The “Right to Cool” for Washington
Identifying underserved communities of color in need of cooling assistance
The State of Washington’s Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is a federally funded program that helps provide energy assistance to low-income households. Though the State’s LIHEAP office collects race and ethnicity data on households, these data are not available to community and advocacy groups, making it difficult for them to understand whether communities of color are being adequately served by LIHEAP. This project proposes new data reporting and evaluation policies to help the State better ensure it is serving its vulnerable communities.