Phoenix Housing Repairs and Rehabilitation Program Case Study
Building for Insurability, Resilience, Energy Efficiency, and Housing Affordability: Addressing the True Cost of Housing
Housing affordability remains a top concern for Phoenix residents. To help support the high percentage of homeowners, the City of Phoenix’s Housing Repairs and Rehabilitation Programs help low-income homeowners repair vital home systems and structures. City residents complete a household assessment form to determine whether they qualify for one of the programs, which includes the Housing Repairs Program, the Weatherization Assistance Program, Lead Safe Phoenix, and the Rental Rehabilitation program.
The Weatherization Assistance Program focuses on energy-efficient upgrades, improving affordability and energy resilience, helping homeowners reduce utility costs and increase efficiency through health and safety repairs and improvements. The program conducts inspections and assessments to judge the condition of a home, identifies needed upgrades, and supports the stacking of programs to help homeowners pay for the improvements. Eligible homeowners receive repair, replacement, or installation of air sealing, efficient lighting, high- efficiency appliances, carbon monoxide detectors, attic insulation and ventilation, energy efficiency assessments, and heating and cooling equipment. These improvements effectively reduce the cost of heating and cooling homes, helping homeowners spend less on their energy bills and save money. This program helped one resident on a fixed income in an aging home reduce her monthly energy bills from $175 to $75.
Critical to this program and Philadelphia’s Built to Last, is the ability for a local government to act as a conduit between the homeowners and the programs offered at the local, state, utility and federal level, while supporting the stacking of programs to ensure holistic upgrades extend the life of the home while lowering monthly costs.