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Red Cross provides a further $1.05m for cold homes in Canterbury

Thursday 1 October 2015, 1:52PM

By Community Energy Action

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CANTERBURY

New Zealand Red Cross is providing an additional $1.05 million to Canterbury families with health conditions living in cold and poorly insulated houses over the next 16 months.

Since January 2014 New Zealand Red Cross and Community Energy Action Charitable Trust (CEA) have improved energy efficiency of earthquake damaged homes of vulnerable households through the $3.25 million Repair Well project.

New Zealand Red Cross Recovery Manager Michael Donoghue says the extra funding will help another estimated 1,100 families.

“There are still a lot of people lacking warm, dry housing in a post-quake city. We are hearing from renters and vulnerable families who still need help to improve the warmth of their homes,” Mr Donoghue says.

CEA Chief Executive Caroline Shone says they are pleased to be working with Red Cross to deliver full home efficiency and heating assistance grants.

“We have been making homes warmer and healthier for people in Canterbury for over 20 years and we know the benefits of insulation and efficient heating for those with medical conditions,” Ms Shone says.

The heating assistance grant is designed to help households struggling to afford the cost of adequately heating their homes. The grant is available to eligible households to pay for electricity, gas or firewood.

The full home efficiency grant will help householders insulate and install energy efficient heating and ventilation to improve living conditions.

Both the heating assistance grant and full home efficiency grant are effective immediately and are available until December 2016. For further information call 0800 GET WARM or visit www.cea.co.nz.
 

Eligibility criteria:

To be eligible for either the heating assistance or full home efficiency grant, applicants need to live in greater Christchurch and continue to face hardship due to the increased cost of housing and deterioration of housing quality since the quakes.
In addition to this, at least one person living permanently in the home must have a physical or mental health issue exacerbated by living in a cold and damp environment, and the household must also be operating on a low income, financially constrained and unable to afford the improvements required to ensure a warm, dry and healthy home.
For the heating assistance grant, it is expected the household will have a least one occupant aged under 18 years or over 60 years.