Low-income households get zapped on utilities

we’ve tried to make that really easy,” with an over-thephone process, said Rita Black, customer relations director for Peoples Natural Gas.

Earlier this year, the city of Pittsburgh was awarded $100,000 by the Bloomberg Philanthropies 2018 U.S. Mayors Challenge to work on ways to address the city’s high energy burden.

City sustainability officials have worked with residents, nonprofits and businesses such as contractors and energy auditors to see what barriers exist to home improvements.

“We’ve uncovered that there is an educational gap,” said Aftyn Giles, senior sustainability coordinator at the City of Pittsburgh. “People really don’t even know what energy burden is. They look at it as just a cost of daily operation. You know, you get the energy bill, you pay the energy bill. People don’t even know that there’s necessarily a health hazard that’s associated with this, or there’s a way they can make a financial change or they can make an improvement to their house so that they can bring down that financial cost of living.”

City officials must reapply in August for a $1 million grant to implement what they’ve learned.

CCI’s assistance is unique forbecause the group uses funding from different sources for different things, depending on what the homeowner is eligible for, said Ms. Steele.

In Mr. Williams’ home, the group plans to use its funding to seal air leaks, replace windows, insulate the attic and insulate walls, which their estimate says could save him more than $800 in annual utility costs.

“The program is good. They’ve helped me a lot,” he said. “Since I’m older now, there’s a lot of things that take me some time to do … . That, plusI don’t have the money.”

Utility assistance is so critical, Mr. Cicero said, because heat and electricity are key to what make a home livable.

“These are core, basic things that translate a building from shelter into a home,” he said. “Without having them or being able to afford them, it wreaks havoc on the ability to maintain stable housing.”