Leaders of the Pack 2024 - Health

This award category recognizes a notable program that seeks to improve occupants' health, comfort, and safety in addition to improving a building’s energy performance to reduce energy burdens. The Leader of the Pack is commendable for addressing health and safety repairs as well as incorporating healthy housing principles.

Leader of the Pack: Green & Healthy Homes Initiative; Maryland

Program start year	1993
Annual gross energy savings	17,377 MMBtu
Number of participants	164 units in last two years (41 evaluated for energy savings)
Budget for most recent year	N/A
Program website	https://www.greenandhealthyhomes.org/services/maryland-direct-services/
Link to most recent evaluation report	N/A

The Green & Healthy Home Initiative’s (GHHI) Maryland Program provides a comprehensive set of direct services to ensure that families and community members can efficiently address issues that undermine the health, energy efficiency, and safety of their home environment. GHHI braids multiple federal, state, and local funding sources to serve low- and moderate-income clients in Baltimore, where 36% of households are cost-burdened and 37% of homes are estimated to be hazardous.

GHHI’s Whole House Approach makes comprehensive repairs and improvements throughout the home, which helps serve many homes that would otherwise be deferred from weatherization and energy efficiency programs due to health and safety hazards. GHHI works closely with health-care partners to identify community members with health conditions exacerbated by poor housing quality. The program now offers appliance electrification and solar panels to further enhance benefits to residents. GHHI rigorously measures outcomes to ensure that program services are benefiting residents. For its health and safety hazard remediation, emphasis on community engagement, and practice of braiding funding, GHHI's Maryland Program is a Leader of the Pack.

Key accomplishments and program features:

The Maryland Program served 164 homes in the past two years. Forty-one households have finalized evaluation reports, showing roughly $30,000 savings in energy costs.
Program participants with asthma have improved health conditions after retrofits. On average, Composite Asthma Severity Index scores have dropped by 60% and Childhood Asthma Control Test scores have increased by 10% twelve months after receiving retrofits.
The program is structured as a one-stop shop that provides weatherization services, health and safety hazard remediation, aging-in-place repairs, education, advocacy support, and legal services.
The program established a community advisory board to ensure equitable community engagement.
GHHI has remediated necessary health and safety hazards in these participants' homes, including lead hazards, mold, trip and fall hazards, and structural issues.

Photo credit: Brian O'Doherty