The Weatherization, Rehab and Asset Preservation (WRAP) Project

The Weatherization, Rehab and Asset Preservation (WRAP) Partnership is sponsored by the Ford Foundation and is administered by the Energy Programs Consortium (EPC).¹ The purpose of the Partnership is to develop an innovative approach to increasing asset value and reducing maintenance costs for low-income homeowners by linking housing affordability and weatherization programs. Both program areas have the potential to play a greater role in helping low-income families increase the value of the homes and neighborhoods through combined renovation and weatherization.

One of the key goals of the WRAP Partnership is to develop new delivery systems that combine energy efficiency and home renovation programs. These systems will help to decrease the need for high cost on-going maintenance that , in turn, will help to increase the affordability of home ownership for low-income households. The Partnership will do this by providing Challenge Grants and supplemental loan funds to local agencies in 12 cities over a five-year period to test various strategies linking energy/housing programs. The initial pilots are in the states of Connecticut, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York and Texas. The results will be evaluated by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

The Partnership program is also designed to help new low-income homeowners. While federal, state and local programs have dedicated an increasing amount of resources to these families to help them purchase homes, few resources have been applied to address the ongoing costs of homeownership. Many of the homes that are purchased through these programs have outdated and energy inefficient appliances, heating and cooling systems. As a result, many of these families are at risk of losing their homes because they cannot afford the high energy bills associated with outdated energy systems and cannot afford to replace them with new and reliable energy efficient systems.

Many of the individual programs supporting the goals of the Partnership currently exist. However, they are often administered by different federal, state and local agencies, have complex and often contradictory application requirements, and rarely reach the intended recipients in a coherent and client-friendly manner. The outcome is unfortunate – programs delivering services that are less than the sum of their parts and lost energy efficiency and weatherization opportunities.

A critical piece of this puzzle is to make the successful weatherization program more effective by targeting a comprehensive approach to maintenance and renovation, not limited to energy improvements. The expected outcomes of the WRAP Partnership include:

• Increased discretionary income as a result of lower energy costs
• Reduced fire, mold and other home safety hazards, thereby lowering insurance costs
• Increased asset value of homes as a result of rehabilitation and energy efficiency improvements
• Increased resources to help improve the targeted neighborhood’s appearance and condition
• Strengthen home ownership as a predicate to strengthened asset formation in neighborhoods.

Contact: Mark Wolfe, EPC, 202-237-5199

• The New Energy Efficiency Mortgage: An Innovative Financial Tool for Energy Efficiency
  April 2007
• Weatherization, Rehab and Asset Preservation Issue Brief
  March 2007
• Wrap Interim Status Report
  January 2007
• State Public Benefit Funds: Expanding Support for Low-Income Weatherization and Rehab
  August 2004
• Weatherization, Rehab and Asset Preservation Partnership: A Background Paper
  July 2004
• Summary List of Pilot Projects

1- The Energy Programs Consortium is a joint venture of the National Association of State Community Services Programs (NASCSP), representing the state weatherization and community service programs directors; National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO), representing the state energy policy directors; National Association of State Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), representing the state public service commissioners; and National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA), representing the state directors of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.