Advocates Seek HUD Cooling Subsidies

A surge in heat-related deaths this summer led the Campaign for Home Energy Assistance to send a letter to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson on August 4, urging him to permit the use of federal money to pay for air conditioning in public housing units.

HUD had recently advised public housing authorities in the Southwest, where more than 30 people have died this summer from heat-related causes, that federal money, in the form of utility allowances to low-income residents of public housing, could be used for heating but not cooling of low-income units. Cities were warned that using HUD funds for cooling would result in loss of federal aid.

While the HUD rules have been in place since 1996, it only recently came to the attention of HUD officials that they were not being enforced in Arizona, according to an article in the Arizona Star.

“Temperatures exceeding 100 degrees in the summer months are no less threatening to the health of public housing clients than are sub-zero temperatures during the winter months,” said David Fox, executive director of the Campaign, which noted that at least 32 people have died from heat-related causes in the Phoenix area, alone, during recent weeks and that the death toll from the heat nationwide has exceeded 40.

While this does not remotely approach the total of more than 300 heat deaths that occurred in the Chicago area during July 1995, the Campaign letter said, the fact remains that heat can be — and certainly is — deadly.

The Campaign noted that the Code of Federal Regulations specifies in 24 CFR 965.505(a) that public housing authorities should establish utility allowances that are “consistent with the requirements of a safe, sanitary, and healthful living environment.”

The Campaign for Home Energy Assistance is a broad coalition of advocates for the poor, allied organizations, energy industry trade associations and utilities that support LIHEAP.

For more information, visit the Campaign website. For more information on how LIHEAP programs handle clients living in public housing, see the LIHEAP clearinghouse memorandum “Subsidized Housing and LIHEAP”.

Source: Campaign for Home Energy Assistance, Arizona Star

Page Last Updated: December 7, 2005