As the weather turns cold and gas and
electric bills begin to rise, many local residents worry about how they
can afford to keep warm.

A local nonprofit organization is trying to help, however, by providing critical home repair services to help those in need.

The organization, People Working
Cooperatively (PWC), provides repairs, weatherization, modification and
maintenance services to thousands of homes each year.

Now in its 36th year, PWC has provided
services to more than 200,000 low-income, elderly and disabled clients
in Greater Cincinnati. 

“We provide several services to residents
in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky,” says Steve Creed, PWC’s quality control
and energy training manager. “One of the services we provide is called
weatherization. For this service, we go into people’s homes and try and
figure out ways to lower their energy costs.”

Running a full range of diagnostic
checks, trained professionals inspect the homes for insulation problems,
cracks around windows, air leaks and moisture problems. 

These issues not only make a home unsafe, but they can also significantly increase gas and electric costs. 

“Weatherization averages a 25-percent
reduction in energy costs,” Creed says. “It makes a home more energy
efficient and safer. It also puts money back in the pockets of those in
need.”

By fixing a broken windowpane, adding
some insulation to a home or weather-stripping a door, Creed says a
large amount of energy can be saved, which in return helps everyone.

“If a client uses less energy, then the
power company will generate less energy,” he says. “This, in turn, cuts
down on pollution and reduces our dependence on foreign energy sources.”

With PWC’s average client earning less than $13,000 a year, it gives money back to people who could really use it.

“Lower-income people are spending a
higher percentage of their income on energy costs than higher-income
people,” Creed says.
“So services like this are a really big help.”

Client Gene Napier would agree with that
statement. Napier says she doesn’t have enough words to describe how
thankful she is for having her home weatherized by PWC.

“They were very prompt and polite,” Napier says. “They checked everything in my home, and were very thorough and efficient.”

Among the items inspected were the furnace, refrigerator, all windows and virtually every crevice of her home in-between.

Living in a trailer in Boone County, Ky.,
Napier is a retired school teacher who has fallen on hard times since
retiring a few years ago. 

“After I retired, my income dropped,” she
says. “Even though I am retired, I still have bills I have to pay, and I
struggle and stress about them.”

Last winter Napier received a gas and electric bill totaling about $200. 

“I kept trying to figure out ways to keep
the bill down, but no matter what I did, I could not do it,” she says.
“It just seemed like my energy costs just kept rising and rising.”

With PWC’s recent weatherization services, Napier is hopeful this winter she will see a reduction.

Some of the things PWC did included
replacing her old refrigerator with a newer, more energy efficient one,
putting insulation under her trailer and giving her a carbon monoxide
detector.

“It felt like it was birthday gift,” she says. “They really came through for me and for that, I am delighted.”

In addition to weatherization, other
services the organization provides include non-cosmetic home repairs
like fixing leaking hot water heaters, solving lack of heat issues and
correcting electrical hazards.

Another service is their modification and
mobility service. This service helps low-income, disabled clients
maintain their mobility and independence by building
handicapped-accessible ramps, bathroom modifications and grab bars.

Also, the organization provides several
services for elderly people, including two different events each year
that help them prepare their homes for the spring and fall.

At Repair Affair, volunteers go to the homes of PWC clients and  repair
items in their home; volunteers do everything from carpentry to
plumbing to structural work. Recently, the group hosted Prepare Affair,
where more than 3,000 volunteers pitched in to prepare the homes of
elderly clients for winter.

“Volunteers raked leaves, cleaned out
gutters and helped put items away,” says Sara Bourgeois, volunteer
program manager for PWC. “It was easy home maintenance stuff that needed
to get done because these homeowners could not do it themselves.”

Most of the clients who utilize these services have no one else to help them, Bourgeois adds.

“Most people don’t like to ask for help,
but these people cannot afford to pay someone to do these tasks,” she
says. “If we did not do it, no one else would.” ©