| (a) Except for the Reobligation of Deobligated funds,
the Department distributes funds to Subrecipients by an allocation
formula.
(b) The allocation formula allocates funds based on
the number of Low Income Households in a Service Area and takes into
account certain special needs of individual Service Areas, as set
forth in this subsection. The need for energy assistance in an area
is addressed through a weather factor (based on heating and cooling
degree days). The extra expense in delivering services in sparsely
populated areas is addressed by an inverse Population Density factor.
The lack of additional services available in very poor counties is
addressed by a county median income factor. Finally, the Elderly are
given priority by giving greater weight to this population. The five
factors used in the formula are calculated as follows:
(1) County Non-Elderly Poverty Household Factor--The
number of Non-Elderly Poverty Households in the County divided by
the number of Non-Elderly Poverty Households in the State;
(2) County Elderly Poverty Household Factor--The number
of Elderly Poverty Households in the county divided by the number
of Elderly Poverty Households in the State;
(3) County Inverse Household Population Density Factor--
(A) The number of square miles of the county divided
by the number of Households of the county (equals the inverse Household
population density of the county); and
(B) Inverse Household Population density of the county
divided by the sum of inverse Household densities;
(4) County Median Income Variance Factor--
(A) State median income minus the county median income
(equals county variance); and
(B) County variance divided by sum of the State county
variances; and
(5) County Weather Factor--
(A) County heating degree days plus the county cooling
degree days, multiplied by the poverty Households, divided by the
sum of county heating and cooling degree days of counties (equals
County Weather); and
(B) County Weather divided by the total sum of the
State County Weather.
(c) The five factors carry the following weights in
the allocation formula: number of Non-Elderly Poverty Households (40%),
number of poverty Households with at least one member who is 60 years
of age or older (40%), Household density as an inverse ratio (5%),
the median income of the county (5%), and a weather factor based on
heating degree days and cooling degree days (10%). All demographic
factors are based on the most current decennial U.S. Census. The formula
is as follows:
(1) County Non-Elderly Poverty Household Factor (0.40)
plus;
(2) County Elderly Poverty Household Factor (0.40)
plus;
(3) County Inverse Household Population Density Factor
(0.05) plus;
(4) County Median Income Variance Factor (0.05) plus;
(5) County Weather Factor (0.10);
(6) Total sum of paragraphs (1) - (5) of this subsection
is multiplied by the total funds allocation to generate the county's
allocation of funds; and
(7) The sum of the county allocation within each Subrecipient
Service Area equals the Subrecipient's total allocation of funds.
(d) In the event that a Subrecipient who has been awarded
LIHEAP-WAP funds elects to voluntarily transfer some portion of their
LIHEAP-WAP funds to the LIHEAP CEAP activity, a request to do so must
be submitted prior to August 1 of the first year of the federal LIHEAP
award period. The amount of funds being voluntarily transferred will
be returned to the Department and redistributed among LIHEAP CEAP
providers to ensure appropriate coverage among counties. This may
mean the LIHEAP Awarded Funds to that same Subrecipient having made
the request, but alternatively could mean that the Awarded funds may
be to one or more other CEAP Subrecipients providing CEAP services
in the counties for which the WAP funds were transferred. The Department
will distribute the funds proportionally to the affected counties
and CEAP Subrecipients in the Service Area using the allocation formula
in §6.303 of this title (relating to Distribution of CEAP Funds).
(e) To the extent federal funding awarded to Texas
is limited from one of the two WAP funding sources, possible allocations
of funds to Subrecipients may be made in varying proportions from
each source to maximize efficient program administration.
(f) The Department may, in the future, undertake to
reprocure the entities that comprise the network of Weatherization
providers, in which case this allocation formula will be reassessed
and, if material changes are needed, amended by rulemaking.
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