After months of dealing with a struggling window air conditioner and inconsistent hot water, a San Fernando Valley resident was offered free replacement hot water and heat-and-cooling equipment from a contractor who came to her door, KQED reported.
For residents in some of Los Angeles' hottest neighborhoods, that kind of support can mean far more than added comfort. It can translate into lower utility bills, cleaner indoor air, and a more livable home during dangerous heat.
What happened?
Maria Franco, a mobile home resident in the Valley, told KQED that losing her job left her overwhelmed: "I was depressed. I was in shock."
She had also spent six months without dependable hot water, and the Southern California summer was making her mobile home harder and harder to live in.
Relief came when Ben Shamoon of home-upgrade company Bryge started visiting mobile home parks to offer state-incentivized heat pump water heaters and heating-and-cooling systems. Many residents met low-income requirements, which meant the incentives could cover equipment, labor, permits, and installation in full.
Bryge has completed most of the nearly 1,500 TECH-supported heat pump HVAC and water-heater installations in California mobile homes. In Franco's park alone, Shamoon completed 38 projects.
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Evan Kamei, a consultant with Energy Solutions, which implements the state program, said the flexibility built into the model is a big part of why it succeeds.
"That's the beauty of having a market-based solution of enabling contractors to figure out something that could work," Kamei told KQED.
Why does it matter?
For Franco, the upgrades quickly changed her monthly expenses. She said her gas bill fell from about $40 to $50 a month to just $10, and her electricity bill dropped from around $150 to about $80. For someone living on $1,000 a month in Social Security benefits, that is a meaningful difference.
Because heat pumps run on electricity instead of gas, they can also reduce pollution, especially as California relies more on cleaner energy sources. They may also improve the air quality inside a home.
Esperanza Sanchez, who lives in a Blue Star Mobile Home Park in Sylmar, California, told KQED she had stopped using her gas heater because "It stung my nose and I couldn't stand it." After switching systems, she said her respiratory issues disappeared.
UC Berkeley lawyer and policy researcher Ethan Elkind told KQED the issue goes beyond energy bills: "It's a public health thing. It's an equity thing."
What's being done?
California's TECH Clean California program has already supported over 75,000 heat pump installations across many types of homes.
Residents near the 2016 San Fernando Valley gas leak are also expected to gain access to about $30 million in additional incentives from a separate settlement beginning later this summer, according to KQED.
Even so, experts say public funding alone will not be enough to electrify every low-income household.
Elkind said one possible path would be to use state support to unlock no-interest private financing, so homeowners could repay upgrade costs over time with the savings on their energy bills.
That approach can be especially effective when an old, inefficient AC unit or a failing water heater already needs replacing, since savings may be significant and the upfront expense can sometimes be reduced sharply or eliminated.
For Franco, the payoff was immediate and practical: hot showers, quicker cooling, and relief during the heat.
"That first time using the shower was beautiful," she said. "When I needed help the most, it came. If it weren't for them, we'd be suffering from the heat."
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