Description
With the Healthy Homes Program, the City of Saint Paul will invest in needed home repairs and weatherization in the homes of low-income Saint Paul residents in 1-4 unit residential properties who were disproportionately impacted by COVID.
Low-income residents of Saint Paul were disproportionately impacted by COVID through higher infection and death rates and economically via impacts to low-wage jobs, and these families will benefit from the Healthy Homes Program.
Healthy Homes will make homes safer and more livable for eligible families and weatherization improvements will reduce their energy bills, at a time when energy costs have been rising. The Healthy Homes Program will reduce the risk of further deterioration of homes, in some cases reduce the risk of fire, and in all cases improve home comfort through weatherization and reduce energy bills for these households.
Living in a home that needs basic repairs and uses a lot of energy is a source of added stress and financial strain, and can put families at greater risk of negative health impacts. Healthy Homes aims to reduce these risks, strains, and stressors in the lives of eligible families.
The program will serve both homeowners and renters living in the lowest income and lowest wealth neighborhoods of Saint Paul.
In this program, the City will build on existing low-income weatherization programs run by community-based organization partners. Federal weatherization funds and low-income Conservation Improvement Program funds often cannot be used when the homes require basic life safety or other improvements to be implemented first, such as the repair of a leaky roof, asbestos/vermiculite removal, or the replacement of knob and tube wiring.
Healthy Homes will free up these existing low-income weatherization program dollars by investing in the needed “pre-weatherization” home repairs. By investing in residential home repairs and weatherization, The Healthy Homes program will also put people to work doing the residential home improvement and weatherization work.
The City will be releasing an RFP for this program in the 1st half of 2023.