On a sunny, quickly warming morning at the East Blair Co-Op, resident Ember Woodruff is getting a new heat pump.
She’s had a window air-conditioner for years, but it can’t keep up with Eugene’s increasingly hot summer days. She said during the 2021 heat dome when temperatures reached 110 degrees, she had to find somewhere else to stay.
“My apartment is very hot because this side of the building, the kitchen, is in the southwest corner and there’s no shade up here,” Woodruff said. ”The kitchen is brutally hot and I get all the afternoon sunlight.”
The heat pump is one of eight the Whiteaker Community Council and teams of local contractors have installed in aging homes and apartments across the neighborhood as a part of Oregon’s Healthy Homes grant program.
The Whiteaker is Eugene’s oldest neighborhood. Doriandra Smith is executive director of the Whiteaker Community Council, which won the grant to fix aging homes. She said the age of the homes and apartment buildings means they often have problems their owners, or residents, can’t afford to fix.
”A land analysis showed that over 45% of the houses in the Whiteaker were exceedingly older than other parts of the city,” Smith said. “This was essentially the heart of Eugene back in the heyday.”
Smith says some buildings were built with materials that are now known to be unsafe, or have developed mold or other hazards. Many homes also aren’t equipped to handle today’s changing climate.
“We’ve done tons of doors, new windows, new insulation, we’re pulling out floors in places that have had mold damage or issues,” Smith said. “Definitely livability is the high goal here.”
The Whiteaker Community Council received about $750,000 with the initial goal of repairing 80 homes and apartments. Smith said she’s hopeful that with the help of Eugene Water & Electric Board rebates, they may be able to help 100 households.
The Whiteaker Community Council is one of 34 organizations that received grants from the Oregon Health Authority for housing livability projects.
OHA Program manager Brett Sherry said his agency has received calls for years from worried homeowners who have found toxins in their homes, but don’t have the resources to fix them.
He said this grant, which is in its first year, has changed that.
“These dollars can be used for radon mitigation, they can be used for lead abatement,” Sherry said. “They can actually be used for something that’s going to make a lasting impact, not just for the family that’s currently living there, but for future residents as well.”
He said those types of fixes, or installing air conditioning, shade trees, and other improvements to control temperature can make a household more resilient to the effects of climate change, and can have big impacts on public health.
“It’s kind of a win-win all around,” Sherry said. “There’s also the economic piece here, so if you’re not paying as much money to heat and cool your house, you have more money to spend on other things that could actually improve your health, like food.”
Back at the East Blair Housing Co-Op in Eugene, the crew is finishing up Woodruff’s heat pump.
Woodruff expects her new heat pump will cut her electric bill by a third. But, after a hot summer spent preparing meals at night, what she looks forward to most is finally being able to cook a fresh lunch in her kitchen during the daytime.
“It's going to be amazing, I’m so excited,” Woodruff said. “Even just prepping food in a hot kitchen, even if it's just salad, it's not fun.”
The Whiteaker Community Council is still taking applications for home improvements. Recipients must make less than 80% of the median income. Landlords who sign up for the program to improve conditions for their tenants must agree to not raise the rent for the duration of the grant, which is three years.
