March 28, 2012

GHHI and Weatherization


There’s a new group in town—the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI). No, it’s not yet another well-intentioned citizen starting a non-profit to change the world. In fact, GHHI is almost the opposite.

Simply put, the goal of GHHI is to ensure that “all families and children live in homes that are healthy, safe, energy-efficient and sustainable.” That may seem like a lot of work, and it is. Take it from us; tackling even one of those issues is hard enough!

You might notice that many organizations are already working on improving homes. The difficulty addressed by GHHI is that each we often don’t communicate with each other to fix all the problems in a house. One program may go in to handle the lead paint, but the leaking roof, drafty windows and pest problems are, to use the cliché, not in the scope of their work. Maybe they don’t have the equipment, training, or time.

GHHI in Buffalo
In 2010, a national level group of partners launched fourteen GHHI pilot programs throughout the United States. A few months later, due to a combination of great need and available community resources, Buffalo was added as the fifteenth and final pilot program. A similar initiative already underway at the CommunityFoundation for Greater Buffalo became the GHHI. The Buffalo branch of GHHI now has over 50 health, housing, and energy efficiency providers working together.

For programs working with GHHI, we will no longer just go into a house, fix the problem we came for, and leave other issues untouched. When a work crew finds unhealthy or unsustainable conditions in a home that they aren’t able to fix, we refer the home to GHHI, which then gets the appropriate organization into the home. It is a joint effort to connect a variety of existing agencies: weatherization, home repair, lead abatement, etc. NHS of South Buffalo is currently committed to referring and assessing at least 40 homes.

Currently, the biggest obstacle to coordination is the magnitude of paperwork each agency deals with. As one step towards an ideal one-step process, GHHI has been looking for similarities among the required forms. By finding ways to share necessary information with as few additional questions as possible we reduce paperwork for staff and, most importantly, for families who need our services.

As the Buffalo pilot program works out a system for this coordination, it serves as a think tank/guinea pig for future efforts throughout New York. The lack of an outside authority controlling the structure provides a lot of opportunity to develop and tweak this program fit the strengths—and weaknesses—of existing programs in the area.