Today in the Finance and Budget Committee we approved Council Bill 117131 to receive funding for weatherization projects. The Office of Housing (OH) received an additional grant from the United States Department of Energy to the tune of $2.5 million. This new grant has great implications for new environmentally friendly technologies in low-income housing. Specifically, OH will work through their Homewise program to weatherize low-income housing in both single-family homes and multi-family apartments. Last year, Homewise reached 300 single family homes and 1200 multi-family apartments.
I’m excited about these new prospects. The hope is that Homewise will leverage these funds to implement technologies like solar water heating, ductless heat pumps, and hybrid boilers. The OH will also measure the cost-effectiveness for these technologies for different housing units so we make sure we make the right improvements for the right housing.