The Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, located at 1803 Dorchester Ave. in Boston’s Dorchester section, is among the organizations participating in the pilot program known as Weatherization, Rehabilitation and Asset Preservation, or WRAP.
Residents of two Bay State communities will have some extra help keeping their homes warm and in tip-top shape in upcoming months.
The Ford Foundation has chosen the city of Gloucester and the Codman Square/St. Mark’s section of Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood to be part of a pilot program for low- and moderate-income homeowners called the Weatherization, Rehabilitation and Asset Preservation, or WRAP. The foundation is providing $100,000 to help link income-eligible homeowners in those communities who are seeking to make their homes more energy-efficient with other repair and home improvement programs, as well as social services.
Such a program is necessary, according to some housing leaders, because oftentimes technicians who go into a home to install a new heating system or make other energy conservation improvements discover maintenance or safety issues that need to be addressed, including leaky roofs or crumbling porches.
“What we find is that when we weatherize homes, a lot of times there are other repairs that need to be done, said John Wells of Action for Boston Community Development, a nonprofit organization that makes homes more energy-efficient for people with low incomes in Boston, Brookline and Newton.
Sometimes those other repair issues prevent the energy improvements from being made.
“When weatherization people go into a house, if they want to blow in insulation and the roof is leaking, often they would walk away,” said Florence Hagins, assistant director of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, which is located at 1803 Dorchester Ave. in Dorchester. MAHA will work with ABCD and a variety of other partners on the pilot program.
MAHA has hired Anita Henderson to function as a case manager who will work with homeowners in Dorchester earning up to 80 percent of the area median income – which translates to $64,650 a year for a family of four – to make sure that they are aware of all the resources that are available to low- and moderate-income households to make home improvements.
Often, homeowners aren’t aware of all the resources that are available, according to Hagins. Henderson will help homeowners identify and utilize resources that are available through the city of Boston to eliminate lead in their homes and make historically appropriate exterior repairs, as well as access home improvement loans available through MassHousing.
‘Whole-House’ Effort
“This is a program where we’re trying to capture the client at one stop,” said Wells, who is the vice president of real estate and energy services for ABCD. “It’s sort of a like a whole-house approach.”
Last year, ABCB provided weatherization services – which includes installing insulation in attics and walls, repairing heating systems, weather stripping and air sealing – to more than 1,800 families. The organization also receives funding from the utility deregulation process, which it uses to analyze electricity use in homes and then advise clients on how to reduce electricity usage.
The WRAP program was announced earlier this month at the home of Dorchester resident Marlin Anderson, who will be the first person taking part. Anderson’s monthly gas bill is $300 – a warning sign that her heating system may not be functioning properly.
MAHA was approached by the Ford Foundation to participate in the pilot program after a foundation official learned about MAHA’s HomeSafe program. The program has served over 3,200 homeowners in seven years by providing information on home repairs and maintenance, budgeting, lead paint, insurance, and landlord and tenant issues.
As part of the WRAP pilot program, MAHA hopes to help 100 homeowners over three years in the Codman Square section of Dorchester. The group will be producing a brochure about the program and mailing letters to homeowners who have participated in MAHA programs and workshops to recruit more participants.
In addition, Henderson will be meeting with neighborhood groups in upcoming weeks to inform them about the program.
Besides Dorchester and Gloucester, the other pilot sites are Freeport, N.Y.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Rio Grande City, Texas.
Hagins said that information will be collected from participants and given to researchers who will examine and analyze statistics from all the pilot sites to gauge the effectiveness of WRAP.
The ultimate goal is to “turn [WRAP] into a national program that is more permanent and stable.”
With greater numbers of low-income people becoming first-time homebuyers in recent years, the WRAP program is critical, said Hagins. “It’s another tool to help them stay in their homes,” she said.
Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.
