CEP Reports

PORTLAND HOUSING BUREAU PROJECT PROGRESS REPORT

Community Energy Project (CEP) – In Home Weatherization Program

Second Quarter Report: October 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009

Prepared by:  Matthew DeAmico, Program Manager, In-Home Services

Volunteer and Outreach Information by: Sherrie Smith, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator

Reviewed by:  Sherry Burbach, Executive Director

I.  Activities.  Describe the major activities carried out during the reporting period.

The In-Home department has been busy installing simple draft stopping materials for people this quarter.  We have served 142 families at the mid-point of the fiscal year, or about 71% of our target. This year the In-Home department has received twice the number of requests for service as it did last year.  Our capacity to serve clients compared to the rate of requests is shown in the following graph: 

One staff member (the department manager) is dedicated to weatherization installations, one staff member is making home visits for minor safety repairs as a priority and one staff member splits his time among weatherization and repair projects.  Volunteers are being used as much as possible to help with weatherization projects.  The addition of an Americorps VISTA volunteer coordinator has made it much easier to get volunteers involved in projects this year.

II.  Shortfalls.  Describe any project activities that are behind schedule or are not being carried out and explain the reason for the problems and how they are being resolved.

 

Without additional seasonal staffing capacity, requests for service during the peak season can not be honored as quickly.  The following graph shows the response rate from last fiscal year when there was an additional staff member to help out with weatherization projects.  Keep in mind also that the demand for service was less during fiscal year 2008-2009.

III.  New Directions.  Describe any activities or approaches taken that deviate from or add to the scope of the project.

 

Intake for the program was closed in late November and any clients that have requested service after that are being placed on a list to be served next year.  Some of the clients on the 2010-2011 list will receive a few compact fluorescent light bulbs in the mail as a way of giving them something to help out right away with energy bills.  Since the department is sparsely staffed this year, clients that have able bodied friends or relatives that can help install materials can come in to the office to pick up a maximum of 5 plastic storm window kits.  We will follow up with these clients next spring or summer to make sure that these projects went ok.  35 clients have been provided materials for self installations this quarter, and that data is included in the totals for this report.

IV.  Client Demographic Information.  This demographic information reflects only completed projects due to unavailability of data of clients waiting to be served.

1. Gender	Total for Reporting Period	Total for Fiscal Year
Female	80	101
Male	33	41
Declined/No Response	0	0
Total	113	142

 

2.  Race/Ethnicity	Total for Reporting Period	Total for Reporting Period	Total for Fiscal Year	Total for Fiscal Year
Ethnicity	Hispanic	Non Hispanic	Hispanic	Non Hispanic
White/European American	0	62	0	80
Black/African American	0	22	0	32
Asian	0	2	0	3
American Indian/Alaskan Native	0	0	0	0
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander	0	0	0	0
American Indian/Alaskan Native & White	0	0	0	0
Asian & White	0	0	0	0
Black/African American & White	0	1	0	1
American Indian/Alaskan Native & Black/African American	0	0	0	0
Other/Declined/No Response*[2]	0	26	0	26
Total	0	113	0	142

 

3. Income	Total for Reporting Period	Total for Fiscal Year
Over 80% Median Income	0	0
51-80% Median Income	4	5
31-50% Median Income	15	18
0-30% Median Income	94	119
Total Low-Mid Income (0-80% Median Income)	113	142

 

4. Residence	Total for Reporting Period	Total for Fiscal Year
NE Portland	47	63
SE Portland	33	41
NW Portland	0	0
SW Portland	12	12
N Portland	21	26
Total	113	142

 

5. Other	Total for Reporting Period	Total for Fiscal Year
Female Head of Household	80	101
Elderly Head of Household (55 and over)	89	115
Disabled/Special Needs Household	83	100

 

Follow Up Information

 

Follow up information regarding energy savings, material usage and comfort issues will be conducted later in the fiscal year as more information is available and as clients have had some time with the materials installed in their homes.

V.  Outreach Information

  By Sherrie Smith, Outreach Coordinator

Community Energy Project makes and receives countless referrals from community partners and individuals, and participates in dozens of community events per year.  The following data shows how clients found out about both the In-Home Weatherization and Safety Repair programs.

Info Source – In-Home Services	Weatherization Quarter	Weatherization Fiscal Year	Safety Repairs Quarter	Safety Repairs Fiscal Year
Neighbor	4	4 (3%)	0	0 (0%)
Word of Mouth	13	13 (9%)	0	1 (1%)
Community Partner	10	13 (9%)	4	10 (8%)
Past Participant	36	54 (39%)	10	17 (14%)
Caseworker / Advocate	15	18 (13%)	37	82 (69%)
Utility Company	4	5 (4%)	0	0 (0%)
Signage/Walk by	8	11 (8%)	0	0 (0%)
Newspaper	2	2 (1%)	0	0 (0%)
Internet	1	1 (1%)	0	1 (1%)
Other CEP programs	9	12 (9%)	4	4 (3%)
Community Event	1	1 (1%)	0	0 (0%)
Other/Don’t Remember	0	0 (0%)	0	0 (0%)
No Response	4	4 (3%)	0	0 (0%)
Total	107	138	58	118

 Many In-Home Weatherization clients for the year were past participants, but may need updating in materials (as tracking and plastic gets older) or clients move into a new home. The vast majority of our repair clients come from caseworkers/advocates from organizations such as Portland Impact and Human Solutions. Numerous clients for both programs come from community partner referrals like Multnomah County Aging and Disabilities Services, North/Northeast Home Repair, IRCO, and other social service agencies.

VI.   Volunteer Information

 By Danielle Bartolomucci- Volunteer Coordinator

Independent Sector is a Federal program that measures the value of volunteer time. Oregon’s dollar value for volunteer time is $17.90 per hour, which would total $26,689 in in-kind donations for the year. At the Federal rate of $20.25 per hour it would total $30,193. In the past few years, CEP has had a combination of a small number of interns who volunteer a large number of hours, and a large number of volunteers who participate in groups that come once or twice a year. This quarter, volunteers donated an average of 6.9 hours per person (from1-172.5 hours).

The following chart shows information regarding volunteer hours for each program:

Program	Number of Volunteers Quarter	Number of Volunteers Year	Volunteer Hours Quarter	Total Hours Fiscal Year
Weatherization Workshop	31	33	251.5	263 (17.6%)
Lead Poisoning Prevention	7	11	44	52.5 (3.5%)
In-Home Services	111	120	543	552 (37%)
Retail Fundraiser	3	3	27	47 (3%)
Other	5	7	189	576.5 (38.6%)
Total	*151	*171	1054.5	1491

*Number of non-duplicated volunteers (as some volunteers work within more than one program)

All new volunteers first receive an Orientation from the Volunteer Coordinator and then move into one-on-one training with the appropriate program staff member.

The In-Home Services volunteers participated in direct service projects weatherizing in people’s homes.  Volunteers assisted with projects in 42 households of 116 total households served this quarter (36%) across all In-Home weatherization contracts.

This quarters completed events include:

Oct 24^th       Portland General Electric

Oct 29^th       Constructing Hope

Nov 4^th        Portland General Electric

Nov 7^th        Portland Energy Conservation, INC.

Nov 14^th           Portland Energy Conservation, INC.

Nov 14^th      Portland Community College Service Learning Students

Nov 20^th      Portland Community College Service Learning Students

Dec 19^th          Portland General Electric

Dec 9^th             Bonneville Power Administration

Dec 10^th      Helensview High School  

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[1] Intake to the program was closed in late November.  Client self-installations are included in this data (see also new directions section).

[2] No Response may include clients that self-identify as Latino/Hispanic, which can not be accurately indicated on the provided chart.