Northwest Arkansas local governments have had to stretch their weatherization assistance dollars since a federal program for the elderly and other low- to moderate-income households lost much of its funding in 2011.

Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale all offer money-saving home energy efficiency programs for a total of about 100 households each year. The Crawford-Sebastian Community Development Council in Fort Smith could pick up another 80 or so houses throughout Northwest Arkansas in its fiscal year that ends next summer.

Rehabilitation work varies based on the condition of each house, ranging from placing weather strips around windows to installing more efficient insulation or heating and air systems, officials said. The programs target the elderly, disabled and families with children, aiming to save them money on energy and water bills while improving quality of life.

Almost three years ago, $5 billion in new weatherization money from 2009’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ran out. The drop’s local impact isn’t clear, but the Economic Opportunity Agency of Washington County and the Office of Human Concern in Rogers stopped offering assistance afterward, as did Bentonville.

“There used to be 15 agencies that administered this program, but due to budget restraints they had to downsize,” said Debbie Biggs, weatherization director for the Crawford-Sebastian council. The council must now spread its efforts between six counties: Benton, Carroll, Crawford, Madison, Sebastian and Washington.

In addition to home rehabilitation, Fayetteville since January also has offered simple weatherization kits with strips, water-efficient shower and sink fixtures and other items from its Development Services building downtown.

“You’re either trying to keep the warmth in or keep the cool in,” said Yolanda Fields, director of Fayetteville’s community services, who oversees about 45 house rehabilitations each year. “Everything that we’re providing serves a purpose for the whole year.”

To qualify, residents must fill out applications, typically to verify that they live within a particular organization’s area and have incomes low enough to qualify — less than about $47,000 for a family of four, for example.

“People who cannot afford to make their home energy efficient,” Biggs said. “We have customers in this, especially the elderly, that live on a fixed income. They have to make choices every month: Do they buy medicine, do they buy groceries or do they pay their utility bills?”

Weatherization saves residents money, officials said. The U.S. Department of Energy says its program saved $437 per family in annual cooling and heating costs. Every dollar spent on efficiency improvement can return $2 in savings, according to the Crawford-Sebastian council’s website.

The council gets its money from the Energy Department, which goes to the Arkansas Energy Office and has weatherized thousands of homes in Arkansas, according to the department’s website. Neither Washington nor Benton county offer similar services.

The three cities’ weatherization money, on the other hand, comes from Community Development Block Grants, which are given out by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. They received a total of about $1.8 million from those grants in 2013, a portion of which goes to housing assistance. The rest goes to transportation assistance and low-income neighborhood redevelopment.

“The stipulation in getting it is that it has to be used on low-income people,” said Donna Johnston, who oversees the rehabilitation of five or six houses in Rogers each year. “We have to tell HUD what we’re doing with every penny of it.”