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Sustainable Homes Program Will Help Low Income Families

 Downtown Rochester skyline view.
Max Schulte
/
WXXI News
Downtown Rochester skyline view.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says his office is working with the Rochester Area Community Foundation as part of a program designed to help low-income families lower their energy bills and eliminate serious home health and safety hazards in older homes.

Rochester will get $1 million and Syracuse will also get $1 million for a similar program. The money comes from a court-ordered settlement with American Electric Power, the largest U.S. power company, over violations of the federal Clean Air Act.

The programs in Rochester and Buffalo are modeled after a similar program in Buffalo. It's designed to help communities with a lot of older housing stock. In Rochester, the attorney general says more than 60 percent of homes were built prior to 1940.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.