H.O.M.E. is turning green with clean energy from CEDA
“The lights are too bright!”
“Who are these people coming?”
“Everything is fine in my apartment, I don’t need anything changed.”
These are some quotes from our residents on CEDA coming to do work at Nathalie Salmon House (NSH) in the last week. Sometimes change can be challenging, even if it is for the better. As they say, it isn't easy being green.
CEDA has been making improvements at the NSH as well as the Pat Crowley House (PCH) in the last week. They have been busy replacing light bulbs, and fixtures, and making the hallways of NSH much brighter. Better lighting will help seniors prevent falls as well as brighten moods in the winter.
CEDA also replaced the faucet heads for less water waste and caulked the windows so that the least amount of unwanted air enters the building. At PCH, they put in new insulation to keep the older 3-flat building warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer and replaced the refrigerators.
The improvements are really great--they will reduce energy usage and costs and make our buildings more livable. I still wanted to know, like the seniors, who are these people? Why did they come to NSH and PCH? Where do they come from?
CEDA stands for Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County Incorporated. One of the largest private, non-profit community action agencies in the country, they serve 500,000 Cook County residents annually through thirty different programs including the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program; job training programs, the LIHEAP program, which is the Low Income Housing Energy Assistance program. That is why they came to NSH. They came out of the demand to save costs on energy.
It turns out CEDA has many similarities to H.O.M.E. Their mission statement is: “ …To work in partnership with communities to empower families and individuals to achieve self-sufficiency and improve their quality of life.” Both of our mission statements refer to maintaining the quality of life and maintaining independence, or self-sufficiency. We are very glad we got to partnership with CEDA to lower energy costs at NSH and PCH and make our building a little brighter! Thank you CEDA!
We'd love to show you some of the improvements to the buildings. Sign up to take a tour.
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More info on CEDA:
H.O.M.E. qualified for this program through an application begun in 2009. Through the program, CEDA provides in-kind assessments and improvements. CEDA uses private contractors to complete the work that they fund.
Additional work being completed by CEDA at H.O.M.E.:
- Replacing the two existing boilers with 94% efficient boilers
- Replacing the air conditioning system
- Installing a new on demand hot water heater
- Providing two new refrigerators and three new freezers, all of which are energy efficient
- Furnishing and install new smoke detectors and CO detectors
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