pre-weatherization Programs

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Pre-Weatherization Programs

Accessible, affordable pre-weatherization assistance programs can increase the number of homes meeting the criteria for weatherization, advance equitable access to weatherization, reduce energy cost burdens, and improve resident health and well-being

IMPACT AREAAffordability, shelter, resilience, safety, climate mitigation, green jobs
TOPICHousing, utility bills, renters, energy transition, greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, disaster preparedness, assistance
REGIONLocal, State, Federal
AFFORDABILITY PATHWAYDecarbonization
OVERSIGHTState housing agencies, U.S. Departments of Energy and Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
POLICY MECHANISMLegislation

OVERVIEW

Challenge

Weatherization is an effective means of increasing energy efficiency—thereby decreasing energy cost burdens and reducing greenhouse gas emissions—and improving the health and welfare of residents. Yet the ability to weatherize is highly dependent upon the home’s condition, leaving those with poor housing quality who cannot afford the home repairs needed to support weatherization without access to these benefits. Over five million low-income homeowners live with energy cost burdens and homes in need of repair, estimated to cost $22.5 billion in total.1 Over a quarter of energy-burdened, low-income homeowners have at least one home repair need of $4,000 or more.2 In addition, approximately four million renter households are estimated to live in substandard housing units, with at least $51.5 billion needed to make needed repairs.3 Without the resources and incentives needed to make these repairs, low-income households may be unable to weatherize their homes. 

At the federal level, the Weatherization Readiness Fund (WRF) was created in 2022 within the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) to provide pre-weatherization funding to make repairs needed to bring homes up to the quality standards that make them eligible for WAP funding, including roof and foundation repairs and mold and moisture remediation.4 National Association for State Community Service Programs. (2022). Weatherization Readiness Funding. For the past three years, the WRF has been allocated $30 million annually, which, though insufficient to meet the need, does provide relief to some.5 However, in the proposed federal budget, the WRF is zeroed out.6 At the state and local levels, pre-weatherization assistance consists of a patchwork of local programs and funding sources that are underfunded, not coordinated, and often difficult to access.

Policy Solution

Accessible, affordable pre-weatherization assistance programs can increase the number of homes meeting the criteria for weatherization, advance equitable access to weatherization, reduce energy cost burdens, and improve resident health and well-being. 

Model Policy Features

  • Grants (including health-related funding, such as asthma remediation grants for improved indoor air quality and mold treatment) and/or forgivable loans to low- and moderate-income households (e.g., with incomes at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level) and landlords serving low-income tenants, providing funding for home upgrades that enable a household to be ready for weatherization measures. 
  • Maximum assistance eligibility amounts sufficient to cover the local costs of larger repair expenditures (e.g., roof replacement, foundation repair). 
  • Open to manufactured home owners.
  • Stacking capability (i.e. assistance can be used with other funding mechanisms), paired with system navigation assistance for applicants, to take advantage of other federal, state, or local incentive programs.
  • Includes high road job and training or apprenticeship opportunities, including strategies to reach underemployed communities.
  • Reduces participation barriers, such as language access, consolidation of existing programs and/or no-wrong-door approaches, categorical eligibility (whereby participation in other government assistance programs qualifies a household for eligibility in offered programs), and simplified applications.
  • Includes tenant protections, such as prohibitions on landlord cost recovery through rent increases, eviction protections, displacement protections and/or assistance during renovations (e.g., alternative living spaces, assistance with moving or storage expenses), right to return without rescreening, grievance procedures, and anti-harassment provisions.
  • Includes provisions for regular data reporting including but not limited to identified home repair needs, cost of repairs, and age of home and public transparency (e.g., public-facing data dashboards, program evaluation, audits to ensure meaningful benefits reach intended populations).

Potential Policy Drawbacks and Pitfalls

  • Large funding requirements may require new funding sources and models or layering with other home-repair funds (e.g. mold remediation to address asthma triggers). 
  • Possible temporary displacement of residents in homes requiring significant retrofits.
  • Possible increase in identification of homes that neither meet housing quality standards for health and safety nor are salvageable through retrofit efforts. 

Complementary Policies

Complementary policies that can enhance the functionality of pre-weatherization policies include: 

  • Electrification readiness to maximize the feasibility of implementing energy efficient electric appliance upgrades within the home.
  • Weatherization programs to ensure that homes that received initial pre-weatherization upgrades subsequently have the resources to undertake weatherization. 

Additional supporting policies include contractor education and public housing energy efficiency improvements.

EXAMPLES

1. Pennsylvania COVID-19 ARPA Whole Home Repairs Program7

Details:

  • Grants and loans, limited to $50,000 per unit, to address habitability concerns (e.g., mold, electrical issues), improve energy and water efficiency, and/or increase accessibility for residents living with disabilities.
  • Grants limited to households with incomes at or below 80% of Area Median Income.
  • Loans to small landlords may be forgiven if tenant leases are extended by three years, annual monthly rent increases are limited to 3% or the tenant has been a Section 8 recipient for at least 15 years, the landlord has had no serious violations within the past 15 years, and the landlord has owned the building for at least 15 years.
  • Funded through a state allocation of $125 million in obligated American Rescue Plan Act funds. 
  • Includes workforce development provisions (e.g., stipends for trainees).

Challenges:

  • An additional $50 million was requested as part of the 2024-25 budget but was not allocated. Subsequent efforts to maintain program funding through the state budget have thus far been unsuccessful.8
  • Failure to renew state funding has left a waitlist of about 18,000 homeowners.9 (Approximately 1,300 applicants had received or were expected to receive home repairs through the program as of June 2024).10

2. Minnesota Energy Conservation and Optimization (ECO) Act11 and SF 212

Details:

  • ECO, enacted in 2021:
    • Updates and expands Minnesota’s Conservation Improvement Program (CIP), which requires that large utilities invest in energy efficiency programs that benefit customers.13
    • Requires electric investor-owned utilities to direct 0.6% of residential gross operating revenue to low-income customers; gas investor-owned utilities are required to dedicate 1.0% of residential gross operating revenue.14 In 2023 and 2024, the total amount directed to low-income customers was estimated to be $6.6 million.15
    • Up to 15% of the low-income set-aside can be spent on residential pre-weatherization. The energy savings resulting from pre-weatherization do not count towards the utilities’ energy savings requirements.16
  • S.F. No. 2, enacted in 2025:
    • Invests approximately $39 million in general fund revenue over two years for pre-weatherization and weatherization benefiting low-income households.17
    • Deposits the funds into a dedicated pre-weatherization account for this purpose.18

Challenges:

  • Energy-efficiency low-income household set-aside requirement for investor-owned utilities contained in the ECO Act is quite low (0.6% and 1.0% of residential gross operating revenue for electric and gas investor-owned utilities respectively). Of funds available ($6.6 million in 2023 and 2024), the amount of funding directed to pre-weatherization is only 15% (approximately $1 million in 2023-24).
  • Minnesota continues to incentivize gas appliances over investments in weatherization in its utility energy efficiency programs.19

    RESOURCES

    For other examples of state pre-weatherization and/or home repair programs, see Kresowik, M., Subramanian, S., Specian, M., Bradley-Wright, F., Ghosh, Mooney, P., Fraser, A., Sosa-Kalter, S., Fadie, B., and Mauer, J. (2025). The 2025 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. American Council for An Energy-Efficient Economy, 100-101.

    For resources relating to tenant protections, see RMI. Multifamily Affordable Housing Decarbonization Toolkit : Tenant Protections. Accessed: August 25, 2025; Kirk, C., Carpenter-Gold, D., and Miller, J. (2024). Tenant Protections in Building Decarbonization Policy. American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy; and Kirk, C. (2023). Decarbonizing California Equitably: A Guide to Tenant Protections in Building Upgrades/Retrofits Throughout the State. Strategic Actions for a Just Economy.

    1. Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. (2023). Repair Needs Among Weatherization Assistance-Eligible Homeowners.  ↩︎
    2. Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. (2019). Measuring and Understanding Home Repair Costs: A National Typology of Households. ↩︎
    3. Airgood-Obrycki, W. (2024). Six Takeaways from America’s Rental Housing 2024. Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. ↩︎
    4. National Association for State Community Service Programs. (2022). Weatherization Readiness Funding. ↩︎
    5. National Association for State Community Service Programs. (2024). WRF: Deferral Tracking Best Practices. ↩︎
    6. U.S. Department of Energy. Department of Energy Appropriation Detail FY 2026. Accessed: July 22, 2025. ↩︎
    7. General Assembly of Pennsylvania. Housing Stabilization Initiative Act, SB 1135, 2022 Session ↩︎
    8. Keith, C. (2025). 1000s waiting as Shapiro admin again tries to convince lawmakers to fund home repairs program. Spotlight PA; A. Moselle. (2025). Pennsylvania lawmakers hope to pass $50M repair program to keep residents housed. WHYY.  ↩︎
    9. Keith, C. (2025). 1000s waiting as Shapiro admin again tries to convince lawmakers to fund home repairs program. Spotlight PA; A. Moselle. (2025). Pennsylvania lawmakers hope to pass $50M repair program to keep residents housed. WHYY. ↩︎
    10. Demos. (2024). Whole Home Repairs: Winning the Campaign to Improve Housing Quality in Pennsylvania. ↩︎
    11. Minnesota State Legislature. Energy Conservation and Optimization Act of 2021 established, HF 164, 2021-2022. ↩︎
    12. Minnesota State Legislature, A bill for an act relating to energy, SF 2, First Special Session, 2025. ↩︎
    13. Jossi, F. (2021). Updated Minnesota conservation program aims to close ​‘pre-weatherization’ gap. Canary Media. For a history of the Conservation Improvement Program, see C. Eichten. (2022). The Conservation Improvement Program’s legacy in Minnesota. Fresh Energy. ↩︎
    14. Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. Energy Policy by State: Minnesota. Accessed: September 30, 2025. ↩︎
    15. Bains, A. and Dammel, J. (2022). ECO Act Update: One year of progress with even more to come. Fresh Energy. ↩︎
    16. Wazowicz, M. (2021). Minnesota Passes the ECO Act, a Modern and Expansive Update to its EE Framework. Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. ↩︎
    17. Collins, M. (2025). Minnesota Passes Sweeping Climate and Energy Finance Bill. Environment+Energy Leader. ↩︎
    18. Minnesota State Legislature. 216C.264 Coordinating Residential Weatherization Programs, 2024; Minnesota State Legislature. Chapter 60-H.F. No. 2310, 2023 Regular Session. ↩︎
    19. Prieto, O., Dammel, J., and Henchen, M. (2025). It’s Time to Rethink Utilities’ Energy Efficiency Programs. RMI. ↩︎