The Otago Community Trust has invested a further $600,000 in the EECA Warmer Kiwi Homes scheme, which supports Otago households to install insulation and efficient heating.
The grant, made in the June funding round, brings the trust’s investment in the scheme to $4.8 million since 2014.
Warmer Kiwi Homes programme manager Eddie Thompson welcomed the move, saying the EECA was pleased to be working directly with the Otago Community Trust to make more Otago homes warmer, drier and healthier while improving their energy efficiency.
"The Warmer Kiwi Homes programme has been hugely successful to date," he said.
"Last year across New Zealand it exceeded its target of 25,000 installs for the year to the end of June, with more than 38,000 insulation and efficient heater installs."
The success of the programme was in part thanks to community organisations such as the Otago Community Trust providing top-ups in their regions, which made the cost of insulation for those eligible even lower, or at no cost at all, he said.
Otago Community Trust chief executive Barbara Bridger said low-income families, young children and older Kiwis were especially vulnerable to the impacts of living in cold, damp homes, and it was for this reason that it was important for the trust to continue to invest heavily in Warmer Kiwi Homes.
"It is hugely important for us to support the scheme, as so many houses in Dunedin, the Waitaki and Central Otago are old, cold and uninsulated.
"Since inception Otago Community Trust has provided over $4.2 million towards the scheme, seeing in Otago over 5300 properties insulated and nearly 400 homes heated and become warmer and drier as a result."
Investing a further $600,000 into the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme ensured more low-income homeowners would benefit from insulation and heating retrofits, she said.
"A warm, dry and healthy home is a great determinant of people’s health outcomes, so ensuring this insulation work is done helps to keep people out of hospital. It’s the fence at the top of the cliff."
Homeowners are eligible for insulation and/or heating grants if they have a Community Services Card, or the home was built before 2008 and is in a designated area.
To see if you or your home is eligible for funding apply at www.warmerkiwihomes.govt.nz or freephone 0800 749-782.
In its June funding round, the Otago Community Trust provided $2.7 million in funding to support a wide range of community projects.
Initiatives supporting vulnerable communities were a driver in several of the grants approved for funding.
The trust also approved its regular annual funding to Otago regional sporting bodies, granting $1,066,500 across 29 regional sporting bodies.
