Stimulus money to help low-income households keep warm has been slow going out the door in northeast Indiana.
Indiana gave about half its federal stimulus money for weatherization of low-income homes to a politically active builders association, which has completed work on just a handful of homes in seven northeast Indiana counties. Other local agencies experienced in weatherization programs are having less trouble meeting federal benchmarks but are still struggling because of a late start and high expectations.
The Indiana Builders Association is responsible for weatherizing homes in DeKalb, Huntington, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wabash and Wells counties and has a goal of weatherizing 537 homes in those counties by May. As of Monday, about 45 percent of those homes were in progress – meaning work was being done or at least had been approved, Indiana Builders Association CEO Rick Wajda said.
He said he remains “cautiously optimistic” the organization can get its work done by May. The process is flowing better, and Wajda expects after the holidays to see more noticeable progress.
“I won’t say we’re 100 percent full-steam-ahead, but we’re certainly close to it,” he said. “The proof will be in the pudding.”
The state announced in late summer the U.S. Department of Energy had approved its proposal to use nearly $132 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to weatherize more than 30,000 households. Skeptics argued the choice of the Indiana Builders Association smacked of cronyism because the group was a major contributor to Gov. Mitch Daniels’ campaigns.
Combined with annual weatherization programs already operated by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, the total the state had available for weatherization was 11 times the amount normally spent on such programs.
It would have been difficult for community action agencies – with programs, staff and contacts already in place to run such programs – to handle that influx, said Kerwin Olson, program director for the Citizens Action Coalition. But for half the money to be sent through the Indiana Builders Association’s startup program seemed a careless decision and may have contributed to slow federal approval of Indiana’s plan, he said.
“This was something we were following closely,” Olson said. “We were concerned the money was not going to get spent.”
The early results are disappointing, and Olson said it remains to be seen whether the association can ramp up its progress. It’s up to the state to gauge progress – and to shift the money back to established programs if the association can’t come through, he said.
The state put community-action agencies, which already had weatherization programs in place, in charge of weatherizing homes in Adams, Allen, Kosciusko and Whitley counties.
Community Action of Northeast Indiana is responsible for weatherizing homes in Allen and Whitley counties and had completed work on 71 homes by Nov. 30 – 19 short of its goal of 90. But it had 126 homes in progress, said Pam Brookshire, CANI’s director of program operations.
CANI has traditionally run weatherization programs in Allen, DeKalb, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben and Whitley counties, so sharing with the Indiana Builders Association caused some confusion. All the agencies dealt with a start late in the season and high expectations, Brookshire said.
“We’re very pleased with the progress we made,” she said.
But other local organizations have struggled. Community and Family Services Inc., which serves Adams, Jay and Randolph counties, had only completed one of its projected 227 homes by Nov. 30. About 10 were in progress, but by several weeks later, that number had nearly tripled, according to data from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.
Housing Opportunities of Warsaw, which serves Kosciusko County, hadn’t completed any of its 104 homes by Nov. 30. But by early last week, 33 homes were in progress, according to the state.
Wajda points to the trouble other groups have had getting started as evidence that meeting the federal guidelines and reporting requirements attached to the stimulus money is anything but simple. And he argues that, while the association had never run such a program, it had experience operating under government oversight.
“It takes some time to get things up to speed,” he said.
But when it does, it will accomplish the goals President Obama and Daniels have for the program – to help low-income Hoosiers and to help the building industry.
There were more than 30,000 housing starts in Indiana several years before the recession; this year, the number might not surpass 10,000, Wajda said.
“Our guys needed to get back to work,” he said. “We needed to think outside the box.”
