TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — In Arizona, losing your air conditioning can be a matter of life or death—especially if you are old or in fragile health. Governor Katie Hobbs was in Tucson Tuesday highlighting programs that can help.
Governor Hobbs visited a house that is almost 80 years old but some of its critical systems, critical for Arizona, like air conditioning have just been upgraded, through a program the Governor is passing the word about.
Joya James is 97 years old. She has lived 55 of those years in a house on Tucson’s near west side.
Governor Katie Hobbs came to see parts of the house that are brand new: like the air conditioning and heater. There’s also new insulation that holds down the utility bills.
Joya’s daughter Rosita says the old AC quit —in August.
“And it was like 100 degrees in the night time. So it's really hot, and I had to move her from another room where it would be cooler for her.”
Rosita says repairs would have been about $12,000 if not for a program that combines state and Federal dollars to help people with low incomes fix their homes to keep them safe, healthy places to live.
Governor Hobbs says she’s working to make more people eligible for the program.
She says that money has the potential to save taxpayer money in the long run.
“If somebody ends up in a home that's not livable because of not having air conditioning, do they end up in a homeless shelter or some other place that is being subsidized. This is great for Arizona, and it puts more money in the economy if people have more money in their pockets to spend.”
An organization called AllThrive365 handled the work on this house.
Katie Martin with AllThrive says for help you need to own your home and be at or below 200 percent of the Federal poverty level. For one person that would be just over $31,000 a year.
She says, “The heat is coming. So I definitely encourage people to apply. Come to our website, see what kind of services we have and see if you're eligible.”
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
