Homeowners question taxpayer-funded renovations

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The ABC7 I-Team investigated a program that uses taxpayer money to fund energy-efficient home improvements. But some homeowners are saying the repairs were not finished, and in some cases, the repairs even caused damage.

It's a multibillion-dollar program designed to improve home energy efficiency with taxpayer-funded repairs, but some Cook County homeowners say it left them "house poor."

Promises became big problems and now the ABC7 I-Team has learned that the program caught the attention of federal investigators.

"I had no idea that they would tear up my house," said Alfreda Johnson, a first-time homeowner.

Johnson jumped at the chance to make her Old Irving Park house on the Northwest Side more energy efficient.

"I'm thinking, more efficient! I could really use that," she said.

But instead, she says she's left with a mess - including holes in the side of her home - plugged for now with makeshift grates and some foam.

"My neighbors put up traps to keep rodents and varmints from going into my crawlspace, in the house," Johnson said. "They were supposed to insulate this also, but this is the insulation I got, it smells like moldy, like swamp water or sewer water."

Inside the house, she says contractors cut holes in her bedroom wall but didn't put any insulation in, and tore out the light fixture in her bathroom.

"I got this feeling, of my house being somehow raped. You know? I'm feeling like I'm devastated," Johnson said.

"I think CEDA and their weatherization program promises the world, and reels in their clientele, sort of preys on people who don't know what to expect and gives them this sense that if you sign on with the program, your house is going to be 10 times better than it ever was," said Demitrus Evans, an attorney.

"The quality of work to our clients, which are basically low-income individuals, should be no different than one that is in Winnetka," said Harold Rice, CEDA CEO.

The Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, or CEDA, is in charge of weatherization in Cook County - it's a program designed to insulate homes to help homeowners save money.

In 2010, a federal audit found problems with the program, including "substandard workmanship." In the past, federal investigators even looked into the agency's operations, taking computer hard drives and boxes of documents that they returned to the agency late this summer. It's unclear what investigators were looking for, and the FBI will not comment. CEDA officials say they believe the federal investigation has wrapped up.

CEDA officials say their final inspection at the Johnson home didn't show any problems, but after she complained, they went to the home, saw the concerns, and tried to get the contractor to do something.

CEDA officials say that contractor, Roselle-based Healthy Air, has since been kicked out of their weatherization program after testing poorly on the new scorecard that's used to grade program work. Healthy Air didn't respond to requests for information.

"We are going to do everything that we need to correct the issues that are at her home, not to leave her high and dry, to make sure whatever ills that was done, if they were done, and obviously that is the allegation - I'm not here to contest that - I'm here to make sure that they're not treated any different than someone who can afford to pay the contractor," Rice said.

"They told my mom that they would insulate the attic and then do weatherization on her windows, which included replacing them, if they needed to be," said Shirley Holden.

On Chicago's South Side, the Holden family is dealing with another kind of program problem. They say that because a second-hand furnace was installed as part of CEDA weatherization in 1999. Now they don't qualify for any more help and the work that was originally promised won't be finished.

So the attic is bare - with no insulation - and the windows are the originals from 1898.

"They've outlived all of us," Holden said.

CEDA program administrators say federal regulations don't allow addresses worked on after 1994 to be re-weatherized - and their records showing what was supposed to be done on the house 20 years ago have been destroyed.

The agency's CEO claims that since he took over, changed program management, and implemented a quality control program, there have been "minimal to almost no" complaints about weatherization work.