Energy audit help for four NYC neighborhoods

November 17, 2010

Crain’s covers this week’s expansion of a City initiative to support homeowners with energy audits and retrofits: “This is an idea that came together last winter,” Ms. Quinn said. “We’re taking their idea and furthering it.” The initiative is now being expanded to the rest of Bedford Stuyvesant, plus Jamaica, Queens; Soundview, Bronx; and West Brighton, Staten Island. Those neighborhoods were all picked because of their high homeowner occupancy in one-, two- and three-family houses. The $400,000 will be used by Pratt and the community-based groups to conduct an outreach program to inform homeowners of the benefits of both energy audits and retrofits. The outreach will also direct homeowners toward existing funding programs, according to Wendy Fleischer, director of sustainable services at Pratt Center for Community Development. Among those pots of money is the federal weatherization assistance program, which targets low-income homeowners. NYC launches $400K energy-saving effort, Crain’s New York Business.