One of the major sources of greenhouse gases in a city is home energy use — and with an aging housing stock, Dayton has a lot of inefficient homes.
That's why the city recently approved $3.3 million in additional funding for its Office of Sustainability’s three home repair partner networks.
The two-year grant will go toward weatherizing, repairing and improving over 400 low-income homes.
A grant from AES Ohio helped start the program and streamline the process for residents, said Meg Maloney, Dayton's sustainability manager.
“The idea behind that was to, one, build capacity of our home repair partners to give them the funding to do this work, but also, two, we wanted to make it easier for residents to access this funding,” she said.
Before, a resident would have to go to each individual housing support group and fill out their own application, each with its own requirements, often taking a significant amount of time.
The Office of Sustainability partnered with the Dayton Energy Collaborative, which created the Dayton Home Repair Network. That's a clearinghouse of existing housing support programs that has shifted the piecemeal application process to a “one-stop shop” universal application model.
The network also is expanding. In March, Yellow Springs Home Inc., which has built or rehabilitated nearly 50 units of affordable housing over the past 28 years, joined the Dayton Home Repair Network, and secured more than $1.2 million in funding.
Jennifer Evans, with the Old North Dayton Neighborhood Association, said the neighborhood has applied for funding from the Dayton Home Repair Network. She said the plan is to turn a food pantry into a community resilience hub.
“This is just a really great example of how just average folks in the neighborhood can come together, decide what's best for the community, what we need to succeed, and approach the city as a partner,” Evans said.
