Whole-Home Repairs
Issue context, Background, & Resources
About Whole-Home Repairs
Whole-Home Repairs is a unique Pennsylvania program that fills an important gap in the low-income energy efficiency program ecosystem.
It provides funding for county-wide agencies to address habitability and safety concerns, take measures to improve energy or water efficiency, and make units accessible for individuals with disabilities. Homeowner households with income up to 80% of area median income are eligible for home repair grants, and small landlords are eligible for loans that are forgivable under certain tenant-protection circumstances. This program addresses safety, habitability, and structural issues that often prevent low-income households from participating in WAP, LIURP, and Act 129 programs.
64 of 67 counties administer Whole-Home Repairs, but many have exhausted their current funding. Check with the Department of Community & Economic Development for a list of administrators.
Why Does KEEA Support Whole-Home Repairs?
The Whole-Home Repairs program mitigates high energy burdens, improves housing stock, stabilizes communities, and grows the energy efficiency industry.
Whole-Home Repairs projects alleviate unsafe, unstable housing conditions and halt further decay. Many include accessibility improvements for seniors and disabled residents. Repairs often involve fixing leaking homes or making HVAC/electrical upgrades that improve energy efficiency.
Approximately one-third of low-income households get deferred from energy efficiency programs – for which they would otherwise be eligible – due to structural, health, or safety issues in their homes. Deferrals leave these households saddled with high energy burdens and low-quality housing. Crucially, addressing critical repairs lets applicants access other energy efficiency programs, like the Weatherization Assistance Program, from which they would otherwise be deferred.
Source: Pennsylvania Weatherization Assistance Program LIHEAP Deferral Program 2019-2020 (January 2020)
After repairs, homeowners who would eventually be forced to move due to safety, repair, and energy cost concerns can instead stay in their homes and their communities. Blight is lessened and buildings stay on property tax rolls instead of getting abandoned or demolished, contributing to local schools and municipal services.
Additionally, Whole-Home Repairs funds workforce development efforts, helping counties build up the skilled workforces they need to perform repairs. It also creates outsourcing-proof energy efficiency jobs. Action Housing, Whole-Home Repairs administrator for Allegheny County, reported that all of their 12 partner contractors hired new staff to handle Whole-Home Repairs demand.
"It's been life-changing"
Allegheny County homeowner Kelly Scatena testifies about Whole-Home Repairs in front of her home and later to the PA Senate Policy Committee in February 2024.
Program Status
Whole-Home Repairs was established in Summer 2022, when the General Assembly invested $125 million of federal COVID relief money to create the program. Since then, the need for the program has only become more apparent. Sixty-four out of Pennsylvania’s sixty-seven counties administer the program, and most have received eligible applications that dramatically outpace available funding.
In 2023, the General Assembly originally allocated $50 million of state funding to continue Whole-Home Repairs. However, unrelated political battles prevented the funding from being released.
Governor Shapiro recently proposed including $50 million in his budget proposal for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. KEEA and our partners will be advocating to ensure this money stays in the budget and can provide critical home repairs and access to efficiency for those who need it most.
KEEA Executive Director Jeaneen Zappa speaks at a Pittsburgh Whole-Home Repairs rally.
KEEA's Role
KEEA has worked with Senator Nikil Saval and a coalition of nonprofit, advocacy, and community organizations from the very beginning of this program. KEEA members provided input to ensure the program meets the needs of the families deferred from the Weatherization Assistance Program and utility low-income efficiency programs.
Each year since 2022, we have advocated for the program through direct lobbying, leading sign-on letters to key decision makers, coordinating coalition efforts, and providing education on the value of this program.
KEEA members Dave Hanes (MT Weatherization), Joe Nunley (Performance Systems Development), Fred Maher (CMC Energy Services), and Matt Tenny (MT Weatherization) with KEEA Government Affairs Manager Rachel Goodgal after a day of Whole-Home Repairs lobbying in Harrisburg (February 2023)
Energy Efficiency Stories
EnergyEfficiencyStories.org is a growing database of stories from New Jersey and Pennsylvania showing the economic, social, and environmental benefits of energy efficiency. And some of those stories are about Whole-Home Repairs! Check out these highlights:
In The News
Home repairs program making big difference in Pa. [opinion] — Reading Eagle, May 2024
Opinion: Fund Whole-Home Repairs and help PA homeowners — City & State, April 2024
Pa. home repair and energy efficiency program resuscitated in Shapiro’s budget proposal — WHYY, February 2024
Democrats urge state lawmakers to put new funding into Whole Home Repairs program — Pennsylvania Capital-Star, February 2024
Demand for Pennsylvania’s Whole-Home Repairs Program has been overwhelming, but more funding is on hold — Spotlight PA, December 2023
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