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Home Repair Programs: Survey Insights from Homeowners



 

Updated: March 12, 2025

 

Homeowners who have home repair but not enough funds use a variety of programs source to help them repair their home.

 
  • Homeowners across states get most direct help locally at the city, county level and through local non-profits.
  • This is explained by the fact the Federal government provided indirect homeowner funding through HUD (block grants to states, counties and cities for home repair) and by the Department of Energy to non-profits for weatherization.
 

This is the 2nd part of MFP’s Survey on Homeowner Use of Official Government Repair Programs.

 

The third part goes over homeowners’ satisfaction with the different level of programs and finally review the main barriers to fund home repairs (from personal reasons to programs’ barriers)

 
 

Where homeowners get direct help for home repair programs?

 
 
State Federal State City/County Non-profits
Alabama 9% 13% 44% 34%
Alaska 12% 18% 44% 33%
Arizona 11% 18% 27% 53%
Arkansas 7% 18% 47% 30%
California 9% 18% 34% 37%
Colorado 10% 15% 32% 28%
Connecticut 7% 17% 32% 24%
Delaware 12% 11% 47% 53%
DC 6% 14% 29% 44%
Florida 9% 15% 33% 28%
Georgia 11% 9% 40% 45%
Hawaii 8% 10% 34% 53%
Idaho 6% 10% 43% 30%
Illinois 7% 10% 35% 40%
Indiana 9% 12% 30% 25%
Iowa 6% 17% 45% 32%
Kansas 11% 17% 38% 21%
Kentucky 10% 11% 35% 41%
Louisiana 8% 19% 28% 41%
Maine 11% 13% 37% 51%
Maryland 6% 18% 41% 37%
Massachusetts 10% 10% 42% 39%
Michigan 6% 11% 37% 23%
Minnesota 11% 19% 38% 39%
Mississippi 6% 18% 37% 35%
Missouri 7% 19% 41% 29%
Montana 8% 15% 35% 49%
Nebraska 12% 17% 43% 24%
Nevada 10% 10% 42% 44%
New Hampshire 7% 11% 37% 23%
New Jersey 12% 19% 38% 41%
New Mexico 10% 15% 24% 37%
New York 7% 19% 24% 38%
North Carolina 6% 17% 29% 46%
North Dakota 12% 15% 28% 31%
Ohio 10% 17% 40% 20%
Oklahoma 11% 16% 36% 50%
Oregon 6% 16% 35% 41%
Pennsylvania 10% 11% 36% 30%
Rhode Island 9% 13% 37% 21%
South Carolina 7% 13% 35% 41%
South Dakota 6% 12% 24% 54%
Tennessee 12% 10% 27% 32%
Texas 9% 13% 42% 53%
Utah 12% 10% 30% 42%
Vermont 6% 10% 40% 49%
Virginia 6% 17% 35% 39%
Washington 10% 11% 26% 29%
West Virginia 7% 14% 47% 36%
Wisconsin 8% 14% 33% 46%
Wyoming 11% 11% 35% 23%
 
 
 

Trends in Home Repair Programs

 

Our data shows for this survey segment that awareness is the primary barrier to program participation, while application and approval rates reflect program accessibility and design. Key actions for improvement include:

 
  • Increasing awareness through targeted outreach and community partnerships.
  • Simplifying the application process to reduce barriers to participation.
  • Streamlining approval processes to ensure eligible homeowners can access funding.
  • Learning from high-performing states to replicate best practices.
  • Relatively cheap improvements with return are used broadly (weatherization).
 

We’ll later see that programs’ funding is also a big barrier since their budgets tend to be used very fast.

 
 
 

State Awareness Applied Approved Most Source Most Common Repair Funded
Alabama 29% 69% 30% Federal Weatherization/windows
Alaska 41% 39% 20% Federal Weatherization/windows
Alaska 41% 39% 20% Federal Weatherization/windows
Arizona 22% 52% 27% Federal Weatherization/windows
Arkansas 22% 54% 21% Federal Weatherization/windows
California 33% 41% 37% Non-profits Roof
Colorado 22% 34% 35% City, county Roof
Connecticut 33% 49% 38% City, county Roof
Delaware 32% 49% 26% Federal Weatherization/windows
DC 19% 36% 23% Federal Weatherization/windows
Florida 32% 46% 24% State, city, county Roof
Georgia 35% 47% 23% Federal Weatherization/windows
Hawaii 22% 64% 44% Federal Weatherization/windows
Idaho 44% 47% 33% City, county Roof
Illinois 34% 66% 40% Federal Weatherization/windows
Indiana 29% 71% 49% Federal Weatherization/windows
Iowa 13% 63% 28% Federal Weatherization/windows
Kansas 39% 64% 31% Federal Weatherization/windows
Kentucky 43% 55% 49% Non-profits Weatherization/windows
Louisiana 31% 59% 48% Non-profits Roof
Maine 34% 49% 32% Federal Weatherization/windows
Maryland 43% 54% 30% City, county Roof
Massachusetts 16% 53% 20% Federal Weatherization/windows
Michigan 27% 60% 36% Federal Weatherization/windows
Minnesota 19% 43% 41% Federal Weatherization/windows
Mississippi 41% 38% 25% City, county Roof
Missouri 28% 52% 38% Federal Weatherization/windows
Montana 37% 46% 49% Non-profits Roof
Nebraska 21% 62% 31% Federal Weatherization/windows
Nevada 25% 45% 21% Federal Weatherization/windows
New Hampshire 33% 43% 21% Federal Weatherization/windows
New Jersey 36% 63% 28% Federal Weatherization/windows
New Mexico 23% 54% 46% Non-profits Roof
New York 15% 60% 33% Federal Weatherization/windows
North Carolina 37% 45% 37% Federal Weatherization/windows
North Dakota 39% 52% 48% Federal Weatherization/windows
Ohio 12% 71% 38% Federal Weatherization/windows
Oklahoma 42% 60% 26% City, county Roof
Oregon 42% 63% 31% Federal Weatherization/windows
Pennsylvania 21% 40% 21% Federal Weatherization/windows
Rhode Island 16% 45% 43% Federal Weatherization/Cindows
South Carolina 15% 62% 44% Federal Weatherization/windows
South Dakota 41% 68% 43% Non-profits Roof
Tennessee 39% 53% 48% Federal Weatherization/windows
Texas 35% 74% 21% Federal Weatherization/windows
Utah 22% 50% 26% Federal Weatherization/windows
Vermont 41% 50% 27% Federal Weatherization/windows
Virginia 21% 54% 42% Federal Weatherization/windows
Washington 28% 46% 27% Federal Weatherization/windows
West Virginia 20% 69% 43% Federal Weatherization/windows
Wisconsin 26% 51% 20% Federal Weatherization/windows
Wyoming 20% 37% 21% Federal Weatherization/windows
 
 
 
 

Trends in Home Repair Programs for Homeowners

 

Awareness is a Big First Barrier

 

Observation: Awareness rates are generally low across states, even among homeowners who have a need for home repairs.

 

Implication:

 
  • Awareness is a first bottleneck. Even in states with high application and approval rates, the low awareness means that many homeowners who could benefit from these programs are not even reaching the application stage. We’ll late see programs’ funding is the biggest barrier.
  • Outreach efforts could significantly be improved. States should invest in targeted messaging, community partnerships, and simplified communication to increase awareness among homeowners in need.
 
 

High Conversion from Awareness to Application

 

Observation: In many states, a high percentage of homeowners who are aware of programs end up applying

 

Implication:

 
  • Programs are very appealing to those who know about them. This suggests that the programs are well-designed and meet the needs of homeowners.
  • Focus on awareness campaigns. Since awareness is the main barrier, increasing awareness could significantly boost participation.
 
 

Approval Rates Reflect Program Accessibility

 

Observation: Approval rates vary widely, even among states with high application rates. Since we surveyed many different home repair programs, their eligibility varies a lot also.

 

General Implication:

 
  • Eligibility criteria or funding limitations may be creating bottlenecks in the approval process. States with lower approval rates may need to revisit their criteria or increase funding to meet demand.
  • Streamlining the approval process could also help. For example, reducing paperwork or simplifying verification steps could improve approval rates.
 
 
 

Non-profits Fill Gaps in Government Programs

 

Observation: Whether the State don’t want to offer a program (ex: Alabama) or the State prefer to outsource the management of programs (ex: California with Weatherization), non-profits are often the first line to manage and offer programs locally.  Also, in states where non-profits are the most common funding source (e.g., Kentucky, Louisiana), approval rates tend to be higher (this is usually because most of the funding in the State are at non-profits’ levels):

 

Implication:

 
  • In general, non-profits may have more flexible eligibility criteria or faster approval processes compared to government programs. This can be explained by the fact they usually have less funding per project.
  • Collaboration between government and non-profits could improve program accessibility and efficiency in other states mostly by increasing programs’ funding.
 
 

End Note

 

A very important aspect of this data is showing that a relatively cheap program like weatherization can be use very broadly across the country with great benefits to homeowners at the lower end of cost for governments. That’s a broad impact for the bucks.

 
 

Next part of Survey:  Homeowners’ satisfaction with the different level of programs and finally review the main barriers to fund home repairs (from personal reasons to programs’ barriers)