

Fewer asthma attacks (meaning fewer visits to the emergency room where many low-income families go for basic health care)
Fewer school days missed
Lowered stress on caregivers

Now if only we can get the NIH involved….

Government works when it is directed towards helping its citizens live healthy and productive lives. The current House of Representatives wants to zero out the weatherization program funding and take back the ARRA funds that haven’t been spent, in order to “help balance the budget.” One of the reasons I hope that the weatherization community partners with the NIH to help create healthy homes for families and children is that the NIH does research that benefits wealthy white men—the kind of people who are the decision makers in Washington.

Jim Gunshinan is an editor at Home Energy Magazine. This article was originally published March 11, 2011 in Home Energy Magazine.

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Legislative Update: Federal 2011 and 2012 Budget

Alice Gaston — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:20:00 GMT

Congress and the White House have yet to come to an agreement on the FY2011 Federal Budget. As the 111th Congress last year failed to pass a budget for FY2011, the federal government has been operating under a number of short-term Continuing Resolutions (CRs) designed to keep the government open for only weeks at a time. The most recent three-week CR is set to expire at on Friday, April 8th at midnight. If both Chambers of Congress do not propose legislation and pass it onto President Obama to sign by then, the federal government will close.

Thus far, no CR has contained cuts to WAP or Community Action Agencies. A number of bills proposed in the House have proffered various spending cuts to WAP; however, all of the measures have failed to pass in the House or in the Senate.

The most recent negotiations in Washington point to cuts for FY2011 somewhere between $30 to $40 billion, all originating from discretionary non-defense spending. This number includes the $10 billion already cut from the federal budget in previous CRs. Where Congress proposes to cut and whether or not they include WAP is unknown as an agreement has yet to be reached between the parties. If an agreement cannot be reached by Friday at midnight, the federal government will close with the exception of essential personnel.

Without a FY2011 budget, a FY2012 cannot be established. Paul Ryan, the Republican Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, proposed a FY2012 budget with cuts totaling almost $6 trillion over ten years. This proposal cuts nearly $100 billion from discretionary non-defense spending relative to President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget. Again, Mr. Ryan did not specify the exact nature of these cuts, but rather simply the number he seeks to cut.

Budget negotiations are changing almost hourly on the Hill. If and when a FY2011 budget is passed and a final number for WAP PY2011 is established, it will be posted here on the Waptac.org blog.
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The NASCSP Board presented the 2011 James Gardner Weatherization Award to Ken Rauseo.

Alice Gaston — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:07:00 GMT

The NASCSP Board presented the 2011 James Gardner Weatherization Award at the 2011 Mid-Winter Conference in Bethesda, Maryland to Ken Rauseo.

Jim Gardner served in several capacities in the Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program. The James Gardner Award was the first award established by NASCSP because we wanted to recognize this friend of Weatherization - this advocate of the program and the states. And it is Jim’s spirit that we honor most.

Jim had a certain openness and approachability; he was very easy to talk to regarding issues, problems, or concerns that any state might have. He was an honest, straight shooter, and as one member described him, “a ‘friendly’ Fed’”. When Jim said, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”, you knew he meant it. He was totally dedicated to the Weatherization Assistance Program and he knew it well. Jim had the ability to understand different people’s points of view. He was quiet and unassuming, but had a wealth of knowledge and was the epitome of grace under pressure.

For these and other reasons, NASCSP established the James Gardner Weatherization Award in his honor. This award recognizes leadership achievements at the national, state or local level that show a positive impact on the Weatherization community through either policy, or technological or programmatic contributions. The recipient must have played a key role in the planning and design of new activities, and/or displayed a dedication and commitment to his/her constituency as a leader of and advocate for Weatherization.

Most recent winners include Mimi Burbage, Program Coordinator, Alaska Housing Finance; Tim Lenahan, Residential Programs Manager, Office of Energy Efficiency in Ohio’s Department of Development; and Cal Steiner, Weatherization Technician Specialist with the Division of Community Services in the North Dakota Department of Commerce.

NASCSP and the Weatherization Network congratulates Ken on all the hard work and dedication to weatherization in the State of Massachusetts and across the nation that has led to this award.

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Mississippi Weatherization Agency delivers on Energy Savings: 93 jobs created and 1,423 homes Weatherized with ARRA, and DOE/LIHEAP funds

Alice Gaston — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:02:00 GMT

Bethesda, MD --- State & Local Energy Report, together with National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP) announced the winner of the 3rd Annual Residential Energy Efficiency Awards for Weatherization: South Central Community Action Agency, Inc. (SCCAA) of Mississippi.

The group from Mississippi was recognized among their peers at the annual meeting of Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) providers. WAP is the largest residential energy efficiency program in the nation and performs a vital role in reducing the burden of high energy price on low-income families. Since the Program’s inception, more than 6.4 million homes have been weatherized using federal, state, utility and other funds.

SCCAA of Mississippi was founded in 2001, and received their first Weatherization Grant in 2009; they immediately began weatherizing homes in 4 counties, reaching 1,423 homes to date. The Weatherization Program has proven to be an excellent generator of green jobs among some of the hardest-hit labor markets, creating more than 15,426 new jobs from ARRA funding nationwide. Ninety-three of those new jobs were created in D’Lo, Mississippi at SCCAA. Jesse Griffin, Executive Director commented that a critical role is growing the people in their jobs.

Bob Scott, Director of Director of Weatherization Services for NASCSP, and one of the contest’s sponsors, believes “these projects are examples of how weatherization agencies can develop innovative community undertakings, and leverage additional resources to be an integral partner in community-based efforts to create jobs, reduce energy consumption, boost local economic activity, and improve the environment." NASCSP congratulates SCCAA on the great work they are doing for weatherization and the WAP.

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Weatherization Training Curricula

Ameer Bishay — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:59:00 GMT

The Weatherization Training Curricula is part of a national Department of Energy initiative to adopt standardized training methods for weatherization. The curricula offer a comprehensive approach to Weatherization Training, from the fundamentals to “training the trainer.”    It addresses all facets of weatherization work. Whether you are an installer, auditor or instructor, the curricula is an invaluable resource.

The training curricula is a necessary complement to the Department of Energy (DOE) Workforce Guidelines. The Workforce Guidelines serve as a standard for weatherization while the training curricula showcase the best practices to achieve those standards and specifications.

Using the training modules, instructors have the flexibility to pick and choose use specific courses or portions of courses depending on their level of expertise and trade. The curricula are divided into the following categories:

    • Weatherization Installer/Technician Fundamentals
    • Weatherization Installer/Technician Intermediate
    • Weatherization Installer/Technician Mobile Homes
    • Energy Auditor - Single Family
    • Energy Auditor - Multifamily
    • Crew Chief
    • Weatherization Technical Monitor / Inspector
    • Train the Trainer

The training program is further divided into modules which allow an instructor to adapt lectures for varying audiences. Along with the comprehensive text, images, examples and diagrams are integrated within the curricula. Compared to previous tools and field guides, the training coursework is extremely comprehensive and serves as an excellent training tool for weatherization instructors.

The quality and depth of the publication is excellent, but what is most appealing is that it is available to practitioners of the Weatherization Assistance Program at no cost. Grantees, sub-grantees and service providers can develop their own training programs using a completely free and comprehensive resource.

The curricula can be found under the Training Resources on www.waptac.org. Given the size and content of the material, training components can be downloaded individually.
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Georgia WAP Success Story

Rebecca Stewart — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:22:00 GMT

The State of Georgia’s Recovery Act Program is one of the best in the nation, with the majority of their agencies over 100% of production goals. Only a few of Georgia’s 21 agencies are below 60% of cumulative production goals, but move closer to being on target with each month. As of November 2010, the State completed 6,780 of a planned 13,871 units. This is no small feat for a Recovery Act program of $124,756,312 when typically funded around $2-3 million.

The ramp up was not always smooth, however. The State office took the lead in setting expectations that local agencies were to reach full production levels by February 2010. Georgia consulted with the local agencies to ensure they had fully estimated their need to ramp-up with hiring of crews and purchasing vehicles and equipment and to confirm network buy-in for the ramp up plan. They furthermore trained their agencies in project management, understanding that intake processing would be critical to meeting production goals.

The State office also tracked production by agency. After two full months of production, they were clearly able to identify CAAs struggling with ARRA. To assist these agencies reach their full potential, three members of GEFA’s staff traveled across the State to meet with each individually to assess what actions needed to be taken and to provide concrete recommendations. Agencies were obligated to respond with a timeline for increased production. Two months after full production, eight agencies were on this “watch-list”; after four months, only four remained.

Georgia devised a creative solutions to manage the remaining CAAs that had yet to reach full ARRA production. The State office initiated a mentoring program for two agencies whereby a neighboring, high production agency advised a struggling agency. The high performing agency spent time with the weatherization director training them on various areas – scheduling, procurement, or training. The mentoring agreement worked very well with one of these agencies and they are now meeting their production goals and did not face reallocation.

Another agency was recommended to increase client intake by double (due to a high deferral rate that was contributing to their lack of performance) and to also partner with other non-profits that had rehab programs in the county. This partnering would also reduce their deferral rate. The final recommendation was to join the Senior Housing Coalition – where agencies that provide services to seniors meet monthly, to increase further production. These measures along with increasing their work week saved the agency from reallocation.

Georgia is also working to train its crews and employees in technical, programmatic, and project management. SouthFace Institute has trained over 700 weatherization workers, significantly more than the 500 originally envisioned. The programmatic training involves technical assistance in the areas of processing monthly reports, and troubleshooting certain problem areas of the program, including how to handle customer service issues. The final approach is project and program management. Weatherization Directors needed assistance in coping with the increased capacity of the program due to ARRA. Management Trainings have included a best practices roundtable, outside presentations, presentations by high performing agencies, and fiscal management session.

When asked what tips of techniques were particularly useful, Kim Cameron noted it was important to use control measures to set standards. “Each agency understands that the State of Georgia is examined not just on their individual progress,” she stated about agency’s working together throughout the state to ensure high quality work. This “has created a sense of team amongst them, they don’t want to let each other down. Accountability is now to each other and not just to the State.” Kim also listed motivation and encouragement including awards for high performing agencies and individuals, as well as team as key ingredients for a good weatherization program. From their innovative approach to managing agencies to their continuing training for all employees and workers, Georgia is an example of a successful Weatherization Assistance Program.
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Budget Update: 2011 and 2012 Appropriations

Bob Scott — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:21:00 GMT

The President’s 2012 budget was released yesterday. The request for WAP is $320 Million. The breakdown is $220 M for the base grant, $97 M for Innovative Projects, and $3 M T&TA (presumably DOE HQ). With all the wild speculation the last couple of weeks, NASCSP is not disappointed in the request. We are somewhat encouraged with the signs of support from the Administration. We have several questions about the very high amount targeted for Innovative Grants.

In another note of immediate concern is the Fiscal Year 2011 draft Continuing Resolution from the House Appropriations Committee zeroed out WAP.

President Obama’s 2012 budget request for other programs related to and of interest to WAP Managers include:

• CSBG - $350 Million (50% reduction)
• LIHEAP $2.57 Billion (reduced from $5.2 B)
• State Energy Program (SEP) - $63.8 Million

NASCSP will continue to follow developments related to 2011 and 2012 funding. There will be an in-depth discussion of these issues at the Weatherization Committee Meeting scheduled on the afternoon of March 2 at the upcoming NASCSP Conference. We hope you will participate in planning strategies to educate policymakers and stakeholders that Weatherization is a cost-effective program with significant and quantifiable benefits on energy savings, jobs, the economy, carbon reduction, and reducing dependence of foreign oil.
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Legislative Update: 2011 Budget

Alice Gaston — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:22:00 GMT

Yesterday, Hal Rogers (R-KY), Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, announced a sweeping $78 billion package of spending cuts for the FY 2011 budget. Roger’s proposal represents a cut of $41 billion below current spending levels and $58 billion below President Obama’s fiscal 2011 request.

These cuts apply to the current 2011 budget. As Congress failed to pass a FY 2011 budget in the 111th Congress, the government and federal programs have been operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) which extended 2010 funding levels for all programs through March 4, 2011. The 112th Congress must propose and pass a FY 2011 by this date or risk a government shutdown.

The package of cuts announced by Rogers includes significant cuts to Department of Energy (DOE) funding. Within the proposal, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)—which funds the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP)—would be cut by $899 million from the President’s proposed $2.3 billion FY 2011 request. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Contingency Fund would also see cuts of $400 million.

Once approved by the House Appropriations Committee, the proposal will move to the floor of the House where amendments will most certainly be added. A number of Republicans see the proposed cuts as a beginning but not nearly drastic enough to cover the $1.2 trillion deficit currently facing the United States. These members would propose cuts of nearly $100 billion for FY 2011 and will likely add amendments to push the bill closer to this target.

Regardless of what is approved in the House, the bill must pass to the Senate—where Democrats maintain a majority—and eventually be signed by President Obama. The Democrats will balk at the depth of cuts to programs like WAP and LIHEAP. An agreement must be struck with the House on programs such as these to pass a bill to send to the President to sign. Again, this must be done by March 4, 2011 or risk a government shutdown.

The debate surrounding the FY 2011 budget will increase when the President releases his FY 2012 budget request on February 14, 2011. Significant cuts to Community Action Agencies, including programs like the Community Services Block Grant, and to LIHEAP are expected. This will undoubtedly fuel amendments to cut further the FY 2011 budget.

We will keep you updated as more news becomes available. Cuts to WAP and LIHEAP are estimated; however, the depth and breadth of those cuts are open to debate.
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WAP 8th in Recovery Act Jobs!

Rebecca Stewart — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:30:00 GMT

The Weatherization Assistance Program ranked 8th out of approximately 200 federal programs in the number of direct jobs created or retained with 15,426 for the quarter beginning October 1, 2010 and ending December 31, 2010. You can see this by clicking here.

This number shows an increase from the previous quarter and is the highest number of WAP jobs to date. WAP has consistently been ranked in the top 10 in the number of ARRA jobs.

Thanks for all that you do to ensure the success of the ARRA WAP!

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NYTimes takes on Home Energy Efficiency

Alice Gaston — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:23:00 GMT

The New York Times recently published an article on home energy efficiency. While most stories about cutting down utility bills merely tell you to caulk your windows and use more efficient light bulbs, this one delved far more deeply into the world of home energy efficiency measures used commonly in the Weatherization Assistance Program.

The author sought out home energy specialists who explained how a home breathes and provided some useful tips to homeowners on how they could find and seal the largest holes. The author also contacted his local utility company to conduct a home energy audit involving a blower door test to calculate the rate at which his home breathed.

It is encouraging that advanced energy efficiency techniques so commonly used in the WAP program like the blower door are making their way more into the mainstream home retrofit industry. This is a good first step towards a greater understanding that weatherization involves much more than caulk and new windows.

To view the original article, please click here.

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Secretary Chu Announces Major New Recovery Act Milestone: 300,000 Homes Weatherized

Alice Gaston — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:36:00 GMT

NASCSP is proud to share U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s announcement yesterday:

“States and territories across the country have now weatherized more than 300,000 low-income homes under the Recovery Act, a major milestone in the Department's efforts to reduce home energy bills for families. This means that states are now more than 50 percent of the way toward meeting President Obama's goal of weatherizing approximately 600,000 homes under the Recovery Act. The weatherization program is helping families save money on their energy bills by improving home energy efficiency with upgrades like insulation, air-sealing, and more efficient heating and cooling systems. The program has also trained a new generation of clean energy workers and is employing more than 15,000 workers nationwide.

"Today marks a major milestone for the weatherization program and shows once again that we are on pace to meet the goals of the Recovery Act. This program has already benefitted 300,000 low-income families and put thousands of people to work," said Secretary Chu. "Through the weatherization program, we are laying the groundwork for a broader efficiency industry in the U.S. that will help grow our economy while saving money for American families."

Through November, the network of state offices, local agencies, and weatherization providers has completed 300,000 homes. Of the total, more than 100,000 have been completed in just the last four months, showing the dramatically accelerated pace of weatherization under the program. A state-by-state breakdown of the homes weatherized through November is available at http://www.energy.gov/recovery/energyefficiency.htm.

Weatherization assistance reduces energy consumption for low-income families on average 35 percent, saving families on average more than $400 on their heating and cool bills in the first year alone. Nationwide, the weatherization of 300,000 homes is estimated to save $161 million in energy costs in just the first year.

DOE has worked closely with state and local governments to ensure the program is well-managed, responsive, and flexible. Nearly all of the states and territories involved in the program have met the milestone of weatherizing more than 30 percent of their targeted number of homes and many have completed more than half of their goals to date.”

NASCSP Congratulates the Network on these Reaching Recovery Act Milestones!

To view the original posting, please click here.

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LIHEAP funding

Alice Gaston — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:32:00 GMT

The Continuing Resolution (CR) passed during the lame duck session of the 111th Congress extended LIHEAP spending authority through March 4, 2011. The bill language, as stated in the Senate release, “ensures that HHS obligates the same amount for LIHEAP during the CR as it obligated during the same period in FY2010.” The intent was to allow states to obligate at the FY 2010 level of $5.1 billion rather than the Senate suggested funding level of $3.2 billion.

On January 11, 2011, HHS released $1.25 billion appropriated under the CR for 2011 LIHEAP funding. This allocation brings funding until March 3, 2011 to $3.95 billion. To see individual state allocations by HHS, please click here.

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Spray Polyurethane Foam

Ameer Bishay — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:49:00 GMT

Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF) is one of the fastest growing products in the building and construction industry.   The History Channel’s Modern Marvels segment on insulation described it as “the secret weapon on energy consumption .”   Building professionals are using spray foam more readily than ever before as advances in product application and composition increase the product’s versatility. It can be used on roofs, in wall cavities, and on foundations, to name just a few areas of application.

Although SPF is in vogue for residential energy retrofits today, the technology has been around for over 50 years. In Germany, Mr. Otto Bayer worked with polyurethane polymers, giving birth to the first use of foam, which he introduced to the world in 1937. Later, it was brought to the United States for additional research and development. Further advancement in the 1940s led to its use in military and aviation industries. But it wasn’t until the 1950s that polyurethane would be used as home insulation.

In 1952 Mr. Walter Baughman created the “Blendometer." The Blendometer revolutionized the use of spray polyurethane foam. The Blendometer was a device capable of mixing the chemical components required for the creation of polyurethane foam. The machine’s proportioning values mixed the perfect blend to create the expanding foam. Although Mr. Baughman’s creation led to some of the first applications of foam in homes, it wasn’t unit the 1960s and 70s when advances in spray gun nozzles made it more practical for spraying polyurethane foam in homes.

Today, polyurethane foam products are pushing the thermal envelope.   Manufactures are engineering creative ways to inject these products into wall cavities through holes as small as a half inch. SPF roofs are becoming increasingly cost effective alternatives to roof replacement. Since these applications have the capacity to seal, insulate, and serve as white reflective surfaces, they are steadily gaining market share compared to conventional roof replacements. Efficiently applying the product is an art; the spray gun becomes the brush and the roof becomes the artist’s canvas. The technician fills cracks, carves out valleys, and creates troughs to mitigate water run-off.

This “super material’s” density has an R Value that can be nearly twice that of traditional insulation, has sound detonation capabilities, increases a home’s ventilation control, and some applications can add structural integrity. Closed Cell foam technology has been attributed with increased resistance to mold and moisture

So why isn’t the “secret weapon on energy consumption” readily used for retrofit applications? One barrier is cost, which has been shown to decrease as contractors achieve economies of scale, technological advancements, greater efficiencies in product usage, and better material storage techniques which drive costs down. Increasing numbers of people are turning to SPF applications. Just as the market pushed the need for a $199.00 Netbook, the market is driving costs down for foam technologies.

Although the product is revolutionizing the insulation industry, it’s not without controversy. A second barrier to the product’s use in residential retrofits is health risks associated with its application. Although the EPA has concentrated on the potentially hazardous side-effects when applying the product, a significant amount of research is still needed on “off gassing” and VOC emission for interior applications.

The EPA has expressed the following on SPF application:

“Spray polyurethane foam (SPF) is a widely used and highly-effective insulator and sealant; however, eye, skin, and inhalation exposures to its key ingredient, isocyanates, and other chemicals in SPF products of concern in vapors, aerosols, and dusts during SPF installation can cause:

Asthma, a potentially life-threatening disease
Lung damage, Respiratory problems and other breathing difficulties
Skin and eye irritation
Other potential adverse health effects

During SPF installation, residents and other unprotected building occupants should vacate the premises until after the foam is applied, cured, trimmed, and the area has been thoroughly cleaned to eliminate any residual isocyanates and ventilated. Some manufacturers recommend 23 to 72 hours before re-occupancy for two-component applications and 6 to 12 hours for one component foam applications, but re-entry time is dependent on product formulation and other factors .”

Although the EPA appears to focus on health effects “during SPF installation,” few testing standards exist on testing the material for “off gassing.” Additionally, little data is available for the injection of foam in encapsulated wall cavities. California, Canada, and the European Union have adopted regulation thresholds for VOC off gassing, but few standards currently exist at the U.S. national level. Although there is a lack of VOC regulations specific to SPF, responsible manufacturers seeking green credentials are testing their products using the most aggressive standards.

Cutting edge foam products and applications are becoming increasingly available with the potential of radically changing the energy retrofit industry. The WAP network needs to stay abreast of these innovative technologies and their applicability for weatherization.
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Happy Holidays

Bob Scott — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 16:50:00 GMT

Season's Greetings! We wanted to share the below poem written by a WAP recipient in Idaho. We feel these kind words express the gratitude of many of the program's recipients, and also strongly reflect on the dedication and compassion of WAP crews everywhere. Such efforts are why Weatherization Works! Thank you for your hard work and success in the past year.

A special thanks to Christina Zamora of Community Action Partnership of Idaho and Ken Robinette of South Central Community Action Partnership for passing this along.

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WAP Recovery Act Success Story: Montana

Rebecca Stewart — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:12:00 GMT

The incredibly beautiful vast open spaces of Montana are one of the natural treasures of the nation. The State covers 147,138 square miles, with a single agency covering 47,945 square miles, an area as large as the state of Louisiana. The harsh climate can be hard on the housing stock and low-income families in the State. The Montana Recovery Act Program has risen to the challenge of providing comprehensive energy efficiency retrofits through their Weatherization Assistance Program, making homes more comfortable and safe for thousands of households.

Montana received $26,543,777 in Recovery Act funding for a Program typically funded around $2-3 million. To ensure the funds were as effective as possible and in the spirit of the Recovery Act, Jim Nolan, Bureau Chief of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services chose to approach the grant as two year money. They have been effective at doing so, with some agencies already close to finishing out Recovery Act production and with 4,081 units completed by the end of 3rd Quarter 2010.

When asked about Montana’s success, Jim states, “Our weatherization staff, headed by Kane Quenemoen and his field staff have been extraordinary in working to get this program rolled out.” Nolan credit regular meetings, excellent management, and a cooperative relationship between the State and local agencies for the smoothly running Program. The regular meetings include State level meetings weekly and meetings with the ten Community Action Agencies and one tribal government monthly to ensure that guidance is clear. These meetings include clear metrics and reports on homes weatherized and steps necessary to move forward. Further, even before the Recovery Act, Montana convened quarterly roundtable meetings to talk about what is and what is not working and make sure all interested parties are at the table when making decisions.

Montana also chose to move funds around from local agency to local agency, utilizing agency wisdom and experience. Local agencies stepped up to the challenge and did all they could to roll out the expanded program. Also, when the Recovery Act hit , the State worked very closely with the CAAs to ensure that they were ready to ramp up with equipment and vehicles so that everyone was ready to go.

In addition to the WAP, Jim’s office runs several other programs, including the Community Services Block Grant, Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Housing for People with AIDS (HOPWA), Emergency Shelter grants and a new HUD homelessness program called Housing Prevention Rapid ReHousing, funded at $4 million. Finally, his might be the only CSBG office that operates a food commodities warehouse, complete with 3 trucks and trailers to store, handle and ship USDA food to Indian reservations, food banks and senior centers!

Hiring and training of workers has been key to getting funds out quickly and efficiently, including two at the State level and 130 at the local level. One concern about the end of the Recovery Act is the possible loss of jobs once the WAP ramps down. Nolan says, “the training and work experience we have provided should serve staff well as the green jobs economy comes into play.” Montana State University (MSU) provides training for the Program, with 400 attending in the last year on a wide variety of topics including Weatherization 101, Lead Renovation Repair and Painting, Furnace Training, Health and Safety, Mobile Home Clinic, and more. MSU is a nationally recognized leader in training and has been widely praised for their WXTV training videos found here: http://www.weatherization.org/wxtv/.

Montana is truly a model of cooperative training and management as well as Recovery Act success. Mr. Nolan also thanks us, his national partner saying, “All the information NASCSP has made available on weatherization and through WAPTAC has been invaluable.” Thanks for showing us that weatherization works!
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Leveraging - An Opportunity to Expand the WAP

Bob Scott — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:43:00 GMT

As we head into the holiday season, WAP Grantees are considering their 2011 WAP applications and State Plans. The majority of WAP Grantees are on an April 1 – March 31 funding cycle and spend much of each January focusing on their State Plan, Public Hearing, subgrantee contracts, and otherwise preparing for the new program year. However, the cycle this year will be anything but business as usual. This year, WAP managers will have to contemplate the huge ramifications due to the end of the WAP ARRA award on March 31, 2012. After committing so much time and energy into ramping up and capacity building for ARRA, are you taking any steps to help maintain what was developed in the past couple of years?

The recent November 2010 election results reinforce the reality that future WAP Congressional appropriations will not maintain the growth of the WAP network. WAP Grantees and subgrantees may have to take proactive responses to this dilemma, mainly taking steps to help insure their program is in the best position to move ahead even if Federal funding is greatly reduced. As such, Grantees need to strongly consider utilizing a longstanding DOE regulation, outlined in each year’s Grant Guidance, that allows Grantees to take a percentage of their grant “to undertake leveraging activities.”   The guidance (Section 1.7 in WPN 10-1, 2011 Grant Guidance not published at the time of this writing) further states “Leveraging activities include paying for agency staff or hiring consultant staff to explore and develop partnerships with utility companies and other entities that will generate non-Federal resources for Weatherization.”

The Grantee must detail their plans for leveraging in the Annual Plan section of the State Plan and must show planned funds for this purpose in their budget. Grantees can use up to 15% of their total allocation for leveraging. Presumably the higher amount of funds allocated for leveraging, the higher the scrutiny of the DOE review for approval. The Guidance also states that Grantees should aim to produce more than one dollar leveraged for each DOE dollar expended.

Many states have successfully used Leveraging funds. The NASCSP WAP Funding Survey has documented that at least $150 Million other funds, in addition to DOE and LIHEAP funding, have been utilized in the WAP network every year since 2003. These funds have allowed additional units to be weatherized and made possible additional measures that either could not be afforded with DOE funds or were repairs or measures outside of DOE’s allowed scope.

Probably the most common uses of DOE leveraging funds are to support legal assistance for regulatory proceedings provided through CAA Association and for staff time at CAA Association or state level to secure (advise), coordinate, and monitor leveraged efficiency programs. DOE Leveraging funds have helped provide the start up funds for several successful utility partnerships that may have not been initiated without those funds.

State employees may have some restrictions on what they can do in regards to leveraging activities. If that is the case, State Managers can develop plans for leveraging activities and consider contracting out the actual activities with their CAA Association or a proactive lead agency. It is critical that State WAP Managers understand the need and help initiate the process.

If you are concerned about where your Weatherization Program is going in the future and want to strategically plan how you may bring in additional resources to help maintain your built-up capacity, you may want to take the opportunity to outline a plan using DOE Leveraging funds in your State plan.   With ARRA funds still available but culminating in 2012, there may never be a better opportunity or more urgent point in time to use Leveraging funds to try to generate non-Federal resources to maintain your capacity. Please feel free to contact NASCSP staff if we can be of assistance.
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Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades

Bob Scott — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 10:26:00 GMT

The updated Recovery Through Retrofit initiative, announced on November 9th by Vice-President Biden, grew out of an initial report from October 2009 released by the Middle Class Task Force and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. That report included several recommendations aimed at building a strong, nationwide home energy retrofit market. Listed as a barrier to a self-sustaining national retrofit market was a stated concern, “Access to Skilled Workers: There are currently not enough skilled workers and green entrepreneurs to expand weatherization and efficiency retrofit programs on a national scale.”

One of the recommendations in the report was to “mobilize a well-trained national energy retrofit workforce and expand good, green job opportunities for all American workers” with a key component to “establish National workforce certifications and training standards.” This led the Department of Energy to make the WAP ARRA T&TA plan a part of this initiative and they tasked the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with the development of the Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades, intended to be voluntary national guidelines to help establish consistent high-level standards and to help ensure consumer confidence, quality work, and fully realized energy savings.

Weatherization Assistance Program professionals often have mixed feelings about such endeavors. We typically scan such reports for mention of the WAP and the context of any program references. If WAP is not mentioned, we are concerned that the largest residential energy efficiency program in the nation, a program that has established many of the best practices and state-of-the art techniques in the industry, has been overlooked. If WAP is discussed, we are proud to have been acknowledged, but want to make sure the program is portrayed positively and correctly. The initiative to develop the Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades was a very good opportunity for WAP professionals to be heard and provide leadership for the industry. The process involved a collaboration between WAP trainers and technical experts, home performance contractors, building scientists, organized labor, healthy homes and worker safety experts, organized labor, and other leaders in the building trades.

A key component of the project is the Standard Work Specifications, which describe the performance requirements for high quality energy efficiency retrofit work. This is a comprehensive 500+ page document. From my viewpoint, the majority of the specifications are consistent with the most recent and best of the various Field Standards and Best Practices documents from the WAP network.

The Job Task Analyses describe the tasks performed by each of the identified worker classifications. The Essential KSAs describe the minimum knowledge, skills, and abilities that a worker should possess to consistently perform high quality work. The WAP influence is apparent – they are very similar and perhaps the next generation of the Core Competencies document developed by the Weatherization Trainers Consortium.

The Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades can be viewed in their entirety at http://www.weatherization.energy.gov/retrofit_guidelines and are available for public comment until January 7, 2011.

There will be some marked benefits to WAP when the guidelines are finalized. WAP managers can use them to shape Field Standards and upgrade Field Guides. Trainers can use them to help develop training curricula and course content. As with the Core Competencies, the Job Task Analyses and Essential KSAs will add consistency and professionalism to the workforce and enable worker credentials for various levels of worker classifications. Lastly, the Workforce Guidelines will provide a basis for training program accreditations and worker certifications.

The WAP network has much to gain from the Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades. In addition to adding to the professionalism of the WAP workforce and the consistent delivery of quality services, the WAP network will cement its rightful place as a leader in the evolving green energy efficiency retrofit market. In times where funding levels are uncertain and we begin to consider life after ARRA, we should be proactive in ensuring that WAP is a leader and focal point in this emerging market.

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Letter to the Editor: The Weatherization Assistance Program works

Bob Scott — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:01:00 GMT

Bob Scott's op-ed response to a recent article in Politoco by Grover G. Norquist and Rep. Fred Upton, "Reduce Out of Control Spending Now":

"Grover Norquist and Rep. Fred Upton wrote in “Reduce out-of-control spending now” (POLITICO, Nov. 15), that there were delays in Weatherization Assistance Program recovery act implementation. However, it is misguided to say these programs as “not working as intended [and] must be frozen until we can determine how to fix them.”

To stop or delay the weatherization program now would waste valuable government resources, as well as put thousands out of jobs and deny service to tens of thousands of families who have applied.

There have been significant delays due to the obvious challenges of ramping up to $5 billion a program typically funded at about $225 million. But these challenges were largely addressed with focused planning and strong networking.

The biggest obstacle in quick deployment was due to the recovery act mandate that Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rates must be applied to the WAP. Davis-Bacon wages for the “weatherization worker” classification did not exist and had to be created for every county in the nation. Pay scales were not finalized until September 2009, a full seven months after the recovery act was signed. Weatherization work largely ceased over that time.

That major setback aside, the WAP network now averages more than 25,000 completed units each month. Through September, more than 250,000 homes have been weatherized under the recovery act. At this rate, the WAP network is likely to reach its recovery act goal in the intended time frame.

WAP is ninth on the list of recovery act jobs with 14,613. It has also invested heavily in training the emerging green work force and is a key gateway for the expansion of the green residential energy efficiency market.

Weatherization works — both for those who receive its services and as a government investment. The program provides significant energy savings for its recipients, makes America’s housing stock more energy-efficient, improves the indoor air quality while reducing health and safety risks, provides jobs, stimulates local economies, lowers CO2 emissions and helps reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

The administration and Congress should continue to support WAP."

To view this and other responses to Norquist and Upton's article, please click here.
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Energy through Retrofit

Ameer Bishay — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:27:00 GMT

Recently, the Obama Administration released its new Home Energy Score initiative. Vice President Joe Biden accompanied by Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu; Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan, unveiled the Recovery through Retrofit strategy developed by the Administration’s Middle-Income Task Force.

The home efficiency initiative is aimed at assisting Americans making energy retrofits to their homes. The pilot program will begin in approximately 10 test counties throughout the nation and will continue from November 2010 through mid-2011. Home owners in areas served by the pilot program can get their home audits immediately! The program is anticipated to be implemented nationwide towards the end of 2011.

Certified Energy Auditors meeting the Department of Energy approval requirements will come to your home to do an energy assessment. The data collected by auditors will then be fed into newly developed software by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The Home Energy Scoring Tool generates a comprehensive report that allows a home owner to bench mark his or her’s home energy performance compared to other homes nationally. The scale ranges from 1 to 10, with 10 being an excellent score and 1 needing significant improvements. The Home Energy Score label represents a home’s operating performance, equivalent to MPG stickers found on new cars. Along with advising a home owner of the homes current energy performance, the audit also makes improvement suggestions. The audit reflects immediate steps that a home owner can take to increase efficiency with little to no investment. Long term energy retrofits are included in the report as well as well as energy saving tips.

In an effort to encourage home owners to make home energy improvements, Secretary Donavan introduced a new financing vehicle which qualified home owners could use to help finance their energy retrofits. Financing options are provided by Housing and Urban Development approved lenders capable of administering energy retrofit loans.

For more information visit:
http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/title/ti_abou.cfm
http://homeenergyscore.lbl.gov/
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WAP 9th in Jobs, Weatherization Day Success, and State & Local Energy Report Article

Bob Scott — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:09:00 GMT

The Weatherization Assistance Program is ranked 9th out of approximately 200 federal programs in the number of direct jobs funded by the Recovery Act for the quarter beginning July 1, 2010 and ending September 30, 2010. You can see this by clicking here.

Also, NASCSP has been working with the State & Local Energy Report to publicize the successes of the WAP. We invite you to download our latest set of stories on innovative job creation.

Finally, we want to thank you for your efforts in making the 2010 Weatherization Day a success. Secretary Chu posted a positive message on his blog about the network meeting Recovery Act goals. Remember to send your press releases, news coverage, photos and more to rstewart@nascsp.org so that we can highlight your programs.

Thanks for all that you do to ensure the success of the ARRA WAP!

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Multifamily Buildings

Ameer Bishay — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:39:00 GMT

With the increase in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding in the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), the Department of Energy (DOE) is focusing more on multifamily buildings. The DOE’s WAP Standardized Curricula for Pre-Audit Multi-Family Buildings adopts increased construction management (CM) based techniques for tackling multifamily homes. In conjunction with the new Weatherization Program Notices, the Weatherization network must evolve their multi-family skill sets if they are to rise to meet this new challenge.

Although the WAP network is relatively familiar with garden style or town home multifamily buildings, high-rise multifamily buildings are in an entirely different class. Many garden style buildings share much of the same energy efficiency anomalies we find in most single-family residential homes, making them an easier transition for our CAAs. Auditing the homes is done similarly to single-family homes, with greater emphasis placed on accessing buffered walls shared with other units.   Auditing larger scale multifamily buildings is more complex and normally requires specialists trained in commercial auditing applications.

Preparing for a high rise multi-unit energy retrofit requires the implementation of CM philosophies and performance based scheduling. The Standardized Curricula suggests the use a Pre-kickoff Auditor meetings to include: Building owner/management representative, Superintendent, Building engineer, and a Residents’ representatives as necessary.

The text recommends using blueprints and as-built drawings to help assess the structure’s overall construction and potential energy-loss problem areas. Along with using as-built drawings, an auditor should investigate any major building repairs or improvements completed over the life of the building. Auditors are encouraged to “record information from the drawings, then verify all observations and measurements.” Reviewing architectural drawings prior to an audit could also help visualize the building construction prior to the walk-through. Ideally, electrical, mechanical and plumbing schematics should be reviewed by engineers in that discipline.

Although the fundamentals of energy conservation are the same, the methods for reaching these goals differ. In weatherization, we understand the science behind energy conservation but few organizations have had the financial resources or know-how to implement large scale commercial projects until now. This is why it’s imperative that we encourage the use of proven construction management philosophies and strongly consider hiring experts in order to take on such large scale projects properly. DOE’s message was clear at the 2010 DOE WAP State Managers' Meeting: do not take on these projects on without the expertise, resources, and vision to do so. Agencies should consider sourcing these projects to construction management firms with proven experience. A plethora of CM and design-build engineering firms dedicated to multifamily building retrofits and renovation projects exist. The United States Green Building Council’s LEED initiative has created national benchmarks for environmentally conscious improvements and many firms have stepped up to participate in this arena. Today, federal, private and non-profit organizations are increasingly adopting LEED techniques on their projects. Another option for grantees or sub grantees is to seek counsel from states that have mastered multifamily building energy retrofits. Ensuring your organization seeks the advice of skilled professionals will not only help the weatherization cause but also allow agencies to focus on their strengths.
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Weatherization Day 2010

Alice Gaston — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:30:00 GMT

The Department of Energy (DOE) officially declared October Energy Awareness Month. Weatherization Day, October 30th, is a culmination of the month’s activities meant to showcase the great work being done by the weatherization network across the country.

This year, Weatherization Day falls on a Saturday. States and local agencies are thus celebrating their Weatherization Day’s throughout the month of October in a variety of ways. Here is a glance at some of the activities planned this year:

Michigan kicked off the Weatherization Day festivities with a dual event on October 12 in Oakland and Livingston. Participants were able to witness a live energy audit, meeting the homeowners and learning how auditors assess homes.
Oregon is holding the next event on October 23rd in Hillsboro at the Community Action’s 8th Annual Energy Fair. Workshops are going to be held covering topics such as Safety Kid Training, Furnace Basics, Eating for Good Heath, and Mold Control in Your Home. The fair is open to all, with materials available in English and Spanish.
Georgia is celebrating their Weatherization Day by opening up a new Weatherization training Facility, the Southeast Weatherization & Energy Training (SWEET) Center on October 28th. Sponsored by the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority of Southface, the theme of the event will be “Putting the Southeast Back to Work.” Participants will include State and local officials as well as over two hundred senior business leaders from across the region.
New Mexico will be highlighting the new focus on multifamily buildings for their Weatherization Day on October 28th. Participants will tour a 100 unit, multifamily project currently underway by the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority.
Idaho is rounding out the week with an event on October 29th at a low-income senior living housing multifamily unit in Jerome. The South Central Community Action Partnership hosting the event invited their Governor along with state and local legislators to the event to a demonstration of diagnostic and insulation techniques.

This is just a sample of the many events being held across the country. If your state or local agency is holding an event, please let NASCSP know by sending an e-mail to Rebecca Stewart at rstewart@nascsp.org.

Keep up the great work and have a successful Weatherization Day!
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DOE Recognizes 12 states for outstanding performance

Alice Gaston — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:03:00 GMT

At our Fall Conference in Charleston, South Carolina, the Department of Energy (DOE) recognized twelve states for their outstanding progress in judiciously spending the money awarded to them under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Awards went to states that had spent at least 40 percent of their allocated funds and completed at least 40 percent of projects under ARRA. States recognized included Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Mary Chant, Executive Director of the Community Action Partnership Association of Idaho, commented on the award, stating, “Idaho's steadfast commitment to quality and success is noticed every day by the low-income we are privileged to serve. Occasionally, it is noticed by others who can shine a light on these accomplishments to inspire and lead others to greater aspirations. I hope Idaho's weatherization providers, which are the Community Action Partnership agencies and the Canyon County Organization on Aging, can take a moment to enjoy their success.”

We applaud the fine work being done by these states and have every faith the remaining states and territories will meet and exceed the goals set by the Administration for the Recovery Act.
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Lead Safe Practices -- Whose Standards do you Follow?

Ameer Bishay — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:35:00 GMT

Lead Safe Work Practices are an aspect of WAP that we deal with on a daily basis. As more funding is dedicated to research programs studying the physiological impact of lead, we are gaining a greater insight into the effects of lead dust and debris.

Although the federal government has clearly established the need to minimize lead dust and debris in homes, different federal agencies have adopted various “de minimis”, or maximum levels allowable in a home. In WPN 09-06, the Department of Energy expresses the need for comprehensive compliance within local, state, and federal compliance. As we weatherize homes, it’s important that we thoroughly understand what requirements we should meet as well as what are the best ways to prevent lead paint exposure.

For example, the EPA’s de minimis consist of the following:

“Minor maintenance projects that disturb no more than 6 square feet of painted surface per room for interiors or no more than 20 square feet of painted surface for exteriors are also exempt, so long as no work practices prohibited or restricted by this final rule are used, the renovation does not involve window replacement and there is no demolition of painted areas.” [1]

While HUD’s de minimis are:

“De minimis levels. Safe work practices are not required when maintenance or hazard reduction activities do not disturb painted surfaces that total more than:

(1) 20 square feet (2 square meters) on exterior surfaces;

(2) 2 square feet (0.2 square meters) in any one interior room or space; or

(3) 10 percent of the total surface area on an interior or exterior type of component with a small surface area. Examples include window sills, baseboards, and trim [2].”

Although the EPA and HUD have established their own de minimis, some State Plans may have adopted even more restrictive standards. In WPN 08-06 and 09-06 the DOE, advises Grantees of the importance of staying in compliance with local, state and Level 1 Containment LSWP policies. Level 1 containment policies consist of the following:

“Level 1 containment is required in pre-1978 homes when less than 6 ft2 of interior painted surface per room or 20 ft2 of exterior painted surface will be disturbed.

Level 1 containment consists of methods that prevent dust generation and contains all debris generated during the work process. The containment establishes the work area which must be kept secure .”

As someone who spent some time in an extremely regulatory industry, aviation, I have become familiar with ocassional conflicts in manuals, procedures, and federal regulations. Flight Operation Manuals, Standard Operating Procedures, CFRs, FARs, TERPS, Minimum Equipment Lists, and Aircraft Operations Manuals are a few of the many manuals and policies pilots have to maintain expert understanding with. Occasionally, conflicts would arise but the airlines had a very simple way of dealing with manual conflicts, namely, ”the most restrictive, wins.”

So as the WAP grows and other federal agencies become more involved and overlay amongst other departments increases, it’s imperative that we become as familiar as possible with our program guidance as well as make appropriate command decisions. In aviation as in weatherization, “the most restrictive” guidance is usually the safest. Using the most restrictive guidelines will yield not only the safest results but also reduces potential liability exposure.

[1] Environmental Protection Agency, Vol. 73, No. 78 Tuesday, April 22, 2008 (40 CFR Part 745)

[2] HUD Lead Safe Housing Rule, 24 CFR 35, subparts B through R, reflecting changes made by the technical amendment issued June 21, 2004 (69 Federal Register 34262-34276)

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National Association of State Community Services Programs (NASCSP) Meeting

Jim Gunshinan — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:40:00 GMT

Jim Gunshinan is the Editor of "Home Energy Magazine" and a guest contributor to the WAPTAC blog.

This is a meeting of the state managers of DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program and HHS' Community Services Block Grants Program. Fifty eight states and territories, including Saipan,U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam are here, represented by 350 people. The largest NASCSP ever.

The conference is a contrast to 2009, when ARRA was just passed. The Wx community is more mature, a little tired, more realistic, but still enthusiastic. Most of the people here were not here in 2008. Worries about succession among the old-timers (Bob Adams, Bob Scott, Joel Eisenberg, for example) are gone. Lots of committed young folk. Bob Adams said "Last time I knew 90% of the people here, now it is about 10%." And he was happy when he said it.

Focus this time is on reporting results so that the good of the programs are recognized. Need good press because there has been some bad press early on that keeps getting repeated. Not that the bad press wasn't true... Lots of growing pains having to do with Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws being applied to WAP for the first time, Historical Preservation Act requirements also applied to WAP for the first time, accelerated ramp-up, and new strenuous reporting requirements. End result so far is nearly 200,000 homes weatherized in 18 months through ARRA funding; about 30,000 homes per month. And a Weatherization Community that has shown incredible dedication and persistance. Weatherization is Working!

I am still struck by how many people of color are in this community at all levels from DOE managers to weatherization technicians.

And Charleston is fantastic! The history dating back to the 1600s; the architecture; the charm; the port and oceanfront; and the food that rivals that of any city in the United States. If you've never been, gotta get here sometime. Had seafood at "FIG" last and will have steak at The Chophouse with my brother Tommy coming down from Raleigh, NC for a visit tonight.

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White House helps set record straight on Weatheriation

Alice Gaston — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:27:00 GMT

NASCSP was very happy to see this positive blog coming from the White House today. We thank them for their continued confidence and support of the WAP network.

"Last week, Vice President Biden visited a New Hampshire homeowner and announced that more than 200,000 homes have been weatherized as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, helping families across the nation cut their energy bills. The Associated Press ran an article critical of the announcement and suggesting – incorrectly – that the Administration hasn’t acknowledged that the program got off to a slower start than was anticipated.

While it is true that it took longer than hoped to ramp up weatherization efforts, it’s also important to recognize the incredible progress that has been made and dramatic acceleration of the program. In June, more than 31,000 homes were weatherized – the most in history, and above our target rate, putting us on track to meet the program’s goal of completing 600,000 homes..."

Click here to read the full article written by Dan Leistikow, Director of Public Affairs for the Department of Energy.
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Another WAP Challenge – Get Involved with the Public Information Campaign!

Bob Scott — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:22:00 GMT

The Weatherization network has faced so many challenges with the huge expansion of the program afforded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that very few want to take the time to focus on October being Energy Awareness Month and Weatherization Day on October 30^th. The network has largely turned around the perceived slow start of the ARRA WAP and weatherized nearly 32,000 homes in June 2010, the highest monthly total in the history of the program, exceeding the seemingly improbable target of 30,000 units that DOE and the Obama Administration challenged the network to gear up for last winter as a goal for the late spring of 2010. WAP also ranked 8^th in jobs created and retained for ARRA projects in the 2^nd quarter of 2010.

These are indeed noteworthy accomplishments which should set the stage to hush the critics of WAP who were so vocal last year at this time. But like it or not, the negative message has not been overcome. Recent references to WAP in both the New York Times and the Washington Post still mention the slow start up. The media tends to focus on the more negative stories, and even once the problems are overcome rarely highlight success stories.

After years of relative obscurity, WAP was front and center as a key program in the Recovery Act, and as such, has experienced increased political scrutiny. Critics of the Recovery Act have also been hostile towards WAP. With significant November 2010 elections looming, the political future of WAP is far from assured. Very few are optimistic about projections for domestic discretionary programs, including WAP.

While there may be factors that influence the future of WAP that are not in control of the WAP network, there are still some things that we can do, mainly;

Maintain the current levels of production so that the original ARRA projected goals can be met;
Maintain and increase the number of jobs in the WAP workforce;
Do quality work with the best potential energy savings and with full accountability and compliance with DOE and State rules; and lastly
Tell the story that Weatherization Works!

With all the great work the WAP network does day in and day out, it is very deflating to still see negative press about our efforts. In my 25+ years of working in WAP, I don’t think I have ever met anyone in the network who wasn’t very proud of the work they do. Everyone I talk to in the network always has a story to tell about what they do – and that story is never about themselves or any personal gain but always about a family they helped, a challenging problem they overcame, or an interesting field technique.

Perhaps more than ever, the Weatherization story needs to be told now. The story needs to be told year around, as much as possible, to as many people as possible. A great time to start will be Weatherization Day 2010. For several years now, Weatherization Day has served as a focal point to coordinate national efforts to create a positive message about WAP to the media, policymakers, stakeholders, and the general public. Successful tactics have included Weatherization Day Governors’ Proclamations, press releases, energy fairs, and site demonstrations. These strategies can all lead to greater networking and leveraging opportunities, enhanced relationships with elected officials and potential partners, and a reinforcement of team building and morale with state and local WAP staff.

Site demonstrations are particularly effective in showing what WAP is all about. A well planned site demonstration on a house where WAP diagnostics and installation techniques can be shown is perhaps the most effective way of showing someone outside the WAP network what weatherization is. Everyone who has conducted site demonstration soon realizes that attendees have a very oversimplified view of what we do in weatherizing a home. Attendees almost always leave with a whole new appreciation of the program and its effectiveness. The most frequently heard comments seem to be “I had no idea you did all this” and “How can I get this done on my house?”

The WAPTAC website has extensive information about site demonstrations and other Public Information Campaign (PIC) strategies. NASCSP will be sending out CD’s to the WAP network on implementing strategies for the PIC and Weatherization Day. In addition, we are developing materials and strategies for the PIC utilizing social networking and New Media, an enormous opportunity for the WAP network to create its own message through the Internet, potentially reaching more people than we would ever be able to through conventional news media.

Now is the time to start thinking about Energy Awareness Month, Weatherization Day, and your role in the Public Information Campaign. At this very critical time for WAP, a widespread and resolute effort by the Weatherization network to show and tell the story that Weatherization Works would provide a much needed boost to positively influence the perception of the program. Please consider getting involved and send your stories, templates and ideas to WAPTAC.org.

Click here for more information.

Response to WAP Press

Bob Scott — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:27:00 GMT

Recently, there have been some noteworthy successes in the Weatherization network, surpassing the Department of Energy’s challenging target of 30,000 homes per month by weatherizing nearly 32,000 homes in June 2010, the highest monthly production level in the 30+ year history of the Program. However, negative press persists in showing the program as slow and ineffective, such as the New York Times, which said of the Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant, “But [EECBG] is off to the same slow start as a bigger program that was initiated at the same time to weatherize the homes of low-income people around the country. An audit of that program in February, also by the inspector general, found that only $368.2 million of $4.73 billion, or less than 8 percent, had been spent.” Additionally, the Washington Port recently reported, “The $5 billion program for weatherizing low-income homes is recovering from a slow start as officials wrestled with rules on wages and historic preservation, and as providers struggled to expand capacity. Only 3,000 homes were weatherized last summer, a sliver of the program's goal of 600,000 by March 2012. The pace has picked up, with 25,000 now being weatherized monthly. Still, barely a quarter of the funds were spent by the end of last month.”

Indeed, there were some difficult issues that had to be resolved to insure compliance and good stewardship of the funds. Those obstacles have been largely overcome, as evidenced by the 32,000 homes completed in June. In addition, according to the reports for the second quarter 2010, the Weatherization Program ranked 8th in jobs created and retained with Recovery Act funds, with almost 13,000 jobs reported. These are not the numbers of a failed program – yes, it took longer than anticipated to ramp up to meet expectations, but any heavily regulated program is going to have these kinds of problems when expanding ten-fold, and in some cases 30-fold, to ensure good work and satisfied clients. Also, while a quarter of funds were spent by the end of July, the spending is mirroring the production – the initial difficulties had to be overcome before prudent spending was accelerated. Now that the WAP is operating at full capacity, the Weatherization Assistance Program network is ready, willing and able to meet the challenges of the Recovery Act and save and create jobs, revitalize communities, reduce carbon emissions, and make low-income homes energy efficient, healthier, safer, and more comfortable.

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NASCSP Goes to Boot Camp

Rebecca Stewart — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:17:00 GMT

The New York State Weatherization Directors’ Association (NYSWDA) has been a leader in New York State training and technical assistance for twenty-five years. They provide materials and equipment procurement services for their network of weatherization agencies as well as a collective voice for public policy input and regulatory compliance.   With the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the need for more trained workers led to the creation of a Boot Camp training.

In August of 2010, my colleague Jenae Bjelland and I were privileged to attend the Boot Camp in East Syracuse, NY, and get out of the office and into some work boots.   The intensive 4-day training is an introduction to building science principles and hands-on air sealing, dense pack and loose fill cellulose insulation installation. Using state-of-the-art realistic wall, ceiling and attic props, trainees learn the techniques needed to effectively weatherize clients' homes. During this course, we were introduced to both the New York Division of Housing and Community Renewal and BPI standards and regulations on Health and Safety, Lead Safe work practices and safe and proper use of tools and equipment. We also become (relatively) proficient on the set up of blower doors and now understand basic use of an infrared camera during air sealing operations.

The 3,800 square foot East Syracuse Training Center offers classroom space for up to 36 individuals with a full complement of audio visual equipment and hands on props which further enhance the adult students learning experience. The facility includes a heating laboratory with an inventory of thirteen, oil and gas fired hydronic and forced air systems representing all major types of heating equipment found in the residential market. Also included at the training center is a state-of-the-art 700 square foot scale model house which was constructed using common framing details found in residential construction. The house was developed to provide students with an opportunity to observe all facets of residential pressure diagnostics by incorporating problematic areas as they relate to energy efficiency. Students are exposed to both blower door assisted pressure diagnostics and combustion appliance zone health and safety trainings within the structure.

NYSWDA Executive Director Andy Stone remarks, “Boot Camp has truly been a major endeavor for NYSWDA. It has taken hundreds of staff hours on and off the floor to get it set up and running. To date we have graduated 19 classes and had over 300 students participate. Over the summer, additional space became available at Fisher Rd., so we moved out of Taft Rd. and now we have all of our labs set up and 2 classrooms in the one location. We are continuing to refine our props and the session material to improve the experience for all of our attendees. We have gotten very positive feedback from the network and we are starting to be recognized on the national level”

An interesting part of the boot camp was the mix of people, from technicians with decades of field experience to new hires who had only been in the Program for a few months. Add in a couple cubicle monkeys from Washington D.C. and the range of questions and discussion became incredibly rich. This allowed a free exchange of ideas and a truly non-judgmental atmosphere, where the simplest question was met with seriousness and considered response (and delivered without embarrassment).

As non-technical people in a very technical field, boot camp was an enlightening experience. As someone who types emails for a living, being handed an insulation hose and then directed to dense pack a wall was both gratifying and terrifying – though our other boot camp classmates were incredibly supportive and helpful It’s important here at NASCSP that we remind ourselves that we are not the ones out there weatherizing homes – it’s the local agencies doing the work on the ground and the states laying the framework for successful programs. In no way to diminish the critical role of WAP managers play in the program, the WAP’s ultimate success is dependent on quality of the field work being done by the program’s work force.   Boot camp was a very helpful experience to help us understand what exactly the workers out there do every day, as they improve low-income homes and their communities.

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Biden: States on track for weatherizing homes

Rebecca Stewart — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:35:00 GMT

Vice President Biden visited a weatherization home in Manchester, NH today to celebrate the successes of the Weatherization Assistance Program. Congratulations to the WAP Network!

By HOLLY RAMER (AP) – 10 hours ago

CONCORD, N.H. — Vice President Joe Biden says states are on track to weatherize 600,000 homes by March 2012 after a huge increase in activity in the last six months.

By March 2010 — a year after the economic stimulus pumped new money into the decades-old federal Weatherization Assistance Program — just 30,250 homes had been retrofitted. But according to a White House official, Biden will announce Thursday that the total has jumped to 200,000 and that at the current pace, the administration will meet its goal of 600,000 homes in three years.

Biden is marking the milestone in Manchester at a home where energy-saving improvements are being made by Southern New Hampshire Services. The improvements are expected to save the homeowners more than $600 annually on their utility bills.

Under the weatherization program, states distribute federal money to local nonprofits that hire contractors for projects ranging from installing weather-tight windows and doors to spreading insulation in homes.

The $5 billion weatherization program is part of about $90 billion in stimulus funds targeted for clean energy and energy-efficiency projects. According to the White House, it has put more than 13,000 people to work installing insulation, upgrading appliances and improving heating and cooling system — or about 15 percent of the 87,000 jobs the Obama administration predicts.

The White House says about 25,000 homes per month are being weatherized. New Hampshire has weatherized more than 1,000 homes through June.

In March, an Associated Press review of the program found that the weatherization program had retrofitted a fraction of the homes and created far fewer construction jobs than expected in its first year. In Alaska, Wyoming and the District of Columbia, it failed to produce a single job or help one home.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Maintaining WAP Capacity After ARRA - Weatherization For Profit?

Bob Scott — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:37:00 GMT

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) network the opportunity to expand its capacity far beyond what anyone envisioned throughout the program’s 30+ year history. Most WAP Grantees and local agencies have overcome the initial obstacles that confronted the program at the onset of ARRA and are now at production levels originally anticipated when the WAP was awarded $5 billion to stimulate the nation’s economy and become a leader in the further evolution of the green retrofit market. WAP managers have been so busy with the huge challenges of ARRA that they have barely had time to focus on the inevitable question: what will be the future of the program after the conclusion of ARRA in March 2012?

In the initial ramp up of the WAP network to meet ARRA goals, WAP operators were aware of the potential issues involved with hiring many new staff, purchasing vehicles and equipment, and increasing capacity for a two or three year program. What would become of that increased capacity, and particularly the newly hired people, afterwards? Would future WAP funding be increased so the supersized program could be maintained?

Even the most optimistic proponents do not believe that future regular WAP appropriations will maintain the growth of the network. While there are some possible long-term pieces of legislation, initiatives to increase leveraged funds, and other potential WAP related proposals, many operators are considering more proactive responses to this dilemma, mainly taking steps to help insure their own organizations are in the best position to move ahead even if Federal funding is greatly reduced.

There are many examples of WAP non-profit agencies, mainly CAA’s, seeking additional funds to not just maintain their services when there is a threat of reduction in government funds, but also to increase new services and opportunities. These progressive agencies understand that Federal grants are subject to political forces, usually finite in nature, and highly competitive, and therefore they should not be totally dependent on these grants for long-term financial sustainability. Income generation is an option that many non-profits have considered, and many more undoubtedly will consider in the near future.

Income generation is nothing new to nonprofits, as a large percentage have at least explored some degree of fund raising efforts, such as bake sales and thrift shops. Many Weatherization agencies have realized that the low-income weatherization services they provide are not largely replicated in the private market, and there may be an opportunity to perform energy auditing and even whole house weatherization to a non low-income market that would pay for the services.

Is this something WAP agencies should consider? Don’t most businesses fail in their first year of operation? How can an agency find time to develop a for-profit weatherization business? Is it even legal for a non-profit to go into a for profit endeavor?

First of all, yes, it is legal for a non-profit organization to make a profit. There are specific rules on how the venture must be set up, what can be done with the earnings, and if taxes have to be paid. But if the organization plays by the rules, they can have a for profit arm to help secure their own future.

Perhaps a bigger question is whether the organization is truly ready and prepared to take such a step. The mindset that, as a social service agency, profit making may be inappropriate has to be addressed. This is often the first step – making sure the Board of Directors and key agency personnel are all committed to a venture into a for-profit business to maintain and enhance the programs related to the agency’s mission.

A lot of planning and discussion with key players are needed. It is not realistic to think that just because a Weatherization Program Director has the skills to operate a low-income Weatherization Program that those abilities translate to being able to set up a for-profit arm for the agency. Most Weatherization managers do not know how to develop a business plan and then take the steps to establish the venture. That may also be true for the majority of agency Executive Directors. Outside expertise from an attorney and/or CPA is highly recommended before getting very deep into the planning.

WAP providers need to consider the future of their program after ARRA. While nobody can accurately predict exactly what is in store after March 2012, some things do seem near certain:

Federal funding, whether regular low income WAP funds or any that may evolve from related energy efficiency initiatives, will not maintain at the increased capacity level of the WAP network after theconclusion of ARRA;
There is an emerging green residential energy efficiency market for middle and higher income dwellings;
WAP providers have the expertise and technical ability to be a key player as this field expands.

NASCSP believes there will be a lot of discussion in the next several months concerning the status of the WAP network after ARRA. It is definitely not too soon to consider how your state or local agency will be positioned to maintain its capacity to serve low -income families and to be a player in the green retrofit market. Moving into a for profit venture may not be the best path for all nonprofits, and for some there may be better alternatives than considering a weatherization for profit enterprise, but WAP providers do have unique and marketable skills that may provide an opportunity to help sustain the program services and the capacity of some WAP agencies when ARRA concludes.

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WAP Recovery Act Success Story: New Mexico

Rebecca Stewart — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:06:00 GMT

Written by Leann Holt, MFA Communications Manager
Edited by Rebecca Stewart, NASCSP

For decades, Juan DeLeon and his wife lived in a small South Valley home, surrounded by family and lifelong friends. But their home was poorly insulated and cold air poured in through door jambs and windows in the winter and leaked cooler air in the summer. Unbeknownst to Mr. DeLeon, his wife applied for weatherization services last fall. By the time local agency employees came to the house a few weeks later, Mrs. DeLeon had passed away. After a new furnace, refrigerator, doors and windows were installed, Mr. DeLeon said, “It’s like my wife is still taking care of me from the grave.” Mr. DeLeon said he was looking forward to having his family come to his renovated home for a warm holiday meal.

This is just one example of how the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority (MFA), which operates the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) in the state, makes a difference every day. New Mexico has been in the spotlight because of their successful program and especially since the infusion of $26,855,604 in ARRA funding that MFA will use to weatherize almost 3,000 homes by March 31, 2012, in contrast to their FY 2009 DOE funding level of $1,900,941. Despite this significant increase, the program is thriving.

MFA has dispersed 100 percent of the stimulus funding to three sub-contractors: Los Amigos Educational Resource Center in Santa Fe; Central New Mexico Housing Corporation in Albuquerque; CAA of Southern New Mexico in Las Cruces.

MFA and their service providers exceeded their year one production targets, weatherizing over 1,000 units. Indeed, the Department of Energy recently issued a press release congratulating MFA on being one of the country’s weatherization leaders.

New Mexico grappled with many of the same the challenges as other states, due to Davis-Bacon Prevailing Wage issues, Historic Preservation and the general challenges of rapid expansion. MFA waited until the Department of Labor provided Davis-Bacon wage rates and worked cooperatively with the State Historic Preservation office to develop a working relationship that ensures that potentially historic homes are identified and retrofitted in accordance with federal law.

DOE recently awarded MFA nearly $1 million in additional T & TA funding as part of the competitive Weatherization Training Centers grant. “This additional stimulus money will allow our weatherization program to grow into one of the best in the nation,” said Lt. Governor Diane Denish, chairwoman of the MFA board. “The state-of-the-art training we can now provide to our weatherization professionals will not only increase the quality and cost efficiency of their work, but it will prepare them to move into the private weatherization market when the stimulus funding is gone.”

MFA’s weatherization training will be a multi-tiered approach that includes:

On-line curriculum covering weatherization theory and procedure
Classroom instruction using props to illustrate how energy flows throughout a house in a controlled environment
House of Pressure, a miniature house that uses smoke and fans to demonstrate how everyday household
Show how activities impact the energy efficiency of a home and other weatherization training props
Field training rig containing every piece of equipment needed to weatherize homes in New Mexico
On-site training providing hands-on training in typical New Mexico homes
Client education on comprehensive energy efficiency practices

“This is another good investment in New Mexico’s workforce with long-term benefits as we continue training for a green economy,” said former Governor Toney Anaya, executive director of the New Mexico Office of Recovery and Reinvestment. “Stimulus funds continue to employ thousands, rebuild our infrastructure and support public schools across the state.”

Thus far, 55 employees have been trained using the new training format. MFA expects to train the entire weatherization workforce of over 120 people by the end of ARRA.

When asked for tips and advice for ARRA implementation and success, Michael Furze, MFA Program Specialist said, “Working with service providers as partners to identify program needs from the ground up has been essential to developing a program that meets the needs of all stakeholders. MFA has worked side by side with our partners to integrate building science best practices that build on the decades of experience that some weatherization crews, auditors and managers bring to the table.”

New Mexico is truly a model of success using cutting edge technologies, new training techniques, and helping people every day. They show us all how Weatherization Works!

Click here for more information.

ARRA WAP Reaches 30,000 Homes a Month in June!

Robert Scott — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:46:00 GMT

We have very good news to report regarding ARRA WAP - the network weatherized over 31,000 homes nationwide in June 2010. The 30,000 goal set by DOE during this past winter seemed almost unreachable, but with a steady rise in production in late winter and spring, the WAP network reached and exceeded this target in June. Congratulations and thank you for your hard work in overcoming the obstacles to achieve this objective!

Maintaining this level of production for several months is critical to prove that this network was and continues to be up to the huge challenge presented by a $5 Billion ARRA WAP award. Such success will be further justification for both high future funding levels and to establish WAP as a leader and model for the rapidly developing green residential retrofit market, with WAP practitioners playing an important role in the technology and standards for the industry.

In the next couple of months, DOE will be taking a closer and more thorough look at the quality of work on the homes being weatherized. Grantees must insure that the work quality meets or exceeds their audit and installation standards.

The Weatherization network should be rightfully proud of its accomplishments and steadfast to sustain the success it has achieved.
Click here for more information.

WAP 8th in Recovery Act Jobs!

Rebecca Stewart — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:26:00 GMT

The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) is ranked 8th out of approximately 200 federal programs in the number of direct jobs funded by the Recovery Act for the quarter beginning April 1, 2010 and ending June 30, 2010. You can see this by clicking here.

Thanks for all that you do and keep up the good work!

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Senate Appropriations Committee: LIHEAP 2011 Funding Level

Rebecca Stewart — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:16:00 GMT

As most Grantees receive LIHEAP funding for their Weatherization Programs, the below is relevant to the WAP.

The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday provided $3.2 billion for LIHEAP for FY 2011, the same level as requested by the President, but $1.9 billion less than the $5.1 billion provided by the House Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, ED appropriations. Senate table on Labor/HHS spending

In terms of schedule, it is increasingly likely that Congress will not finish the appropriations process prior to the November elections.
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WXTV – An Important New Online Resource

Bob Scott — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:33:00 GMT

Although WAP network providers certainly do not have much spare time on their hands, everyone should make it a point to tune into WXTV, a new initiative to tell the Weatherization story in a TV episode format. While we have seen some good quality videos on WAP, from informational pieces about the program to training presentations on specific field techniques, WXTV sets a new standard as a new media online tool to promote the Weatherization Program and its technology.

WXTV is produced by the Montana Weatherization Training Center, in collaboration with Montana State University Extension and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. The project is funded by a grant awarded by Exxon-Mobil in partnership with the National Community Action Foundation.

The Montana Training Center website states “WXTV highlights the latest in weatherization rules, techniques, innovation, and green technologies. It's fun, informative, and its content is driven by the things that interest you most about weatherization.”

WXTV episodes will feature some of the foremost Weatherization diagnostics and techniques, like pressure diagnostics, energy auditing, mobile home weatherization, multi-family building weatherization, health and safety issues, and heating systems. There are also plans to have an episode on energy savings tips for homeowners and an episode for children on energy efficiency.

Most episodes will incorporate discussions with experts and “how to” advice on innovative tools, materials, and techniques.

Approximately 40 episodes are planned with a goal of establishing a comprehensive visual reference library that nationally supports the efforts of the DOE WAP core competencies and standardized curricula. WXTV hopes to feature actual work in the field, showcase innovations of agency work, and highlight content from as many states as possible.

Mike Vogel, Director of the Montana Training Center, states “WXTV is not a Montana program, but a national initiative to enhance, build and motivate programs. Using high quality production pushed through web and socialnetworking sites, we hope to reach the new, young, high-tech worker accustomed to getting information through a computer. WXTV is not meant to replace traditional training venues, but to enhance it.”

"The world is moving away from PowerPoint webinars and interactive videos set up with specialized sites and equipment - the weatherization workforce wants instant information that they can access anytime. In the world of weatherization, the goal is production - folks need additional opportunities for training aside from sitting in a classroom and attending distant learning classes scheduled during their work hours. WXTV provides information when they have time to access it. They can view it, save it, review it, and join in discussions with others with the online forum."

WXTV is poised to become a state-of-the-art informational and training medium for the Weatherization network and emerging green workforce. NASCSP strongly encourages you to become familiar with and watch WXTV, spread the word throughout your network and workforce, and utilize this valuable resource.
Click here for more information.

Senate Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development: 2011 WAP at $200 million

Rebecca Stewart — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:08:00 GMT

The Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development has released their report for 2011, which gives $200 million for the Weatherization Assistance Program, with $30 million of that set aside for innovations. The text reads:

Weatherization Assistance Program.—The Committee provides $200,000,000. Of that amount, $7,500,000 is for training and technical assistance and $30,000,000 is for innovations in weatherization requested in the budget. The Committee notes that this program received $5,000,000,000 in the Recovery Act in addition to current year appropriations, and that prior appropriated balances are more than sufficient to carry the existing program into fiscal year 2012 without further appropriation.

At this time, the final funding level for the WAP is uncertain. We will keep you informed as things progress.
Click here for more information.

House Energy and Water Subcommittee: WAP at $340 Million

Rebecca Stewart — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:19:00 GMT

We are pleased to pass along the news that the House Committee on Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee released the 2011 Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Bill, which includes $340 million for the Weatherization Assistance Program, $40 million above the Obama Administration's request. Congressman Pastor's Statement for Energy Efficiency says, "For everything from cars to air conditioners, the cheapest way to get more energy is to use less of it. This bill invests in Department of Energy activities that will develop technologies to make cars, homes, buildings, and industry consume less energy by using it more efficiently."

This was especially good news in light of recent rumors that WAP funding might be eliminated because of the perception that there are substantial funds from ARRA to sustain the program in 2011. Although reassuring, there is still a lot to be done before we reach any degree of comfort. The Senate has not yet begun its Appropriations bills. There is major concern about the Federal deficit with enormous pressure to cut spending, with domestic discretionary programs particularly vulnerable. Outcomes of the November mid-term elections may also play a huge role in determining 2011 funding.

Some of this may seem beyond the control of Weatherization managers. But there are two very important things that the WAP network can do:

Continue to increase the ARRA production and expenditures that in recent months have changed the perception of WAP from being ineffective to one of the success stories of the Recovery Act, and
Get out the message in local communities that the Weatherization Assistance Program has overcome the early obstacles with ARRA and is now operating a full capacity and fulfilling the objectives of the Recovery Act. It is critical that the WAP network tell its story - please encourage site demonstrations, press releases, and other means of increasing the awareness of WAP successes to policymakers, stakeholders, and the public.

In addition to the WAP markup of $340 million, other markups from yesterday that may be of interest to WAP managers are:

CSBG - $800 million ($100 million increase over FY 2010 and the Administration's 2011 request)
LIHEAP - $5.1 billion (same as FY 2010 and significantly more than the Administration's 2011 request)
SEP - $50 million ($25 million less that Administration's request)

Click here for more information.

Cathy Zoi Message to Network on White House Blog: Weatherizing 82,000 Homes This Summer

Rebecca Stewart — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:28:00 GMT

Cathy Zoi has posted a message and video on the White House Recovery Blog to the Weatherization Network called Weatherizing 82,000 Homes This Summer. There she talks about the positive impact the Recovery Act Weatherizationb Assistance Program is having all across America. Check it out!
Click here for more information.

States Develop Task Force with HHS to Address Fraud Prevention in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

Rebecca Stewart — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:41:00 GMT

State energy officials announced the formation of a joint task force to address issues concerning waste, fraud and abuse in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Established by National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA) in conjunction with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the task force is a response to a recent report by the US General Accountability Office (GAO) revealing the risk of fraud and abuse in the program due to a lack of systematic checking of applications and payments to utility vendors.

“There is no question that all of the state LIHEAP directors strongly support the accurate and appropriate awarding of grants funds,” says Jo-Ann Choate, chair of NEADA. “Any dollar wasted is a dollar that cannot be used to help a needy family have access to energy assistance.”

To that end, the states are requesting full access from GAO to the files in question in order to assess the accuracy of the review, develop appropriate measures to prevent waste, and eliminate weaknesses in the in-take system.

The task force will work with HHS to strengthen internal controls to ensure these funds are used properly.

While the purpose of the Task Force is to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in LIHEAP, it can only do so by addressing serious questions about the rate of error identified in the GAO report.

Because the states have not had an opportunity to review the files GAO identified as suspicious, it is possible many of these cases are issues of paperwork, not fraud. For example, a recently widowed elderly woman who qualifies for LIHEAP might include her husband’s name on the application so that it is consistent with the billing information her utility company has. Though the paperwork is inaccurate and must be updated, she is still eligible.

The GAO study reported that LIHEAP programs give low-income residents checks made out to ''Your Heating Supplier.'' In fact, vendor payments are generally marked with specific instructions to the bank that they are only to be deposited by the supplier. Some states pay LIHEAP benefits through the gas, electric and heating companies. A qualifying client’s account is credited with the benefit they are eligible for. No payment is issued directly to the client. In rare instances - generally during a home-energy emergency - a two-party check may be issued to the vendor and the client jointly. However, in all cases, the payment is provided only for the purpose intended.

In a letter to GAO commenting on their review of its program, the State of Ohio pointed out that draft report could be interpreted as finding widespread fraud in Ohio. However, the GAO identified only four questionable cases, with payments totaling $1,400.

New York State also submitted a letter commenting on the GAO report that raised an important issue: federally mandated deadlines for the delivery of emergency assistance. As stated in the GAO report, federal LIHEAP funds are provided to assist households “in meeting their immediate home energy needs.” States have to move fast to meet household energy crises—within 18 to 48 hours, according to federal statutory requirements. The timeframe can make immediate fraud detection difficult. The state recommended, “Additional fraud and abuse prevention measures must take into account the need for states to be responsive to the immediate needs of eligible applicants.”

Lastly, one of the key issues raised by the GAO report is the lack of Social Security numbers required on LIHEAP applications. Because of privacy concerns, until recently HHS would not allow states to require Social Security numbers on applications. HHS has since clarified that states can now do so. Officials believe this will be a significant help in identifying ineligible applicants. New York’s letter also recommended this measure.

For the states, the bottom line is that all funds should be spent accurately and in accordance with program regulations, according to Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA. “We will be working closely with the HHS to identify all potential strategies to support this outcome,” Wolfe said.

The National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA) represents the state LIHEAP directors. www.neada.org.

Click here for more information.

WAP Recovery Act Success Story: Nevada

Rebecca Stewart — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:26:00 GMT

by Rebecca Stewart, Assistant Deputy Director of Weatherization Services, NASCSP

Nevada is one of the country's weatherization leaders and has now weatherized more than 30% of their total ARRA targeted homes. Recovery Act production in Nevada has exceeded their production goals – the State of Nevada’s Business and Industry Housing Division estimated 1,950 unit completions for the fiscal year (July 1 through June 30), but have completed an astonishing 2,869, despite the fact that production did not begin until November 2009 due to wage and other state compliance issues. Under the Recovery Act, Nevada was allocated $37.3 million for the weatherization program, in addition to their regularly appropriated funds ($2,547,725 in PY 2009 and $662,859 in PY 2010). The Recovery Act-funded program is also creating jobs locally. According to the State’s Housing Division, about 110 workers have been trained, with approximately 300 to be trained in total over the three-year ARRA period.

The state faced many of the issues the nationwide WAP has faced – Davis Bacon Prevailing Wage concerns, EPA lead compliance, and getting renovators and firms in place. The state overcame these issues through coordinated training efforts, strategic partnerships, and consistent and management.

The Nevada Housing Division forged a unique partnership with the State Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation to support weatherization worker training facilities per State Senate Bill 152. This allowed training of new weatherization technicians by providing four training collaboratives through this Green Jobs Initiative, which functions to establish programs to provide job training and outreach for the weatherization and retrofitting of buildings and facilities in northern Nevada, southern Nevada and rural Nevada. This partnership enabled the State to support weatherization worker training facilities and quickly provide trained individuals to contractors so they could weatherize more units.

Sue Martin, Grants and Projects Analyst for the Nevada Housing Division Weatherization Program stressed the importance of executive buy-in. She states, “Governor Gibbons and his office provided the support necessary to propel this program forward and ensure that low income Nevadans received weatherization services in a timely manner.”

Additionally, Nevada is a one of the nation’s less populated states, which can provide for easier and quicker access to its subgrantees for a very hands-on approach. This can be seen in the Housing Division’s relatively small but dedicated staff, which includes two quality control inspectors/trainers who are available to all subgrantees should they need assistance or technical support. Also, the subgrantees in Nevada are an experienced group and hit the ground running.

The success of the Nevada program can be attributed to many factors, but perhaps most of all to the teamwork approach of the State network, with executive support, subgrantee cooperation, and effective management from the Nevada Housing Division.

Click here for more information.

The Case for WAP Certifications

Bob Scott — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:56:00 GMT

by Bob Scott, Director of Weatherization Services, NASCSP

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program provided not just a substantial increase in overall program funding but also a huge boost in Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA) funds . In addition to significantly increasing the number of homes to be weatherized, ARRA funds are also intended to provide jobs for a well trained workforce for both WAP and the emerging green residential energy efficiency retrofit market. A stated goal of the DOE ARRA T&TA Plan is to “Build the training capacity to support the weatherization network Recovery Act ramp up and lay the foundation for a sustainable national retrofit industry with ready access to a well-trained workforce and opportunities for worker mobility and career pathways.” In accordance with this vision, the T&TA Plan identifies the task of developing national requirements for weatherization certification and accreditation standards.

Before ARRA, several WAP Grantees required or strongly encouraged certifications for certain technical staff, most frequently from the Building Performance Institute (BPI) or through their own certification programs. There were also some discussions about widespread certifications based on the work of the Weatherization Plus Committee in the mid-2000’s. In 2005, WAP network representatives from DOE, States, local agencies, and other organizations met to discuss a vision of the WAP for 2010. One of the three identified goals was the “Consistent Delivery of Quality Services” for all WAP providers to insure a reliable diagnostically driven whole house approach and best practice installations for the nationwide WAP network.

Though perhaps ARRA has changed this landscape to some degree, in terms of the “consistent delivery of quality services,” the Weatherization Plus Committee noted that WAP workers were often underpaid for the difficulty of their positions, had a relatively high turnover rate, and were often perceived as “entry level” positions. The Committee also noted concerns such as rapidly changing technologies and standards, production pressures that could compromise quality of work, and sporadic enforcement of standards that may also compromise the widespread consistency of work quality.

The goal of consistent delivery of quality services and these observations were the main impetus toward the development of the Core Competencies document, which outlines typical WAP job classifications and the necessary knowledge and skills for each position. The Core Competencies document, in turn, was a foundation that WAP managers could use as a basis to build upon to develop a certification program.

Many people in the WAP network have doubts that worker certifications are worth pursuing on a widespread basis. There are several points to back that opinion, including:

Certifications are no guarantee of quality work on all homes;
The certification process can be very time consuming and expensive;
New certification requirements can be very threatening and intimidating to experienced workers already in the WAP network; and
Certifications can’t really be a one-time deal. There has to be a thorough plan on how the training and certification program can be ongoing for new workers and guidelines for continuing training and recertifying workers after a defined period.

Many others in the network do believe that a certification program can both raise the quality of work and benefit program workers. The proponents make a case for certifications with reasoning such as:

Certifications generally raise the level of competency throughout the network; Certifications provide recognition for WAP workers, yardsticks to measure personal accomplishments, and career ladders within WAP;
Certifications can add stability to the workforce through increased wages, respect, and professionalism;
Certifications help define more systematic approaches to training, bringing more consistency, helping insure standards remain current, providing a means to measure success of a training program, and giving more accountability for funds spent on training; and
WAP certifications will help position WAP as a leader in the technology, workforce, and skills development for the growing residential energy efficiency market.

As noted, DOE identifies the development of national requirements for weatherization certification and accreditation standards as one of the tasks in the ARRA T&TA Plan. Presumably DOE will review and analyze the certification programs already existing in the WAP network and try to determine the feasibility of a national WAP certification or a framework upon which Grantees would base their own certification plans.

A lot of questions remain and a lot of work remains to be done. What positions would require certifications? Auditors, inspectors, and crew chiefs are most frequently named. How about local program managers? Many people believe that position is the most critical in determining the success or poor performance of a local weatherization agency. Do you grandfather in or make any allowances for experienced workers? How do you structure the process to have the least impact on production time? And so on.

In the coming months, these questions and many more will be considered. An increased focus on WAP certifications is likely to ensue, with an expectation of further increasing the expertise of the WAP workforce and positioning WAP to be a standard model for professional green workforce development.

Click here for more information.

ARRA WAP – Have We Turned the Corner?

Bob Scott — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:54:00 GMT

by Bob Scott, Director of Weatherization Services, NASCSP

As Weatherization production and expenditure reports for the 1st Quarter 2010 are tabulated and analyzed, there is considerable good news regarding Recovery Act expenditures, production, and job creation - it appears that the Weatherization Program network is steadily overcoming the many difficulties that slowed the ramp-up and implementation of the ARRA program; it now looks like the original goals set forth are indeed reachable.

While the production totals for March 2010 have not been fully reconciled, the reported number of weatherized units exceeded 25,000! That is about 7,000 more units than February 2010, and around 12,000 more than January 2010. Clearly the network is headed in the right direction as far as production is concerned. Program expenditures follow a similar pattern. The Recovery.gov website recently reported that, of all programs funded under ARRA, WAP ranks 9th in job creation, with a reported 10,610 jobs reported for the January – March 2010 period. This is indeed good news, particularly after a considerable amount of negative press questioned whether this network was up to the task of delivering on the expectations inherent with $5 billion of ARRA funding.

The Weatherization network was well aware of the challenges inherent in the rapid expansion of services for a program typically funded at $225 million with the increased appropriation of $5 billion by ARRA. However, when ARRA was first passed, we thought that the obvious difficulties of such a rapid expansion, mainly capacity building (hiring and training many new workers, maintaining quality work, and procuring vehicles, equipment, and tools), would be the focus of the ramp up. Looking back, that may have been the easy part. Additional unforeseen obstacles associated specifically with ARRA rules became apparent after ARRA enactment.

The applicability of Davis-Bacon labor rates for all WAP ARRA projects posed a significant planning and management challenge due to rigorous administrative requirements such as exponentially increased record keeping requirements and the introduction of weekly certified payrolls. After the uncertainty of whether Davis-Bacon prevailing wages would indeed apply to WAP, and the resulting process of a full wage determination for every county in the nation, it was not until September 2009 that all wage determinations were made.

Though perhaps not quite as far reaching as the Davis-Bacon requirements, another stipulation that any dwelling older than 50 years must be reviewed by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) before weatherization became another serious roadblock. Most SHPOs were not staffed at appropriate levels or prepared for the magnitude of reviews that could be necessary, as a large number of the low-income
homes eligible for weatherization are over 50 years old.

The Weatherization network confronted these problems and overcame them. To the credit of the Department of Energy staff, they listened carefully to their partners and network providers to confront both the problems with Davis-Bacon and Historic Preservation head on. In addition to the swift response to the Davis-Bacon issue, DOE developed, in coordination with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), a Prototype Programmatic Agreement to address historic preservation requirements for the WAP.

DOE has also been actively involved in overseeing program progress on an ongoing basis. They are working with Grantee WAP management teams and even many Governors to help insure obstacles are overcome and program goals can be achieved.

NASCSP also recognizes that the entire Weatherization Network has put together a collective effort like never before to try to accomplish the goals set forth by ARRA. There has likely never been a period in the 30+ year successful history of WAP where the entire network has been challenged to this extent.

Through perseverance, commitment, and determination, the Weatherization Network has responded and deserves a lot of credit and thanks. The hard work of the entire Weatherization Network was instrumental in overcoming the aforementioned obstacles and the objectives and the resulting recent rapid escalation toward meeting ARRA WAP objectives.

A network can be defined as a large and widely distributed group of people that communicate with one another and work together as a team and system. The success of the WAP network is dependent on all levels of the program, from the Department of Energy to the State Grantees to the local agencies, working together to accomplish clearly defined goals and objectives.

DOE has long talked about the team approach of the entire Weatherization network as the backbone of WAP success over the last 30+ years, and the entire network’s common commitment to WAP ARRA goals will again be the basis for the ultimate success of the ARRA Weatherization Program. Past accomplishments do not guarantee future success, but in the case of the Weatherization Network, the longstanding standards of quality and commitment to serving low-income households have certainly set the stage for ARRA success.

In addition to the continued challenges of ARRA WAP implementation, we also must tell our story. While press articles abounded when we were at a near standstill because of the difficult issues that had to be resolved, there will now be very few saying that the Weatherization Network weatherized 25,000 homes in March 2010. We must try to get control of the message that Weatherization Works!, and promote the history, technology, commitment, and hard work of the entire Weatherization Network in reaching the goals and objectives of the Recovery Act. NASCSP will be working on publicizing these successes and urge both State and local WAP operators to do the same. We offer our assistance to work with you to help craft that message.
Click here for more information.

WAP Recovery Act Success Story: North Dakota

Rebecca Stewart — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:54:00 GMT

by Rebecca Stewart, Assistant Deputy Director of Weatherization Services, NASCSP

North Dakota will receive a total of $25,266,330 in ARRA Funding, in addition to regularly appropriated Department of Energy funds, which generally total between $2 and $3 million. Despite the challenges of ARRA implementation experienced by many with the addition of new requirements and sheer volume of funding, as well as an unusually harsh winter, the state is on pace to complete their required completions before the end of the ARRA funding timeline. Cal Steiner, Weatherization Program Manager for the Division of Community Services, which runs the program in the State, says, “We are now fine tuning crew sizes, numbers of crews and still adding some equipment. RRP [Lead Renovation Repair and Painting Rule] will definitely slow things down, but we expect to adjust to compensate.” North Dakota is a great example of planned expansion and extensive training, which has led to a highly successful program.

In North Dakota, the Division of Community Services administers the Weatherization Assistance Program and seven local agencies provide services. These agencies for the most part use crew labor to complete units. Specific issues that North Dakota addressed to ensure their healthy timeline for production include agreements with their State Historic Preservation Office, Lead Safe Weatherization(LSW), Davis Bacon challenges, and Renovation, Repair, and Painting rules. Not all changes in the Program were challenges; the change in Poverty Income Guidelines to 200% of the poverty level helped to expand client lists and ensure that agencies could identify potential weatherization recipients more easily. However, challenges persist; RRP rules and LSW will significantly affect the number of homes completed per worker.

To make sure agencies complete the requisite number of ARRA units, the State encouraged hiring more people to compensate for the additional work required, which helps local communities and families by helping the unemployed find work. North Dakota will also allocate the second 50% of funding to favor the agencies that produce at higher levels. Additionally, LIHEAP funding has helped to fill gaps in funding for replacing potentially dangerous furnaces in homes that are ineligible for re-weatherization. Spending ARRA funds remains a priority.

So far, 100 workers have been trained, out of an anticipated 125. Foremen in North Dakota are very well qualified and have been able to train on all aspects of the program, leading to much training done hands-on in the field. Additionally, the State employs two extremely qualified trainers/monitors who have been visiting agencies and providing training, especially for those who may need a little more assistance. These trainers/monitors are on call to come to any agency to provide training for whatever they feel they need. Also, there is an annual training conference which holds classroom training as well as training on fundamentals. Crews attend the biannual DOE National Weatherization Training Conference, Affordable Comfort, and Energy Out-West. The State has also brought in specialized trainers for topics such as furnaces, RRP certification, and LSW.

When asked if he had any tips or techniques to share with the network, Mr. Steiner states, “Help support and motivate the crews in the field to reduce turnover – now is a bad time to lose qualified personnel. We have actively encouraged our agencies to purchase 28 ft goose neck trailers with a diesel generator, two insulation machines, fully stocked with materials, tools, and equipment necessary to do a complete job in the field. The trailers have added significantly to ease, efficiency and professionalism of our crews.”

The successful program in North Dakota shows that Weatherization Works! with a combination of hiring, training, and hard work.
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