Cindie Reshel got a housewarming party three years after she bought her house.
Thanks to a federal home weatherization program, she just got a new furnace, insulation in her attic, a chimney repair and other help, all for free. With winter coming, she already sees her heating bills cut in half.
“I can turn the furnace on one day and leave it off three days and it stays the same temperature,” the Belvidere resident said. “They’ve got this place so airtight, it’s unbelievable.”
The decades-old federal weatherization program typically helps about 220 low-income households a year in Winnebago and Boone counties. But thanks to an extra $4.2 million from the federal stimulus package, three times that many will get fixed up in each of the next two years.
“Adding things like insulation and making improvements to heating systems aren’t necessarily things they have money to do, but will have huge and long-term benefits,” said Mark Bixby, energy director for the city of Rockford’s Human Services Department, which administers the program in the two counties. “That allows money that might be going to wasted energy to go for ... food, clothing, medication and other things.”
The goal is to cut residents’ heating bills by at least 30 percent through the upgrades, which could mean hundreds of dollars in savings each year.
It’s open to any kind of home, from mobile home to apartment to single-family dwelling. And because of the stimulus money, for the next two years, landlords won’t be required to pay anything to get low-income rental units weatherized.
“The administration in Washington feels strongly that weatherization benefits most the person who is paying the actual utility bill,” Bixby said.
For Reshel, the Belvidere resident, the help comes at a time of great need. She lost her savings thanks to identity theft, she said, and now faces house payments that eat up nearly all her income.
“Every penny, I scrimp to save,” she said. “This is something I could have never ever done. It saved me a ton of money I don’t have.”
The stimulus funds will also help the Human Services Department wipe out its waiting list, which ran two to three years deep.
Shirley Miller of Rockton had been on the list for a year. Her mobile home got a new furnace and windows this year.
“Sometimes you would have to turn it up to 80 to get warm,” she said. “Now, it’ll be on just a few minutes, and the whole house gets warm and keeps it.”
