PASADENA >> As soon as workers turned on the new solar panels atop Boyd Reagan’s roof for a test run, he said the energy meter went backwards.
And for the 64-year-old retired bookkeeper living on a fixed income, it was a sign of relief.
“I’m on Social Security, and utility bills are not going to go down, they are going to go up, so I thought, well, that would help a lot for me as far as being able to pay the utility bill,” Reagan said. “I think it’s fantastic. It’s hard to believe, it’s amazing that they are doing this. I could not have ever done a system like this if they hadn’t been able to do it.”
Reagan is one of a group of low-income homeowners that have signed up for a new program to increase energy efficiency with the help of the Pasadena Housing Department and nonprofit solar panel installation company GRID Alternatives.
The solar panels are just one of a series of green home improvements that low- to moderate-income homeowners can apply for through the city’s Under One Roof program, launched last year as a partnership between the Housing Department, Pasadena Water and Power, Los Angeles County Neighborhood Housing Services and the Maintenance Assistance and Services to Homeowners program, called MASH.
Other programs for qualified homeowners include a refrigerator exchange and other discounts and rebates through PWP, a low- to zero-interest loan for home improvements from NHS, and free exterior home repairs through MASH and the Housing Department.
Any resident that participates in all of these programs will get an additional $5,000 in energy and water efficiency upgrades to their home, PWP spokeswoman Wendy De Leon said.
“These are homeowners that are struggling to make it every month and might be in jeopardy of losing their home,” De Leon said. “If you get solar and you take out the loan to fix up your window or roof and you get a new fridge and $5,000 in upgrades you really could be looking at like no electricity bill ever. You could be looking at a benefit for the rest of your life.”
For the solar panel program, the city partners with GRID Alternatives, a nonprofit company that specializes in providing solar panels to low-income residents throughout the country. Volunteer workers through the MASH program install the panels, and get on-the-job training.
“What Pasadena is really doing, which is outstanding, is creating opportunities for the MASH people to actually learn and get experience in this growing field which is really booming, solar,” GRID Alternatives’ Michael Kadish said. “For these families, it’s a combination of saving them money … and allows them to participate in clean energy.”
Kadish said his company hopes to install panels on at least eight Pasadena homes this year, funded by a city Community Development Block Grant.
De Leon said PWP and the city are eager to see more homeowners participate in the program, which she said benefits both the homeowners and the community as a whole.
“We have two goals we achieve through this (program): One is we achieve energy efficiency for the city to make the city more sustainable and more green, and two, we help our low-income community. We strive to be a good community partner and think we do that through this program.”
For more information or to sign up for the Under One Roof programs, visit cityofpasadena.net.
