More layoffs aren’t imminent, he said.
CAP-Dayton expects to receive federal stimulus funding through March 2012 for its home weatherization program, which covers Montgomery, Greene, Preble, Darke and Butler counties. More than 2,100 low-income housing units in those five counties have been weatherized since the federal stimulus money became available.
The Miami County Community Action Council laid off four of its six weatherization crew members at the end of July, said Jack Baird, executive director.
“We really hated to see them go,” Baird said, noting 234 homes in the county have been weatherized so far through the program since federal stimulus money became available. Federal stimulus funding for the agency will run out at the end of this month, he said.
Warren County Community Services Inc. will not cut any of its five employees, said Tom Salzbrun, executive director.
It is looking at funding alternatives, including the possibility of making its weatherization program a mission-driven, for-profit enterprise.
It has completed or planned weatherization for 420 housing units thanks to federal stimulus dollars.
Ohio received $267 million starting in June 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the weatherization program.
Across the state, more than 1,000 workers were trained in a variety of weatherization-related tasks, said Dave Rinebolt, executive director and counsel for the Ohio Partners for Affordable Energy.
More than 40,000 low-income homes have been weatherized statewide so far since federal stimulus money became available, Rinebolt said. Families living at less than 200 percent of the poverty line — for a family of four, that’s $44,700 — have been eligible for assistance, he said.
Home weatherization groups also receive funding from the state and utilities.
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