by Brett Dolter
THE SASQUATCH
March/April 2010
(Vol II No. 2)

“The main piece of technology in the green economy is a caulking gun.”

-Van Jones, The Green Collar Economy

North Central Regina has a problem. Well, make that two problems: it is home to Regina’s poorest citizens, with an average income of under $30,000 per household in 2005, as compared to the Regina average of over $55,000; and it is also home to some of Regina’s oldest, most run-down housing.

Combine these two factors and you have people trapped in sub-par housing, huddling under blankets to keep warm in winter and struggling to pay inflated heating bills.

But the inter-related problems of poverty and run-down housing create an opportunity. Communities around North America are realizing that fixing up these leaky old homes can be a great way to lift neighbourhoods out of poverty and develop the “green” economy.

I was part of a research team that went to Regina’s North Central neighbourhood to understand the state of housing there. We paid for EnerGuide audits on 44 owner-occupied homes, and the results confirmed our suspicions. The average EnerGuide rating in our sample was 52. EnerGuide ratings, created by Natural Resource Canada, operate on a scale of zero to 100, with 100 representing a “net-zero” home that produces all of the energy it consumes and zero being no better than living on the street. At an average rating of 52, these homes are far from energy-efficient.

Some homes were in worse shape than others. The lowest EnerGuide score in our sample was an incredibly low seven, which meant the home offered about as much shelter from the elements as living in a tent. Imagine how the home’s residents felt in the depths of a Saskatchewan winter.

We interviewed the occupants of the homes to understand what it was like to live in an energy inefficient old home. They told us that drafts were ever-present and many complained of feeling cold in winter. One participant even told us that in winter she would block off one of the rooms in her house because it was too cold to occupy. “I could use that room as a freezer. I could put stuff out there to freeze it in the winter,” she said.

High energy bills were also a big problem. One participant told us that his energy bills were sometimes as high as $300 per month in winter and “more than [his] mortgage sometimes.”

We knew from the EnerGuide audits that these houses could be improved with some well-placed investments in energy efficiency. Installing a new high-efficiency furnace, insulating the attic and basement walls and caulking around the windows would make dramatic improvements in energy efficiency.

Unfortunately, most of the homeowners didn’t have the savings or access to financing to invest in these retrofits. Instead they found themselves in a “fuel poverty” trap, struggling to pay their utility bills yet unable to afford the changes needed to lower their bills.

Enter Van Jones. Once a member of the Obama administration (before being forced out over a controversy related to a petition he had signed), Van Jones is a civil rights activist, author and energy efficiency crusader. With his impassioned speeches and his inspired prose, Van Jones has argued that the problems we see in communities like North Central present an opportunity for win-win policy action.

First of all, the housing needs to be fixed up, not only to improve quality of life for residents, but also to help battle climate change. As North Central homeowners try to keep themselves warm, heat leaks out from their windows and walls and they end up trying to heat the whole neighbourhood. This requires burning a lot of natural gas, which releases greenhouse gas emissions in the form of carbon dioxide up our chimneys. By fixing up the leaky homes in places like North Central we would burn less natural gas and release less of the climate-disrupting greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

But that is only one half of the policy win. Just as we found in North Central, Van Jones has recognized that run-down housing is often located in the poorest neighbourhoods. He believes that the residents of those neighbourhoods should be the ones trained to repair the housing. His project Green for All focuses on empowering low-income communities to train their residents in carpentry so they can rebuild their communities, one batt of insulation at a time.

Saskatchewan could learn from our neighbours south of the border and provide low-income communities with the funding to set up their own Green for All programs. Comfortable homes, lower utility bills, a stable climate and community revitalization, what more could you want?

Sasquatch columnist Brett Dolter is an ecological economist and musician. He teaches economics at the University of Regina and is principal consultant for BD Green Solutions.

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