Following last week’s ice storm, the City of Dallas launched a new program to educate residents on preparing their homes for inclement weather.
The program, called Whole Home Dallas, was launched on Monday to inform Dallasites about resources for energy conservation and home weatherization against extreme winter weather events.
Senior Climate Coordinator Pharr Andrews said, “It consolidates all the financial incentives now available to residents in our area to upgrade their homes and make them more climate resilient,” as reported by Fox 4 KDFW.
Tasks such as insulating, caulking, weather stripping, and replacing and repairing windows and doors can be done by homeowners on their own. The website’s resource hub will connect homeowners with service providers to help them execute more extensive upgrades.
Environmental Commission Chair Kathryn Bazan said the program will also engage “low-income homeowners so that they can be aware of the tax incentives, the funding, the rebates, all the opportunities to take advantage of weatherization,” per Fox 4.
Councilmember Paula Blackmon explained that the program is divided into three categories: income-based assistance, rebates and discounts, and tax credits.
“Dallas residents are seeing more extreme weather, and we’re seeing it more every year, either drought, heat or the cold snap we saw last week,” she said, according to Fox 4.
“It is a great opportunity for our citizens to really work and focus on their homes, and make them more resilient as we experience these occurrences more frequently.”
In addition to Whole Home Dallas, the City announced the launch of a separate program called Green Job Skills which aims to help local contractors grow their skills to meet the growing demand for “green jobs.”
The City is partnering with the Energy Smart Academy to offer classes online that are both free to attend and accredited. These courses teach specific weatherization tasks such as retrofitting and becoming an energy auditor.
“The term’ green jobs’ is not a cliche,” Councilmember Jaynie Schultz said, per Community Impact. “This program is a pilot to what we hope will become a gateway for people to become trained for positions that will help us stay the city that we all treasure.”
She added that this program would gauge whether more assistance is needed and how many people want to participate.
The City has allotted $150,000 of taxpayer money to these two programs, according to Carlos Evans, director of the Dallas Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability, as reported by Community Impact.
He emphasized that both programs serve to educate residents about already-existing resources rather than providing funds for individual upgrades.