Annie Harper | Innovation Showcase | 2014 Solar Symposium
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This is an Ignite Style presentation (five minute max presentations with slides that automatically advance every 15 seconds) that was a part of the 2014 Solar Symposium Innovation Showcase. Annie Harper, Coordinator, Yale Community Carbon Fund Lessons Learned from Low-Income Retrofits: Find out how the Yale Community Carbon Fund overcame implementation challenges to implement energy efficiency and renewable projects in low-income communities in Connecticut.
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Annie Harper | Innovation Showcase | 2014 Solar Symposium
- 12. Solutions? 1. Health and Safety $ 2. Coordinators/case managers 3. Work with municipal code enforcement 4. Loans aren’t for everyone
- 17. Solutions? 1.Simplify processes 2.Outreach and coordination 3.Understanding and patience 4.Rental laws and regulations
- 19. 18% CHERRY PICKING PROVEN! % in census tract % served by program 70% 79% 11% single family homes 2-4 unit homes
Editor's Notes
- I’m going to talk about our efforts in New Haven to make low income energy efficiency work. I know it’s not solar, but there’s tons of overlap between energy efficiency and solar, so I think what I have to say is relevant.
- New Haven is a typical North-Eastern city (poor, lots of social problems, high number of renters, old housing stock, huge discrepancy between rich and poor, massive achievement gap etc.).
- For the last 3 years I’ve been working to help low-income people in New Haven make their homes more energy efficient, with 3 goals in mind – saving people money, enabling people to live more comfortably, creating local jobs.. oh yes, and reducing carbon emissions.
- I took the job to get more involved in New Haven. I’d lived there for years but never felt a part of it (my PhD was about far away Pakistan!) and this was a way to get involved. It seemed like a breeze – part time, full benefits, a Yale email address and a grant to spend on insulating 50 poor people’s homes.
- How wrong I was. It was no breeze. In fact, it got more confusing as time went on. I started with a plan; find out who the relevant players are in the field, develop partnerships, and spend my money. But it didn’t work like that. I’m still confused, 3 years later, about who does what and how best to partner.
- And the actual work on the ground? It had seemed so easy; find a poor person, pay to install attic and wall insulation in their home, feel good about myself, then move onto the next one. But I just couldn’t shift those $. The grant had turned into a burden. How could I tell my boss or the donor I was failing to meet our goals?
- But finally, it dawned that the project could actually do more than I had initially thought. While we may fail to insulate those 50 homes, by trying to insulate them (and in many cases failing), we could shed some light on the barriers to low income insulation, and perhaps be able to identify some ways to overcome those barriers.
- So, here’s what we’ve learned. First, understand how poverty affects housing. Poor people can’t afford to maintain their homes, and if they rent, landlords typically don’t bother. So health and safety problems that prevent energy efficiency work from taking place are common – friable asbestos, mold, elevated gas or CO levels, roof leaks – vendors call them ‘show-stoppers’.
- There’s little to no funding to make these problems go away, and poor coordination between the funds that exist. New Haven doesn’t have the resources to enforce code violations, so landlords are off the hook. Even where enforcement happens, it can result in eviction or increased rents, pushing poor people out
- Homeowners struggle too. I’m tired of telling poor homeowners who I’ve persuaded to sign up for the program that ‘sorry, we can’t do the work because we found a problem in your home that is risking the health of you and your family, but there’s nothing we can do to help you with that, so goodbye’.
- Subsidized loan programs are out there, some of them even forgivable loans – but if you’ve got bad credit, if your home has lost value so you’ve lost the equity in it, or if you’re in arrears on your utility bills, forget it.
- Solutions to all of this? * Find funding for health and safety problems *pay for coordinators/navigators to streamline the application process * work with municipalities to promote synergy between code enforcement and energy projects *recognize limits of loan products as funding solutions
- Second, understand how poverty affects decision making. CT has tons of free energy efficiency services on offer. But poor people aren’t rushing to sign up. What’s wrong with them? Well here’s what’s wrong. With incredibly complicated, stressful lives, it’s hard to plan ahead. Attic insulation falls far down the list of priorities, even if it’s free
- Even if you’re interested, the process is a pain in the ass, and takes up time and energy that people don’t have. Proving eligibility, scheduling appointments, having people come into your home who you fear will judge the way you live (and they often do). Even for interested people the momentum wears off.
- And more importantly, poor people typically don’t have much decision-making power, even if they are interested. This is where insights from behavioral economics fall short. There’s little value in ‘nudging’ someone to make a good decision when that decision is out of their hands anyway
- If you rent, it’s your landlord who decides about changes to the home, and who knows how long you’ll live there anyway? If you own your house but can’t afford to deal with structural or health and safety problems you’re stuck. If you’ve got credit problems, special subsidized loan programs will probably be out of reach.
- Solutions? *simplify applications and eligibility determination processes *spend money on effective outreach and coordination * be understanding and patient - be prepared and have resources to make repeated calls and visits *understand and work to change laws and regulations of rental properties
- And third, know what you’re doing. A low-income program can easily spend money, get work done, and report positive impact, without ever really reaching those who are most in need. Because, frankly, it’s easier to reach people who are less poor and have fewer problems.
- CT utilities now have to share data on job completion at the census tract level, by housing type. 2013 data shows that though lots of work was done in poor census tracts, it was mostly in in single family homes, even where most homes in those tracts are multi-family. This type of granular data has the power to force change.
- This type of granular data has the power to force change. Poverty’s still the real problem, but with funding for health and safety problems, coordination of partners, streamlining of application and eligibility processes, lawyers on hand to advise on legal issues, and continued sharing of good data, we can begin to make a difference