Start here: home energy costs in Douglas County
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2.3%average share of income spent on home energy
17%burden for homes under the poverty line (includes students)
10.4%burden for low-income rural homes
9,029homes under the LIEAP income limit
~23%of income-eligible Kansas homes got LIEAP (approx.)
~230homes weatherized a year, statewide (plan)
- The average Douglas County home spends about 2.3% of income on home energy (electricity, gas, propane and other fuels), well under the 6% line that researchers commonly use for "high energy burden" [15]; above 10% is called "severe" [15].
- Low-income homes spend far more. Homes under 150% of the federal poverty level, the income limit for the state's heating-help program (LIEAP), spend an estimated 5% to 17% of income on energy. Homes under 200% of poverty in rural parts of the county spend about 10.4%, close to $2,000 a year, compared with about 7.0% in Lawrence (6.6% leaving out student-heavy tracts) [1].
- About 9,000 Douglas County households are under the LIEAP income limit [1][3]. Statewide, about 43,000 households got LIEAP in 2025 [3], roughly 23% of income-eligible Kansas homes (approximate; the years differ).
- The programs are small next to the need. The state's federally funded weatherization program plans about 230 homes a year for all of Kansas [4]. Douglas County alone has about 2,460 low-income owner homes [1].
- Illustrative scenarios (not recommendations): serving 1,000 more Douglas County homes with LIEAP would cost about $0.7M a year; holding the lowest-income homes' energy bills to 6% of income would cost about $4M-$6M a year; weatherizing every low-income owner home would cost about $18M-$21M once.