![\"Hector](\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/12\/GHHI-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Hector Moreno, Environmental Health and Safety Program Manager with the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI), and MEA Program Manager Dean Fisher visit a home to verify completed weatherization work.<\/p><\/div>\n
For many Baltimore families, the home evaluations begin by word of mouth from friends and family. The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI), formerly the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, has been helping the city\u2019s residents get help for sick children in unhealthy physical environments since 2008.<\/p>\n
When Karen Dukes heard about GHHI, she sought help with her family\u2019s chronic problems of missed school and work due to her grandson\u2019s asthma. GHHI was able to help Dukes and her family, as well as many other Baltimore households, with a $215,000 grant from the Maryland Energy Administration\u2019s (MEA) 2015 Clean Energy Communities Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) Grant Program that supports GHHI\u2019s comprehensive strategy to improve health, economic and social outcomes along with home energy ef\ufb01ciency. The results of an inspection and energy audit in Dukes\u2019 home revealed signi\ufb01cant health hazards, including lead paint and moisture that encouraged mold and pests, as well as areas of opportunity to reduce energy loss and water consumption, and to improve home comfort.<\/p>\n
As part of its 2015 intervention in the Dukes\u2019 home, GHHI removed the lead paint hazards, \ufb01lled holes that welcome pests, and performed extensive weatherization work to improve energy ef\ufb01ciency. One year later, the Dukes family is reaping the bene\ufb01ts. The grandson has not missed a single day of school due to asthma triggers in his home, and Ms. Dukes has been able to attend work regularly to support the family. Additionally, the energy ef\ufb01ciency improvements have cut the family\u2019s annual energy costs by almost 20%, and the family is living in a more comfortable, healthy home.<\/p>\n
MEA\u2019s 2015 LMI grant to GHHI, its \ufb01fth in as many years, made it possible for GHHI to assist another 55 families in Baltimore, the results of whose evaluations and assessments often revealed home hazards that adversely impact the residents\u2019 health. The grant award primarily enabled home energy ef\ufb01ciency upgrades in which a certi\ufb01ed Building Performance Institute auditor analyzed the home using diagnostic tools to recommend cost-effective upgrades. A holistic approach, in which both the health hazards and building envelope problems are addressed together, leverages the many advantages of weatherization work, which can improve the comfort and health of a home through insulation and moisture control\u2014measures that also support improved energy ef\ufb01ciency and home durability. The LMI award provided for up to $1,000 per home to support health and safety improvements, such as repairing water damage and performing mold remediation, that enabled energy ef\ufb01ciency upgrades.<\/p>\n
The energy savings, the support of an asthma education specialist and the removal of health hazards that used to trigger asthma-induced hospital visits combine to maximize the bene\ufb01ts of a GHHI intervention for the low and moderate income residents it serves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe weatherization work made a huge impact on the energy ef\ufb01ciency and overall climate of my home during these summer months,\u201d says resident Nikia Smith. Her remarks mirrored the sentiments of others who appreciated the many bene\ufb01ts of the home improvements.<\/p>\n
For GHHI and the local economy, the bene\ufb01ts included 4,713 labor hours under this 2015 award\u2014local jobs serving local citizens.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Hector Moreno, GHHI\u2019s BPI-certi\ufb01ed program manager.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>GHHI\u2019s Baltimore of\ufb01ces.<\/p><\/div>\n
The MEA LMI Grant Program has been supporting projects that improve the energy performance of Maryland\u2019s low to moderate income housing since 2010.\u00a0 To learn about the next cycle of the grant program, visit energy.maryland.gov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2015 Clean Energy Communities Low-to-Moderate Income Grant Program For many Baltimore families, the home evaluations begin by word of mouth from friends and family. The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI), formerly the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, has been helping the city\u2019s residents get help for sick children …Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[42,25,10,26,3],"tags":[117,145,186],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-main","category-news","category-newsletters","category-success-stories","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-low-to-moderate-income","tag-low-to-moderate-income-energy-efficiency-grant"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions\/637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}