If the city is to have a Green Code to control future development, the Community Action Organization is arguing there should be an Energy Code to make sure current housing is energy-efficient.
The argument is that landlords who don't pay for utilities have no incentives to work on the buildings but an Energy Code would make sure things like insulation exist. CAO Better Schools/Better Neighborhood Director Sam Radford says it works.
"The gas bills down in half. We even brought the electricity costs down. So, we've seen that it's worked," Radford related.
"We know that we can work in partnership with the home owners to bring that cost of operating the house down and that also now prevents the tenants from being in a situation of paying exorbitant utility bills but we also can help the taxpayer."
Radford says the CAO has renovated 215 houses in the last two years and there is money for more renovations although mass renovations would cost a lot of money. He says a big thing is that heating bills now warm the residents and not the outside world.
