By Bendix Anderson
New York—New York has
allocated more than half of its $394 million in weatherization funds and is on
schedule to make more than 45,500 units of housing more energy efficient by the
stimulus program’s deadline of March 2012. More than half of those housing
units are likely to be apartments, including thousands of public housing and
aging affordable housing units.
Program Basics
The federal Weatherization
Assistance Program enables low-income families to permanently reduce their
energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient. Funded by the U.S.
Department of Energy and managed by state officials, the program has helped
more than 6.4 million low-income families over the last 33 years.
To qualify for weatherization
funds, at least two-thirds of the households living in a building should
qualify as low-income, meaning their incomes are less than 60% of the area
median income. Projects that provide a “significant benefit to their
communities” can also qualify for weatherization funding if at least half of
their households qualify as low income, according to officials.
In a typical year, New York distributes $60 million in federal
weatherization funds through the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR).
DHCR typically allocates the funds on a first-come first-served basis through
its existing network of subgrantees. Most of these organizations are local
nonprofits, many specializing in housing.
The remaining $334 million is being distributed on a first come, first
served basis to suballocating agencies that will give the money to individual
weatherization projects. Officials predict that about half that funding will go
to apartments.
About half of New York’s
federal weatherization money is usually spent to make multifamily buildings
more energy efficient. The rest is spent to weatherize one-to-four family
homes. Usually about half the funds are spent in and around New York City.
A Slow Start
Local newspapers, including the New
York Times and the New York Post,
have chastised New York’s program for the small number of weatherizations
completed so far.
Only a few hundred of the
45,500 housing units targeted for weatherization by the stimulus program have
been completed. That’s less than 1%, according to the federal Department of
Energy's Inspector General (IG). Several states showed similar results, the IG
reported.
Program rules created much of
the delay, according to local officials. The stimulus bill requires
organizations that complete weatherization projects to follow federal Davis
Bacon wage laws and pay their contractors and subcontractors a prevailing wage.
In the past, the weatherization program had not been subject to wage laws.
Davis Bacon wage rates are
determined by the U.S. Dept. of Labor. Federal officials directed states to
allocate their weatherization money as soon as they could after the funds
became available in July 2009. But several states, including New York, waited
until federal officials set the prevailing wage rates in October. According to
state officials, it’s difficult to get these projects started before developers
know how much they can pay their workers.
The IG’s report also mentions
that because of deep budget deficits, some states had trouble hiring staff to
handle the extra program funds. New York solved the problem by hiring 13 new
staff member to help administer the federal weatherization program.
The state also transferred 13 existing staff members over to the weatherization
program’s budget line, which helped save jobs and kept the program running
despite deep cuts in other parts of the state government.
Getting
up to Speed
As of January 31, New York’s
weatherization program had finished 560 housing units using federal stimulus
dollars; 7,177 units were in progress, meaning bids had been received by
contractors or construction had begun; and 10,218 units had received energy
audits.
DHCR had allocated $250 million of its total $394 million in
weatherization funds, including $190 million through DHCR’s existing network of
subgrantee organizations. As in prior years, about half of this money will
probably be spent to weatherize multifamily buildings.
DHCR set aside $60 million specifically to weatherize multifamily
housing through a special round of competition for the funds. DHCR received 38
applications and awarded the weatherization funds to 12 winners that will
distribute the money to individual weatherization projects. Three of those
organizations are on DCHR’s usual list of subgrantees and nine are new to the program.
One of the new organizations is the Westchester County Department of
Planning, which received $5 million to weatherize 732 housing units.
Westchester’s planners will distribute these funds to ten local organizations,
including several local housing authorities. The properties to be weatherized
include public housing apartments and apartment communities built under
affordable housing programs such as the state Mitchell-Lama program and the
federal low-income housing tax credit program. A 399-unit special needs housing
project, the Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry, will also get the
weatherization treatment.