Ken Brown installs insulation in the attic of a Hazel Park home last month. After a delay, federal funds are now available to help people with low incomes weatherize their homes.
Detroit Free Press
Just in time for winter, that big batch of federal money -- $243 million for Michigan over three years -- to help people with lower incomes cut heating and cooling bills is finally starting to flow.
Those funds to improve home insulation also were supposed to have begun putting hundreds of people in the weatherization industry to work by now. But Congress' initial plan to have contracts begin in April was delayed while federally mandated wage rates were set for contractors.
That took months -- time during which Michigan kept struggling with double-digit unemployment.
At Ampro Insulation and Weatherization in Hamtramck, owner Darnell Jackson laid off six workers while he waited. Now, with the government money moving and contracts being signed with agencies that will pay contractors doing the work, he's hired the six back, added four and expects to hire more.
"We've been running a very lean machine," said Robert Dein at Applied Building Sciences, another weatherization contractor in Royal Oak now looking to add a few workers. "This thing was supposed to ramp up a long time ago."
In all, the state expects to insulate, seal windows and otherwise weatherize 30,000 homes for lower-income residents over three years -- on top of the 6,000 to 8,000 it expects to do under an existing program -- and put up to 1,300 people to work.
Those funds to improve home insulation also were supposed to have begun putting hundreds of people in the weatherization industry to work by now. But Congress' initial plan to have contracts begin in April was delayed while federally mandated wage rates were set for contractors.
That took months -- time during which Michigan kept struggling with double-digit unemployment.
At Ampro Insulation and Weatherization in Hamtramck, owner Darnell Jackson laid off six workers while he waited. Now, with the government money moving and contracts being signed with agencies that will pay contractors doing the work, he's hired the six back, added four and expects to hire more.
"We've been running a very lean machine," said Robert Dein at Applied Building Sciences, another weatherization contractor in Royal Oak now looking to add a few workers. "This thing was supposed to ramp up a long time ago."
In all, the state expects to insulate, seal windows and otherwise weatherize 30,000 homes for lower-income residents over three years -- on top of the 6,000 to 8,000 it expects to do under an existing program -- and put up to 1,300 people to work.
Weatherization initiative slowly gets off ground
You'd be hard-pressed to find a program more representative of the Obama administration's stimulus act than the $5 billion it's pumping into home energy conservation improvements.
It promises to save energy, help lower-income Americans on their bills and put tens of thousands of contractors and their employees to work.
In Michigan and elsewhere, however, the program has had a slow start: Of the $121 million already provided the state -- about half of the $243 million committed to the state over three years -- only about $2 million had been spent by the end of August. The program, which hoped to have work in progress last April, ground to a halt while wage rates for contractors were sorted out.
A half-dozen of the 32 community action agencies coordinating the weatherization program for the state Department of Human Services have contractors working; at one of them, the Oakland Livingston Human Services Agency, which serves those two counties, nearly three dozen jobs are under way or completed, the leading edge of at least 1,681 weatherization projects to be done in Oakland and Livingston counties with $12 million in stimulus funding by March 2012.
The program has had a slower start elsewhere in suburban Detroit and Michigan, where agencies serving lower-income residents have been weeding through contractor bids and making decisions on which ones to use, with an eye toward work beginning soon on some of the thousands of applications for home improvements.
"We're trying to work as quickly as we can," said Frank Taylor, executive director of the Macomb County Community Services Agency. Macomb officials have cut a list of 31 contractors seeking work to 17 it plans to use on at least 1,166 projects over three years. Work is expected to begin Nov. 16.
"We've got contractors who need the work," Taylor said.
In fact, weatherization and insulation contractors across the region consider the work a lifeline, with the economy soured and unemployment at 15.3% -- the nation's highest -- in September. At Ampro Insulation and Weatherization in Hamtramck, owner Darnell Jackson says 80% of his private sector work has dried up.
He's not alone: Robert Dein, at Applied Building Sciences in Royal Oak, says he has relied on government work lately. Now he has contracts with agencies in Oakland, Livingston and Macomb counties for weatherization work and wants to hire up to four more people.
Of the 250 or so résumés he has, he said, only a few people seem qualified -- and with the higher wages the federal government is requiring, he said can't afford to pay them to learn on the job.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a program more representative of the Obama administration's stimulus act than the $5 billion it's pumping into home energy conservation improvements.
It promises to save energy, help lower-income Americans on their bills and put tens of thousands of contractors and their employees to work.
In Michigan and elsewhere, however, the program has had a slow start: Of the $121 million already provided the state -- about half of the $243 million committed to the state over three years -- only about $2 million had been spent by the end of August. The program, which hoped to have work in progress last April, ground to a halt while wage rates for contractors were sorted out.
A half-dozen of the 32 community action agencies coordinating the weatherization program for the state Department of Human Services have contractors working; at one of them, the Oakland Livingston Human Services Agency, which serves those two counties, nearly three dozen jobs are under way or completed, the leading edge of at least 1,681 weatherization projects to be done in Oakland and Livingston counties with $12 million in stimulus funding by March 2012.
The program has had a slower start elsewhere in suburban Detroit and Michigan, where agencies serving lower-income residents have been weeding through contractor bids and making decisions on which ones to use, with an eye toward work beginning soon on some of the thousands of applications for home improvements.
"We're trying to work as quickly as we can," said Frank Taylor, executive director of the Macomb County Community Services Agency. Macomb officials have cut a list of 31 contractors seeking work to 17 it plans to use on at least 1,166 projects over three years. Work is expected to begin Nov. 16.
"We've got contractors who need the work," Taylor said.
In fact, weatherization and insulation contractors across the region consider the work a lifeline, with the economy soured and unemployment at 15.3% -- the nation's highest -- in September. At Ampro Insulation and Weatherization in Hamtramck, owner Darnell Jackson says 80% of his private sector work has dried up.
He's not alone: Robert Dein, at Applied Building Sciences in Royal Oak, says he has relied on government work lately. Now he has contracts with agencies in Oakland, Livingston and Macomb counties for weatherization work and wants to hire up to four more people.
Of the 250 or so résumés he has, he said, only a few people seem qualified -- and with the higher wages the federal government is requiring, he said can't afford to pay them to learn on the job.
Requirements for contractors
Many strings are attached to the weatherization program, which piggybacks on a program funded through the U.S. Department of Energy to pay for free insulation, window sealing and other energy-saving improvements to homeowners and renters with incomes up to twice the federal poverty level.
In the past, the federal funding has led to improvements for up to an average of $2,500 on each of about 5,000 homes in Michigan annually. Under the stimulus -- known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- work can average up to $6,500 per home.
After paying for training, state personnel and other items, there's money in Michigan -- about $199 million -- to cover work on 30,000 homes over three years, on top of the 6,000-8,000 expected to be weatherized during that time under the existing program.
Training and payroll requirements and other red tape for contractors make it unlikely that new businesses will qualify.
The program operates simply: Someone who wants work done contacts the local community action agency. Once the applicant's income eligibility is determined, the agency -- if funding is available -- inspects the home to decide what needs to be done. Most jobs are for spraying insulation and sealing to cut air leakage. Finally, a contractor completes the work.
Melissa Sargent, a 36-year-old Royal Oak mother and education coordinator for a Detroit-area nonprofit agency, had a hole in her roof that dripped water into a bucket in her living room when it rained.
This summer, the Oakland Livingston HSA authorized work on her home under the existing program, with funding for roof repairs coming from yet another fund; the family even got a new furnace. New insulation went in the walls, the attic and the crawl space.
She's expecting her heating bills this winter to be cut in half. Last year, they sometimes topped $250 a month.
"It's fabulous," she said of the work that was done. "Our minds are so much at ease."
Officials at all the local community action agencies and at the state want to make sure people know that even if they apply and are eligible for work, it could take months -- or even more than a year -- for the work to be completed.
The contractors hope the action agencies have inspectors ready to authorize work, because they're raring to go.
"There is some hope that in the first part of next year, you'll see this thing take off," said Dein.
Many strings are attached to the weatherization program, which piggybacks on a program funded through the U.S. Department of Energy to pay for free insulation, window sealing and other energy-saving improvements to homeowners and renters with incomes up to twice the federal poverty level.
In the past, the federal funding has led to improvements for up to an average of $2,500 on each of about 5,000 homes in Michigan annually. Under the stimulus -- known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- work can average up to $6,500 per home.
After paying for training, state personnel and other items, there's money in Michigan -- about $199 million -- to cover work on 30,000 homes over three years, on top of the 6,000-8,000 expected to be weatherized during that time under the existing program.
Training and payroll requirements and other red tape for contractors make it unlikely that new businesses will qualify.
The program operates simply: Someone who wants work done contacts the local community action agency. Once the applicant's income eligibility is determined, the agency -- if funding is available -- inspects the home to decide what needs to be done. Most jobs are for spraying insulation and sealing to cut air leakage. Finally, a contractor completes the work.
Melissa Sargent, a 36-year-old Royal Oak mother and education coordinator for a Detroit-area nonprofit agency, had a hole in her roof that dripped water into a bucket in her living room when it rained.
This summer, the Oakland Livingston HSA authorized work on her home under the existing program, with funding for roof repairs coming from yet another fund; the family even got a new furnace. New insulation went in the walls, the attic and the crawl space.
She's expecting her heating bills this winter to be cut in half. Last year, they sometimes topped $250 a month.
"It's fabulous," she said of the work that was done. "Our minds are so much at ease."
Officials at all the local community action agencies and at the state want to make sure people know that even if they apply and are eligible for work, it could take months -- or even more than a year -- for the work to be completed.
The contractors hope the action agencies have inspectors ready to authorize work, because they're raring to go.
"There is some hope that in the first part of next year, you'll see this thing take off," said Dein.
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