Here’s a brief overview of the income guidelines for most typical families:

For information on larger families, or for other Fuel Assistance related inquiries, please call our offices at (508) 676-7397 or (508) 676-7398

Madeline Cormier, seated, program director, along with staff members Kathy Vital, left, and Kim Silvia go through applications for weatherization assistance.

Most Americans were dramatically affected by the 1973 oil crisis with spiraling home heating costs. Low-income families in the colder climates suffered the most severe consequences. Maine state officials along with community action agencies began working with homeowners and renters to seal air leaks in their homes.

Out of this effort, the nation’s first weatherization program was born. Congress created the U.S. Dept of Energy’s (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) in 1976.

Citizens for Citizens began weatherizing homes of low-income families in their service area in that year. Since then, more than 16,000 area homes have been weatherized through the program. The CFC service area includes: Fall River, New Bedford, Taunton, Somerset, Swansea, Seekonk, Freetown, Dighton, Westport, Dartmouth, Rehoboth, Berkley, Acushnet, Fairhaven, Lakeville, Marion, Mattapoisett, Rochester.

During the infancy of the program, CFC relied on weatherization workers provided by the Comprehensive Employment Training Assistance program (CETA). The CETA workers covered windows with plastic sheeting, caulking and weather-stripped doors and windows. In the 1980s, more permanent and cost effective measures were added such as attic and wall insulation and improving the efficiency of the heating systems.

In the 1990s, emphasizing cost-effective measures continued with advanced energy audits and the use of diagnostic tools. Blower-door guided air sealing allows CFC to accurately locate and resolve air infiltration problems. Carbon monoxide and gas leak detectors allow CFC to identify energy related health and safety problems and rectify them. Infrared scanners give CFC the ability to determine if any insulation blown into the walls was neglected in any section of the walls.

Over the years, as the program and client demand grew, local, private contractors were trained and used to weatherize homes. This approach has added benefits: homes are receiving professional installation of weatherization measures, contractors hire workers from the local community, more homes can be completed in less time, and program dollars benefit the local economy.

According to DOE:

* Weatherization returns $1.39 in energy related benefits for every $1 invested in the Program.

* This cost-effective approach ensures the proper investment of taxpayer resources. For every $1 invested by DOE, the program leverages $1.54 in other federal, state, utility and private resources.

Since 2000, Citizens for Citizens has leveraged $2,390,593 from local utility programs to provide additional energy saving measures in 2,244 client’s homes.
During the nearly 30 years that CFC has administrated the WAP program, funding for it has expanded, contracted and was nearly eliminated. Currently, the program has several sources of funding, though DOE remains the funding flagship. The program was originally funded nationally at $27 million and has grown to more than $227 million.

According to DOE:

* Low-income households typically spend 14 percent of their income on energy bills compared with 3.5 percent for other households.
* Over 90 percent of low-income households have an annual income below $15,000.

Low-income households must often cut back on other necessities such as prescriptions and food to pay their heating bills. With the dramatic and alarming increases in energy costs this upcoming heating season, many will go to bed hungry.

Weatherization alleviates the heavy burden on low-income households and helps them become self-sufficient. Installed weatherization measures:

* Reduce a household’s annual gas consumption up to 31 percent.
* Are permanent and continue to save money year after year.
* Improve health and safety by reducing energy related hazards.
* Avoided $1 billion in energy costs during winter 2000 for all households weatherized to date.

By reducing energy consumption in low-income homes, Weatherization:

* Allows more money to remain in the community.
* Decreases electricity generation and resulting pollution.
* Reduces power plant emissions of carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas.
* Supports 12,000 jobs nationally.
* Reduces demand for imported oil.
* Decreases national energy consumption by the equivalent of 18 million barrels of oil annually.

In the mid 1990s, the community action agency in New Bedford, PACE, consolidated their weatherization program with CFC. This joint venture has helped PACE and CFC to better serve the low-income families in three cities, Fall River, New Bedford and Taunton and the 15 towns surrounding those cities.

According to Madeline Cormier, Weatherization director at CFC, in the last five years the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has received just over $30.1 million for DOE WAP. Citizens for Citizens received and expended nearly $2.8 million to weatherize the homes in the combined service area.

She said that nationally, since the inception of the WAP Program, more than 5.5 million homes have been weatherized while CFC has weatherized 16,100 of those homes. The graph below shows the number of homes weatherized by the cities and towns in the CFC service area. The average CFC currently spends on a home with DOE funding is $1,600. In many homes CFC has accessed leveraged utility funds so it can thoroughly weatherize a client’s homes.

Weatherization has evolved into a highly sophisticated program utilizing the latest diagnostic equipment to reduce energy consumption for our clients. This provides our clients a better quality of life.

Weatherization is a program that just makes sense. It reduces the amount of energy our clients require to heat their homes, helps the local economy, employs local contractors, reduces the amount of emissions to the atmosphere and helps elderly homeowners live in their homes they worked so hard for. Now, as in 1973, with drastically spiraling energy costs it makes even more sense to weatherize your home.

For more information about CFC’s Weatherization Program, call Ms. Cormier at (508) 675-2157 Ext. 133.