The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) audit committee meets next week, and their meeting packet is up at the TDHCA website. A couple of things caught my eye: An Internal Audit repor of the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), including that part of the program funded under the Recovery Act was released. In [...]
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Tag Archives: WAP
Checking in on the Weatherization Assistance Program
March 21, 2011
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There were two recent updates, one federal and one local, on the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) program as funded under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Federally, the Congressional House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations recently had a hearing on the status of Recovery Act Spending by the Department of Energy (DOE). [...]
Read moreWAP Update
February 4, 2011
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We’ve discussed the ARRA Weatherization Assistance Program a few times here at Texas Housers, focusing on perceived shortcomings creating local jobs in the low-income communities served by the program and our take on early news coverage of its “slow start”. Last week’s Texas Observer had a more up-beat view of the program. In an article [...]
Read moreTwo Documents From The Feds This Week
September 24, 2010
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The Feds released two documents this week that are worth mentioning, at least in passing. First, the Obama Administration’s “housing scorecard” for September. Lots of fun facts in it, but this one is a real humdinger: “Cumulative Foreclosure Completions since April 2009: 1.42 Million.” That’s more housing units than exist in North Dakota, Vermont, Alaska [...]
Read moreAG rules that location of weatherization assistance program activities is secret
August 6, 2010
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For the past few months we’ve had an open record request pending at TDHCA for a copy of their “Previously Weatherized Units” database. This database is used by TDHCA to keep track of the weatherization activities of its subcontractors. As part of our American Recovery and Reinvestment Act accountability initiative, we’d like to keep track [...]
Read moreCity of Houston weatherization jobs have not been in low-income communities
July 6, 2010
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The 2009 Recovery Act increased the funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) in Texas by 2500%. This program funds local agencies to provide minor home repairs to low-income Texans. The Recovery Act was intended to create jobs in the communities most impacted by the recession. The Federal Office of Management and Budget, in a [...]
Read moreDon’t bypass low income homeowners in weatherization program
June 8, 2010
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The GAO recently issued its bimonthly report of activities funded by the Recovery Act (ARRA) in Texas, including a discussion of the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). The good news for TDHCA is that the GAO stated ” TDHCA has internal controls for WAP to help ensure that Recovery Act funds are spent according to program [...]
Read moreSlow start to weatherization programs: Not just Texas
February 23, 2010
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On Tuesday the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General added to the recent parade of commentary regarding the slow start of the Weatherization Assistance Program, pointing out that as of December, nationally only about 5% of the total housing units scheduled to be eventually weatherized had been completed. As previously commented on Texas Housers, [...]
Read moreWeatherization–a slow start for Texas may not be all bad news
December 22, 2009
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The Dallas Morning News ran a story Sunday (here) regarding Texas’s slow start to the Weatherization Assistance Program. The story highlighted the fact that as of last month, the program had completed just a handful homes using Recovery Act funds. Austin’s KUT picked up the story this morning (here). Is this good news? No, we’d [...]
Read moreRecovery Act Reporting Milestone
November 6, 2009
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Last Friday was a major milestone in the extensive reporting requirements of the Recovery Act. Recovery.gov released the first round of reports by local recipients regarding the status of some 142,825 initiatives receiving recovery funds. This round of reports covered Feb. 17, 2009, through Sept. 30, 2009—the reports will be updated quarterly going forward. [...]
Read more3 important policy questions for expanded $327m Texas Weatherization Assistance Program
October 26, 2009
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Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) in Texas Another housing program expanded by the 2009 Recovery Act was the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). WAP funds local agencies to provide minor home repairs to low-income Texans. These repairs increase the energy efficiency of the housing stock and reduce the heating and cool components of the housing cost. The [...]
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