Texas Weatherization program: need to improve spending, job creation, housing repairs. Yesterday the Texas House Committee on Urban Affairs and the Texas House Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding met regarding their joint interim charge to “Review the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs’ Weatherization Assistance Program and increased funding from ARRA. Examine the methodology used to distribute funds and the program’s effectiveness at reducing residential energy costs.”Tx.
LIHIS’s John Henneberger spoke at the hearing and provided the following written comments about the program and ways to improve it. Testimony before the Urban Affairs Committee and the House Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding interim charge #4, the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP)Chair Davis, Chair Dunnam and members: We offer the following comments regarding the Weatherization Assistance Program in Texas. The Texas program should maximize the creation of jobs in the neighborhoods served by the program. While local jobs are not explicitly required by the federal act, other jurisdictions have implemented local hiring requirements and OMB has directed agencies to support projects that create local jobs. An advocate for low- income program consumers should be appointed to the state policy advisory council on weatherization activities. Low- income consumer representation on the WAP policy council could have identified the housing need at the time of the adoption of the state plan for WAP activities, however the council does not contain the required low- income consumer representative.
The federal Weatherization Assistance Program began in 1976 in response to the energy crisis. Department of Energy provides funding for the program. In Texas, the Texas Department of Housing and. Texas Weatherization program: need to improve spending, job creation, housing repairs. A common justification for this shortcoming is that WAP is a weatherization program, not a home repair program. The Weatherization Program provides free home weatherization to eligible low-income clients in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties.
WEATHERIZATION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM. What year was the home built?
The WAP program alone cannot serve the extensive need in the state for home repair. Caulking a window doesn. Meaningful prioritization and outreach of hard- to- serve populations should not be sacrificed in a quest for speed.
We encourage the Texas Legislature and TDHCA to work to improve this program. Many programs administered by HUD contain a . Lower- income households generally experience greater income losses (as a percentage of income) during recessions, and it takes them longer than higher- income households to recover.
Weatherization in the. A Report to Meet the Requirements of Rider 14. Community Affairs Division. Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. The W eatherization Assistance Program provides assistance to low-income households to promote energy conservation and to reduce the impact of high utility costs. Weatherization may perform minor repairs to walls, windows. US Weatherization Assistance Program. Weatherization has become increasingly high-profile as the cost of home heating has risen. The US Weatherization Assistance Program. ORNL/CON-499 TEXAS FIELD EXPERIMENT: Performance of the Weatherization Assistance Program in Hot-Climate, Low-Income Homes April 2008 Prepared by Lance McCold Richard Goeltz Mark Ternes Linda Berry. Weatherization Assistance Program Contact Information for Cameron County, Texas Click on a city below for more information about the weatherization program and contact information for the community action office in your city.
The State is now further behind schedule than at the start of March, as actual production has ramped up slower than projected production. Recent media accounts focusing on raw numbers have unfairly, in our opinion, criticized the State.
WAP has undergone a massive program expansion. TDHCA, a competently administered agency, has also received an unprecedented level of additional funding across several programs besides WAP. Our close monitoring of these programs has indicated that TDHCA is generally doing an acceptable job in implementing these programs. We are however beginning to see some signs performance in the WAP program is falling behind. This is largely attributable to the lack of capacity of some of TDHCA. Rather that simply assessing performance solely through gross numbers, a deeper understanding of the challenges, objectives and potential of this very important program needs to be applied.
Thank you for your consideration of our comments.–John Henneberger. THE URBAN INSTITUTE December 2. Workers Across Household Income Groups at the End of the Great Recession: A Truly Great Depression Among the Nation. The ability of the State to expend its allocated WAP funds under the production schedule projected in January has been impacted by the fact that production schedule assumes almost exactly an $6,5.