Located in Central Oregon, members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs notice their typical hot summers and cold winters becoming more extreme—a trend that’s adding to the challenge of keeping energy costs manageable for residents.

Warm Springs Housing Authority manages a mix of multifamily properties and single-family and manufactured homes offered primarily to individuals and families with incomes at 80% or lower than Oregon’s median—some as low as 30%. Paying utility bills can be a challenge for these customers, so the housing authority is doing all it can to lower costs while also improving comfort and safety for residents.

“We don’t have nearly enough affordable housing, and much of what we have is more than 50 years old,” said Danielle Wood, executive director of the Warm Springs Housing Authority. “I feel for our tenants who don’t have air conditioning.”

Nate Merrill, Energy Trust Central Oregon outreach manager, frequently checks in with Wood and Warm Springs Housing Authority Facilities Director Raymond Hurtado, to ask about their needs and let them know about energy saving opportunities. “At first we didn’t have capacity to take on these types of projects,” commented Wood, “but Nate kept reaching out. He has helped us so much.”

The Warm Springs Housing Authority enrolled as one of Energy Trust’s first Community Partner Funding participants, giving them access to Energy Trust’s highest level of incentives for energy-saving upgrades, plus training and incentives to perform home energy assessments.

Since 2023, Hurtado has completed 132 energy assessments and is still doing more. He has identified opportunities, such as installing attic or floor insulation, heat pumps or windows to increase energy savings in close to 40% of their residential properties.

“We’ve got heat pumps in about 85% of the units and plan to finish up the rest in 2025,” said Hurtado. “We want to broaden our efforts to do more insulation and windows after that. We keep going so energy costs will drop for renters.”

The Warm Springs Housing Authority has used a mix of resources to help pay for their projects and is currently working on way to combine funding Energy Trust and the Oregon Department of Energy to create a bigger impact. Carving out the time and resources needed to secure federal funding can pose a challenge for busy staff, Energy Trust can help by sharing expertise or even providing grant writing assistance.

Since 2021, the partnership between Warm Spring Housing Authority and Energy Trust has resulted in improvements to 150 households and annual energy savings of 353,000 kWh. Those savings directly impact tenant’s lives. Energy Trust provided $608,000 in cash incentives to lower the cost of the upgrades.

“When we go back into units after installing a heat pump, residents are saying, ‘Wow, our electric bill has dropped significantly,’” said Hurtado. “Other residents have said how much they look forward to being at home now and don’t worry about the change of seasons.”

Energy Trust can also provide incentives and expertise to build energy-saving features into new housing Warm Springs plans to develop.

“We did a survey and discovered that we need 667 new housing units to meet our demand for affordable housing,” said Wood. “This includes the workforce housing we need to attract doctors, teachers and other professionals to Warm Springs. The efforts to make housing improvements and have happy tenants are very rewarding.”

Wood dreams of doing even more and plans to keep working with Energy Trust to get there.

In addition to working with Warm Springs Housing Authority, Energy Trust is listening and learning about Tribal energy priorities and participation barriers and working to expand pathways to clean energy solutions. In 2022, Energy Trust formed a Tribal Community Work Group, inviting representatives from Oregon’s Tribal Nations and organizations that work with Tribal communities to share insights and inform Energy Trust strategies for outreach and program design.

Caryn Appler, Energy Trust outreach lead and staff liaison for the Tribal Community Work Group said, “The Tribes are making plans, bringing us in to help achieve their goals and connect with other areas of the community where we might be able to offer resources. We are working to do better at meeting them in the ways they need us.”

Energy Trust supports Tribes with clean energy solutions for many different parts of their communities. Housing is a top priority, but some Tribes are also using Energy Trust offers to improve small businesses, public buildings and facilities, such as Tribal health centers, schools and water treatment plants. Energy Trust brings expertise and resources to the table for community-wide sustainability efforts, including renewable energy systems and resilience planning.

All of these projects support our goal of maximizing clean, affordable energy acquisition in Oregon and Southwest Washington.