Improving energy efficiency is a way to cut expenses. The nonprofit will receive a $1.7 million dollar grant from the city of Dayton over the next three years to support efforts that go beyond energy efficiency.
The Dayton Energy Collaborative manages the Dayton Home Repair Network, whose goal is to provide critical home repair, weatherization, and health and safety measures to qualifying households in the Dayton region. This could mean insulation, HVAC installation, or air sealing.
But they can鈥檛 neglect other critical issues in homes such as pests or deteriorating walls, said Aileen Hull, executive director of the collaborative.
鈥淣ot just focusing on simply the energy reduction, but [also] the structural integrity of that house so that there isn't as much air leakage; that improves the indoor air quality of that house, which can then impact the health and wellness of individuals,鈥� Hull explained. 鈥淲hen you do all that in tandem together with major home improvements and repairs, that can be transformational for residents.鈥�
The organization will receive $345,000 for the first year, which will allow the group to double its staff capacity from three to six, and work on 250 additional homes in the city of Dayton. That staff will include a project manager who will ensure work is of high quality, and two case managers who can help residents navigate the application process and connect them to organizations for additional support.
The collaborative unites several philanthropic home building organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, County Corp and Miami Valley Community Action Partnership.
It鈥檒l also work with the . Its work will not only benefit the residents in these homes, said Lela Klein, innovation director for the sustainability office.
鈥淲e see this as such an important sustainability priority for our city that really touches people's lives, really impacts people's bills, people's bottom line, but also impacts how energy-efficient our city is as a whole,鈥� Klein said.
The city of Dayton has a commitment to make its housing stock more energy-efficient and insulated, said Meg Maloney, Dayton鈥檚 sustainability director.
鈥淲ith climate change, what we're seeing is higher heat days, and we have a really, really old housing stock, so homes that are poorly insulated,鈥� Maloney said. 鈥淎 lot of homes don't have access to air conditioning or their air conditioning systems aren't good. And that creates a lot of risk, especially [for] children and elderly population.鈥�
Maloney said these improvements can also improve overall property values in each neighborhood.
The organization mostly works with owner-occupied homes. But the group hopes to pilot a program aimed toward renter-occupied homes within the next year. Roughly half of Dayton's population are renters, said Hull. They鈥檙e still in the design phase of the program to ensure best outcomes.
鈥淲e don't want to incentivize poor practices with landlords to just give them essentially free money to upgrade houses and not hold them accountable for rental amounts, etc. We don't wanna compromise the well-being of the tenant,鈥� she said.
Across the partner organizations, Hull said there are 1,900 individuals waiting for assistance. The collaborative strives to be a one-stop shop for improvements that will promote overall wellness.
鈥淲hat I wanna highlight is that this is a highly collaborative effort and our commitment to continuing this network, strengthening this network. For the benefit of the clients that we serve is the goal here,鈥� Hull said.
The $1.7 million comes from a pool of money provided to the city by Disadvantaged Communities grant program.