Housing is an international human right. But today, too many people in Washington pay a disproportionate amount of their income on energy costs and reside in homes that endanger their health. Healthy home repairs are a comprehensive solution to these issues. By repairing roofs, installing new heating and cooling appliances, adding insulation, and improving windows, healthy home repairs ensure people live in safe and affordable homes, preserve existing housing, and use energy and water efficiently.

Unfortunately, these programs are only a fraction of the size they need to be to meet the needs of low-income families: Washington does not have enough workers to make healthy home repairs available to all, especially to those who would benefit the most. Too many immigrants as well as  rural, low income, and tribal communities do not have equitable access to these vital home repair services. Legislators must help build a Washington where everyone has a healthy and affordable home by ensuring there is a consistent and dedicated fund for healthy home repairs. This funding would enable the organizations and businesses doing this work to plan, hire, and retain the workers needed to fix up housing throughout the state.

Peoples’ need for healthy home repairs

People with low incomes, immigrants, and people in rural areas disproportionately experience housing issues and barriers to services to fix their homes in Washington. Firelands Workers United/Trabajadores Unidos, a grassroots power-building organization in rural Washington, worked with partner organizations around the state to conduct over 623 deep listening surveys and interviews in 2022 and 2023. They focused on surveying individuals who predominantly speak Spanish or other non-English languages, who make low incomes, and who reside in rural Washington. By emphasizing the voices of historically marginalized communities, they built a more comprehensive understanding of people’s housing needs and equitable solutions. In partnership with H&RA Advisors – a consulting firm focused on economic development in low-income communities – and the Washington State Department of Commerce, they developed a comprehensive Needs Assessment¹ of healthy home repairs in our state. 

The Needs Assessment reveals that people across income brackets need home repairs and are concerned about the their home condition’s negative impact on their well-being². Community members expressed the most concern about mold in their homes and disproportionately high energy costs. Additionally, more than 75% of people surveyed shared that they have mold in their windows and more than 50% shared they have mold on at least one of their walls³. Exposure to mold isn’t just momentarily sickening, but exposure to mold during childhood is also shown to increase the risk of an individual developing asthma. Asthma causes kids to miss school, and is the leading cause of childhood hospitalization. 

Not only are people living in homes that make us sick, but many of us are paying an unfair share of our income towards energy costs. The Needs Assessment defined energy-cost burden as paying a greater percentage of household income for energy compared to those who live around them⁴. There are 354,206 low-income households in Washington state that are energy-cost burdened^5. That’s three times the population of the city of Yakima, and each person may pay up to $6,160 of their income towards energy costs a year. Data shows that individuals who live below the poverty line – in Washington state, that’s $25,820 for a family of three – are also more likely to experience a high energy cost burden, which furthers class inequities.

This map shows the proportion of individuals in Washington communities living at or below the federal poverty line (annual income $26,500), paired with average energy burden (percentage of annual household income spent on energy costs).

Many immigrants and non-English speaking people, many of which also experience mold and energy cost burden, face additional barriers to securing healthy home repairs. Too many immigrants and non-English speakers in Washington do not have information about healthy home repairs because of a lack of information about these services and programs in their primary language^6.  Even though people without immigration documents are eligible for the program, many immigrants are afraid to apply due to the lack of clear information, their immigration status, or inability to provide proof of income^7. 

The healthy home repair work force is under resourced

Problems concerning the scale of the workforce and inconsistent funding for the healthy home repairs program exacerbate barriers for people to access healthy home repairs. Weatherization, the technical term for the part of healthy home repairs focused on insulation and home energy efficiency, is a program that installs heat pumps, insulation, and windows, and seals air leaks, among other home fixes, and is funded by a combination of federal and state funding. 

Specifically, Weatherization Assistance Program funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Low Income Energy Efficiency Program funding from Washington state Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), and Washington state Weatherization Plus Health funding are all provided to the Washington State Department of Commerce to support this program. The Department of Commerce then uses the funding to contract private nonprofits and other groups to assist with home inspections to qualify and conduct healthy home repairs.

Unfortunately, ever since the Weatherization Assistance Program formed in 1976, it has been inconsistently funded, therefore creating a precarious and ultimately slim workforce. As a result, organizations conducting weatherization services are often resistant to hiring and training workers because of the fear that they will have to lay off their staff due to lack of funding the following year. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act poured $5 billion into Weatherization services in 2009. While that funding was effective for weatherizing homes and hiring workers at the time, agencies who deliver weatherization services now reflect on the expiration of funds around 2012 and the resulting layoffs as ultimately destabilizing to the weatherization workforce and program ecosystem^8.

Consequently, organizations are forced to contract electricians, contractors, and installers to do weatherization work to avoid hiring and potentially laying off workers they hire internally. The small workforce is additionally concentrated in more urban areas, which balloons the delay time for rural communities to receive services due to the additional time needed for those work crews to travel to rural job sites^9. As a result, the weatherization workforce is a small and contracted workforce of 300 full-time weatherization workers^10.  In Washington, we need to scale up the workforce in order to expand weatherization services 14-18 times to weatherize all low income homes in the next ten years^11. Otherwise, at its current rate, it will take over 150 years to serve all low-income communities who need these services in Washington.

There are 128,000 low-income, energy-burdened, rural and owner-occupied households who may benefit from weatherization or energy assistance ^12. Of those, tribal nations also need greater resources for a larger workforce and greater capacity. In 2022, tribal agencies were awarded with $200,000 of Weatherization Assistance Program funding, which is only 3% of the state’s general allotment of $6 million for weatherization ^13. With these resources, between 2012 and 2021, tribal agencies were only able to provide 260 weatherization services^14. That’s less than 30 homes a year.

Legislators must prioritize healthy homes for all

Washington state legislators can provide greater access to safe and affordable housing, and energy efficiency to people throughout our state. The success of every actor in this weatherization system – auditors, outreach, insulators, heat pump installers, electricians, and administrators – depends on consistent funds that they can rely on year over year. Legislators must allocate consistent state funding for weatherization services so agencies can create high quality, stable, green jobs for workers to deliver healthy home repairs for all families who need it in Washington in the next ten years.

Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin works as Policy and Partnerships Manager for Firelands Workers United / Trabajadores Unidos, an organization of working people in rural western Washington fighting for just economic policies. He is an attorney, and also serves as a city councilmember in his hometown of Port Angeles.

Endnotes

¹ Washington State Budget and Policy Center accessed the completed Needs Assessment through a public records request. “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,” HR&A and Washington State Department of Commerce, October, 2023

² “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,” p238

³ Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,”p175

⁴ “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,” p10

⁵ “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,” p13

⁶ “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,” p171

⁷ “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,”p303

⁸ “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,”p167

⁹ “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,”p86

¹⁰ “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,”p167

¹¹ “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,”p68

¹² “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,”p98

¹³ “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,”p110

¹⁴ “Existing Conditions Analysis: Washington State Equitable Energy Efficiency Services Assessment,”p139