Weatherization assistance program wait time is tied to a 3.5 billion dollar law that grew contractors 127% and staff 32% in one year

The law behind weatherization assistance program wait time

Weatherization assistance program wait time comes down to how much staff and contractor capacity the program actually has, and one law added far more of both than most local agencies could add alone. Weatherization is the work of sealing and insulating a home so it uses less energy to heat and cool. The Department of Energy states its own formula funding alone weatherizes an average of 35,000 homes a year nationwide, before any infrastructure law money is counted. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed on November 15, 2021, added 3.5 billion dollars to the Weatherization Assistance Program network nationwide, according to the National Association for State Community Service Programs, which collects funding data directly from every state, district and territory that runs the program. Of that money, 3.168 billion dollars goes straight to the local and state agencies doing the work. The program treated the first 18 months after that money arrived as a capacity building phase, time agencies spent hiring and training new staff and contractors and buying equipment before taking on more households.

More staff and contractors in program year 2022

That hiring shows up directly in the numbers. In program year 2022 alone, full time staff working on the program nationwide grew 32%, from 323 to 425 people, the association reports. Contractors, the outside companies agencies hire to do the actual sealing and insulating work, grew 127%, from 15 to 49, in the same year. This article reports that 127% figure exactly as the association published it, rather than silently correcting it to match ordinary arithmetic, which puts 15 growing to 49 closer to 227%.

Capacity growth inside one local agency

One local agency shows what that hiring looked like on the ground. The Southwest Georgia Community Action Council grew from a single weatherization crew to two full crews plus three energy auditors in training, and brought on nine outside contractors to help, according to the Building Performance Association. Its director also won weatherization workers a 5 dollar an hour raise, after losing a trained employee to a maintenance job that paid only 1 dollar an hour more.

Why some homes still wait

More staff and contractors do not guarantee a shorter wait for every household, because some homes get turned away before work even starts. A national survey of weatherization agencies found that about 1 in 5 income eligible households, 19%, were initially deferred from the program in 2023 because repairs were needed first for existing damage or health and safety issues, according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. About 60% of those homes were eventually repaired and served, while 40% could not be made ready at all.

The fund built to close the repair gap

The Department of Energy built a specific fund to shrink that backlog. In a signed program notice, the department states the Weatherization Readiness Fund targets reducing the number of homes that need repairs outside the scope of weatherization work before that work can start. The fund began at 15 million dollars in program year 2022 and Congress doubled it to 30 million dollars for fiscal year 2023, though the research group that studied the gap says the fund is unlikely to grow again in 2025. That research estimates the country needs 91.3 million to 94.2 million dollars a year to fund nearly all of that repair work, enough to let nearly 7,000 more households join the program in a single year. The typical deferred home needs 15,000 dollars in repairs before weatherization work can begin.