Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise expects to award contracts to weatherize as many homes this week as what the city's Department of Human Services was able to do in more than six months.
CNE took over the federally funded program in June after the city department repeatedly failed to meet performance standards and lost the remainder of its $3.6 million contract.
Mayor Ron Littlefield accepted the retirement of city Human Services Director Bernadine Turner last month and dissolved the city's Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships so that the director of the faith-based program, Al Chapman, could take over other programs at the city human services agency.
"The state was about to pull the plug on our weatherization program, and I managed to convince them that if we switched it over to Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise we could do better," Mr. Littlefield said. "It was really a pretty easy call because we either talked the state into switching the money over to CNE or we lost the money."
The decision reflects both a change in how the local stimulus program will operate and Mr. Littlefield's approach to CNE.
Under the federal stimulus program, Tennessee is getting $99 million of federal funds to pay contractors to install insulation, caulking and other weatherization improvements in at least 10,500 homes of low- and moderate-income Tennesseans. Through the end of March, Tennessee ranked as the No. 2 state for completing the energy audits and upgrades, which are designed to help provide jobs for energy auditors and building contractors while cutting heating and cooling bills for more than 500,000 Americans.
But according to state records, Chattanooga's share of the program failed to meet even half of its targeted goal after city officials initially failed to expand their traditionally more limited program.
New energy for weatherization
CNE President David Johnson said his agency is starting fresh but with experience in overseeing contractors perform home repairs and improvements.
Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, a private, nonprofit agency created in 1986 to reduce substandard housing in Chattanooga, has added six employees to receive and process applications, direct energy audits and oversee contractors who will perform the weatherization upgrades.
PDF: Tennessee weatherization report What's changing* The remaining $2.5 million of federal funds for local weatherization programs was switched to Chattanooga Neighborhood Services on June 15 after the city Human Services Department failed to meet federal performance standards.* Chattanooga's Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships, created in 2005 to tap into religious partnerships and federal grants, is dissolved and its remaining functions merged into the city's Education, Arts and Culture department.* Bernadine Turner, who headed the city's human services department, resigned last week and was replaced by Al Chapman, formerly head of the city's faith-based initiative.Weatherization aidWho qualifies: Federal assistance is available for families earning up to 200 percent of the poverty rate, or up to $20,420 for an individual and $41,300 for a family of four. The aid is available for homeowners or renters with landlord acceptance.What can be done: Based upon energy audit, certified contractors may perform up to $6,500 of energy improvements, including insulation, caulking, window and door seals and heating and appliance repairs or purchases.Where to apply? Applicants should call 756-6201 to arrange an appointment with CNE. Weatherization assistance applications are available online at www.cneinc.org.By the numbers 10,500 - Targeted number of homes to be weatherized in Tennessee with federal stimulus funds, including 473 in Hamilton County. 6,800 - Number of Tennessee homes tht have been weatherized in the program so far, including just 173 in Hamilton County. 20,000 - Number of approved applications received in Tennessee, including 12,000 that have received energy audits. $99 million - Federal stimulus funds allocated to Tennessee for weatherization. $2.5 million - Allocation for CNE weatherization program this year, the remainder of $3.6 million local program. 260 - Minimum number of homes CNE is targeting to weatherize by Oct. 1, exceeding the roughly 200 homes the city program weatherized in the past year.Source: Tennessee Department of Human Services
"We've made loans to low- and moderate-income Chattanoogans for 24 years to make repairs to their homes," CNE President David Johnson said. "In that repair process we've always had a project director who could oversee the work done by approved contractors and a lot of that work in the past has included weatherization work."
Five years ago, the Ford Foundation provided funding for CNE for part of its Weatherization and Rehabilitation Asset Preservation, or WRAP, program.
Darrell Bloodworth, a former energy auditor who is overseeing CNE's weatherization program, said there are about 400 pending applications for weatherization assistance in Hamilton County and CNE is continuing to accept more. Individuals should call 756-6254 to arrange an appointment with CNE.
CNE, City hall shift
After cutting the funding and mission of CNE during his first term as mayor, Mr. Littlefield said the nonprofit agency "is more nimble and able" to implement programs such as the weatherization aid for low- and moderate-income homeowners and renters.
"CNE is a much different organization today," the mayor said. "When I took office, they had 55 employees and they had a lot of people who really didn't have anything to do. They had more loan officers than most banks have. They were very fat, but we have since changed directors, pared down the staff and refocused their efforts."
On Wednesday, CNE will receive bids for the first 34 homes to be weatherized and two other similar bid openings for other houses also are scheduled in the next week. That's more houses than what the city Human Services Department was able to weatherize during all of 2009.
Lisa Elam, director of Adult and Family Services Contracts for the Tennessee Department of Human Services, said Chattanooga's human services agency was the only one of the 18 local weatherization programs across Tennessee not to meet their performance targets.
Chattanooga wasn't even close. The city agency completed less than 20 percent of its goal in 2009 and only about a third of the targeted level through the first quarter of this year.
"Certainly, we were concerned about their performance and shared those concerns with the city," Ms. Elam said. "But when we terminated that contract, it was really a local decision at the end of the day."
Human services shakeup
Mr. Littlefield also is planning to shake up the city's human services department after the agency was unable to adequately handle the weatherization program. Mr. Littlefield declined to discuss his plans for personnel or program changes, but he said that Mr. Chapman "is over there every day making significant, substantial changes of how that organization does business.
"That will be a completely different organization," he said.
When the City Council pared his original city budget and Mr. Chapman was shifted to human services, Mr. Littlefield said he decided to dissolve a separate, three-person city office on faith-based initiatives created shortly after being elected Chattanooga mayor in 2005.
"We wanted to coordinate with the many worthwhile religious and faith-based programs in our area and Al Chapman did a good job in that role," Mr. Littlefield said.
Those initiatives will now be shifted under either human services or the Department of Education, Arts & Culture, Mr. Littlefield said.
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