A Denver committee on Wednesday approved two contracts that would help low-income families make their homes more energy efficient through the Healthy Electric Efficient Homes program.

Both of the contracts are for three years. The funding for the contracts comes from the city’s Climate Protection Fund.

The first contract is for $2 million with BlocPower to electrify and weatherize 100 units in multifamily complexes, while the second is for $4 million with Energy Outreach Colorado to do the same for 100 single-family homes. 

Grace Rink, director of Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resilliency, said the turn-key upgrades provided to electrify space and water heating in these homes will reduce emissions.

The program will work with health care providers to find low-income families with children or other vulnerable people with respiratory diseases to get the efficiency upgrades. Rink said they will monitor indoor air pollutant concentration before and after the upgrades to measure any reductions and air pollution exposure.

“Natural gas appliances in our homes negatively impact indoor air quality, which is bad for public health, and it has disproportionate impacts on low-income households,” Rink told Denver’s Business, Arts, Aviation and Workforce Committee. “A growing body of research … has found that increasing ventilation alone cannot reduce indoor air quality impacts from indoor gas combustion.”

Rink also said children living in a home with a gas stove are 42% more likely to develop asthma.

The contracts will need to pass a vote from the full City Council before the program can begin.