Measuring Energy Assistance Outcomes: The Home Energy Insecurity Scale

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Measuring Energy Assistance OutcomesThe Home
Energy Insecurity Scale

• Roger D. Colton
• Fisher, Sheehan Colton
• Public Finance and General Economics
• 34 Warwick Road, Belmont, MA 02478
• June 2003

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleThe Genesis

• HHS/OCS/ACF--LIHEAP
• LIHEAP Managing for Results Committee.

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Problems with Prior Outcomes

• Improvements to self-sufficiency have been
  assumed rather than measured.
• Or they have been ignored entirely.
• Reductions in energy usage/energy burdens
  erroneously assumed to be a priori a good thing.

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Problems with Prior Outcomes

• Failed to integrate the various aspects of
  self-sufficiency into a coherent approach, let
  alone a methodologically sound measurement.
• Payment troubles one aspect.
• No payment troubles, but food/medicine.
• No payment troubles or food/medicine, but
  substantive home energy deprivation.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScalePurposes to be
Served

• Measure outcomes, not outputs, activities.
• Integrate various energy problems into a
  measurement of self-sufficiency that balances
  usage, payments, budgets.
• Allows measurement of incremental progress.
• Applies irrespective of program LIHEAP, WAP,
  REACH, SBC, USF.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleSome things need to
let go of

• Self-sufficiency must be reached for success to
  be shown.
• The goal of LIHEAP is to make low-income
  customers thriving.
• Decreased energy burdens is an end unto itself
  rather than a means to an end.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleHistorical Precedent

• ROMA Scales
• CSBG agencies are completely familiar with.
• Work done by Monitoring and Assessment Task Force
  (MATF)
• USDAs Food Insecurity Scale

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What is a scale

• Continuum with a top and a bottom.
• Must have benchmarks in between that mark a
  households condition or status.
• Benchmarks called thresholds.
• Common scales
• Income deciles (richest, poorest)
• NCAA March Madness tournament.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleInternal Structure
Thresholds

• Thriving
• Capable
• Stable
• Vulnerable
• In Crisis

Movement toward self-sufficiency
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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleThriving Household

• A thriving household has achieved generally
  accepted standards of well-being. Can engage in
  full range of home energy uses w/o outside
  assistance and without strain.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleCapable Household

• A capable household is secure, even though not
  having achieved the generally accepted standards
  of well-being. May have arrears, but does not put
  service at risk. Never experiences adverse impact
  on basic needs. No more than occasional strain or
  occasional foregone energy use.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleStable Household

• A stable household does not face immediate
  threats and is unlikely to be in immediate
  crisis. May sometimes need outside assistance.
  May have arrears and threat of loss of service,
  but no actual loss and no actual foregone basic
  needs.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleVulnerable Household

• A vulnerable household is not in immediate
  danger, but may avoid this danger only through
  temporary or inappropriate solutions.
  Occasionally compromises on basic needs. May have
  threatened loss of service and infrequent actual
  loss. May have occasional impact on basic needs.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleIn-Crisis Household

• An in-crisis household faces immediate needs
  that threaten the households physical and/or
  emotional safety. Recurring periods of going
  without energy. Routinely compromise basic energy
  needs. Routinely compromise basic non-energy
  needs.

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The Home Energy Insecurity Survey

• Eleven questions
• Used not simply to collect information, but to
  place Household on scale.
• Presence or absence of indicator either includes
  a household or excludes a household.
• Because of inability-to-pay.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleThe Challenge Part
1

• . . .use in diverse circumstances while
  maintaining some uniformity of design and
  application.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleThe Challenge Part
2

• The Scale treats the person using air
  conditioning in Tucson the same as the person
  using heating in Minneapolis. It treats the
  farmer using propane to heat in Iowa the same as
  the apartment dweller using electricity to heat
  in Manhattan. It treats the two-parent household
  with ten children the same as the widowed retired
  grandmother the same as the single disabled 25
  year old person.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleThe Challenges
Part 3

• Every household must go into one threshold BUT
• Every household must go into no more than one
  threshold.

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Home Energy Insecurity ScaleScaling a Household

• MATF Scales Handbook
• These types of scales lead a case manager in
  decision making by creating a path with continual
  forks in the road. The case manager must either
  turn right or left he cannot go both ways at the
  same time.

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The Home Energy Insecurity Survey

• Questions 1 - 4
• We worry about energy.
• We need outside assistance.
• We cant use as much energy as we want.
• We reduce energy to uncomfortable or inconvenient
  levels.

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The Home Energy Insecurity Survey

• Questions 5 - 7
• We cannot heat or cool our entire home.
• We compromise on basic energy needs.
• We do not pay our bills.

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The Home Energy Insecurity Survey

• Questions 8 - 10
• We use appliances for purposes that they are not
  intended for.
• We compromise on non-energy basic household
  needs.
• We face a threatened loss of energy service.

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The Home Energy Insecurity Survey

• Question 11
• We experience actual loss of energy service.

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The Home Energy Insecurity ScaleReporting Move
to Self-Sufficiency
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The Home Energy Insecurity ScaleThe National
Testing Diversity

• Big vs. small
• Rural vs. urban
• Natural gas, electric, fuel oil heating
• East vs. West
• North vs. South
• LIHEAP vs. Non-LIHEAP

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The Home Energy Insecurity ScaleThe National
Testing Results

• 0 were thriving
• 4 were capable
• 7 were stable
• 37 were vulnerable
• 37 were in crisis
• (15 minute survey average)

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For more information

• roger_at_fsconline.com

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Home Energy Insecurity Scale Thank you for
assistance in developing
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Home Energy Insecurity Scale Thank you for
assistance in testing