Virginie Diambou arrived in the United States 15 years ago, after fleeing two wars. Her credentials as a pediatrician from the Democratic Republic of the Congo weren’t recognized in Vermont, and even if they had been there was a language barrier. It took her 11 years to learn English well enough to feel comfortable expressing herself in the language.
For Diambou, and for many new arrivals facing a long to-do list as they get acclimated to life in America, home weatherization may not be a top priority. They may not understand what it is or why it’s important during a long Vermont winter.
“Most New Americans are unfamiliar with weatherization. Even the word,” Diambou said. “The word doesn’t ring any bells.”
Diambou is raising awareness about weatherization among members of the New American community in her role as the director of racial equity at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity.
“The weatherization program is important because it keeps our community members warm, provides them a safer environment to live in with a better quality of air, and they save money on utility bills,” Diambou said.
The racial equity job is a new one, created by the city during a year in which organizations and individuals across the state and country are reckoning with race.
Utilities such as Vermont Gas Systems and Burlington Electric have also turned their attention to the issue of equity and access. This summer, they teamed up to create a fellowship to investigate why newcomers aren’t using weatherization services and what can be done about it. They hope their findings can help boost participation in programs to lower utility bills and help Vermont meet climate goals.
While programs already exist to help people weatherize their homes, there are challenges in ensuring those programs are accessible to New Americans.
“We have not been serving that population very well,” said Dwight Decoster, director of weatherization at Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. “We just find it very hard to reach them.”
Decoster hopes that Diambou, with her experience and contacts, can help them make new inroads.
Energy costs are a big burden for many New Americans. They’re just getting established and, like Diambou, may have excellent credentials that aren’t recognized in their new country. As a result, energy bills consume a heavy percentage of their income.
A poorly insulated home costs more to heat than a well-insulated one, which means that the poorest people often pay the most for heat, even if their houses are small.
Language can be a barrier to buttoning up poorly insulated homes. In Burlington, 14% of city residents speak a language other than English at home, yet information about weatherization programs is often only available in English.
“It’s going to help to not have to struggle with terms that they are unfamiliar with. It’s going to be a plus for you as an organization, as a program, to relay a message that you know is going to be understood by your client,” said Diambou.
She has urged programs to translate materials. The languages most commonly spoken among New Americans are Vietnamese, Spanish, French, Nepali, Swahili, Somali, Maay-Maay, Arabic, Bosnian and Chinese.
Many utilities, like Burlington Electric and Vermont Gas, communicate by mail, but Diambou says new arrivals are often inundated with materials. And not all New Americans are literate and many can’t read English, so mailings have been ineffective.
Word of mouth may be a more effective way to reach these communities, which are often tight-knit. It may be more persuasive to see a friend or neighbor who has had a good experience with weatherization.
“We’re a wonderful enough program that I’m certain that, as soon as we break through and get a few New American homes done,” more will follow, Decoster said.
Mistrust can also make people hesitant to provide a lot of personal or demographic information, when that’s a required part of paperwork for incentives. When migrants weigh the benefits of weatherization against the cost, these considerations can tip the balance.
“You have to collect a lot of data; when they’re weighing the cost-benefit, it may not be worth it to them because of that trust issue,” said Tiana Smith, the climate director at Vermont Gas Systems.
“There’s a lot more we can be doing around building that trust within the community,” Smith said.
One approach they might try, for example, is using liaisons to communicate with New Americans. Children in school, for example, can bring information home to their families. Smith says utilities are considering this method, based on what they learned from the summer research fellowship results.
“It’s about establishing a relationship, which has been more difficult during Covid,” said Smith, “sitting down at the table and understanding how people use energy in their home.”
Often, weatherization isn’t an individual family’s choice; it has to involve the landlord, too. In Burlington, home for many of Vermont’s New American communities, 60% of people are renters. That can complicate weatherization plans, since it means persuading a landlord who isn’t responsible for expensive utility bills to pay for upgrades.
Relationships with landlords aren’t always good, and Diambou said some landlords take advantage of newcomers who are unfamiliar with housing systems in the United States, putting them in places that aren’t considered healthy.
Vermont Gas Systems has tried to create incentives for landlords. While the utility pays 50% of weatherization costs for homeowners, VGS is offering landlords 75% in an attempt to get them on board.
According to Smith, the cost of projects can range from $1,000 to $6,000.
CVOEO offers programs at no cost to renters and homeowners who are eligible, based on income.
“We’ve done a good job of setting up programs,” Smith said. But now, “we need to figure out how to make them more accessible to people.”