County offers emergency funds to cover emergency home repairs, including A/C

By Steven Sarabia

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    PHOENIX (KPHO) — These hot temperatures across The Valley can be deadly, especially if your air conditioning unit goes out. A Maricopa County program aims to assist families struggling to make these emergency repairs.

Maricopa County has an emergency repair fund that can help residents fix life-threatening issues with their homes. The biggest demand they reported this summer is replacing HVAC or A/C systems. The county says they have replaced these systems in more than 140 households.

“We recognize in Arizona with these high temperatures that air conditioning it’s not just nice to have it’s a necessity so by having this problem we are really able to ensure that families are able to remain in their homes safely and securely,” said Jacqueline Edwards the Maricopa County Human Services director.

With the demand high, the program recently received an extra $3.6 million, which can help more than 200 more homes if needed.

Homes need to meet specific requirements to use these resources. For example, households of four need to make under $70,000.

While this project is still somewhat new, not even a year old, the county said the demand for A/C repairs continues to increase. “We are continuing to see more requests for it and I think what’s good to know is how expensive an emergency repair can be. To have to replace an HVAC system this can cost upwards of $12,000 or more just for one unit. And we know many houses may have more than one HVAC system,” said Edwards.

Cities like Mesa and Phoenix offer similar programs for their residents. This emergency fund from the county also helps with other repairs like no running water.

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