Linda Jones-Woodley tried everything to clean the bedroom. She’d vacuum the floor, wash the linens and dust each object in the room. But when her grandson used to visit a lot in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, he would break into coughing fits.
He had asthma, and Woodley, 73, assumed dust was the culprit of his attacks. That was until her Westchester house was remodeled last year through a free Cook County program, and black mold was identified in the cracks of the bedroom’s windows.
Woodley now thinks the mold contributed to her grandson’s coughing.
“I did not know that, and I feel bad,” she said. “But I did not know.”
Woodley was one of 357 participants in Healthy Homes for Healthy Families, an initiative providing free house upgrades to families living in 51 municipalities in suburban Cook County. Program leaders say the goal is to make homes safer, more affordable and more efficient.
“The work that was done not only assisted families so they could stay in their homes, but it also had great other implications such as saving money on energy costs and water costs, and as such, reducing the kinds of emission that’s happening from homes, which is the number one cause of climate emissions,” said Suzanne Malec-McKenna, director of the Cook County Department of Environment and Sustainability.
Contractors also installed a railing next to Woodley’s stairs, insulated her crawlspace and replaced second-floor windows, among other upgrades.
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Renovations to Woodley’s roof even allowed her to qualify for a separate program that paid for solar panels.
“I’m so blessed. I’m so grateful,” Woodley said while looking up at the panels. “I don’t have mold; I can see out the windows.”
‘Overall safety at homes’
Healthy Homes for Healthy Families is a partnership between the Cook County Department of Environment and Sustainability, Cook County Department of Public Health and Elevate Energy, a Chicago-based nonprofit centered around providing clean and accessible energy to people.
Elevate identified program recipients and worked with them once chosen. There were 1,004 public applications, according to a spokesperson for the organization.
“We used two different maps to focus in on and prioritize certain municipalities, lower income municipalities, and communities that were impacted by having higher lead poisoning numbers,” said Amanda Gramigna, director of environmental health programs at Elevate.
The home renovation program was funded through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a federal law allocating $350 billion to governments nationwide for recovery after the COVID pandemic. Cook County received just over $1 billion in 2021, according to a government report.
The county is using roughly $29 million to pay for work based on residents’ needs, including lead mitigation and the installation of safety measures to protect older people from injuries.
“I think that the perfect thing about this program is that it really addresses a range of different items which are exactly the point of (the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021),” McKenna said. “It addresses both public health, addresses quality of life and just overall safety at homes.”
The program focuses on the suburbs, as the city of Chicago received separate COVID relief funds, she said.
Living in Westchester is great, Woodley said, and she loves the house. But bills often got to the point where she and her husband, John, were unable to keep up. In 2023, the couple was in a Zoom call for a photography club when other participants asked why they were wearing hats and gloves indoors instead of turning up the thermostat.
“I was so embarrassed,” she said. “I did not want to, and I kept turning it up, but you know, it would still be cold, and I didn’t want to burn out my budget on trying to be warm.”
Woodley attended a village of Westchester meeting in 2024 where she said representatives from Nicor Gas and Commonwealth Edison Co. told residents how they could get help paying their bills. She remembered signing up for something and receiving a flier a month later telling her to apply for Healthy Homes with Healthy Families.
“My husband was like, ‘There’s so many scams going on now,’” Woodley said. “He said, ‘Are you sure, at no cost to you?’”
In November 2025, Woodley said it was their turn for remodeling. Someone came over to inspect their home and noted design issues the Woodley family had been dealing with for six years, such as gaps in the brick letting bees inside during the summer.
The inspector said they also needed a new roof, an insulated crawlspace and an upgraded electrical panel.
“Man, he was good. He was so good at what he was doing,” Woodley said. “So he gave me a list. He said, ‘I’ll be back in touch.’”
Woodley said many different contractors walked through her house that winter to assess the home and offer construction bids. Elevate especially looked for contractors that were owned by minorities or women, Gramigna said.
“We were really looking to develop and support the smaller contractors, which from our end, required a little bit more hand-holding, but it’s kind of worth helping them get into places where (they) can really access programs and opportunities at this scale,” she said.
Finishing touches
After about a month of renovations, upgrades to Woodley’s home were completed in April 2026. She pointed out 11 different changes during a visit by the Tribune.
These included replacing windows not just in the bedroom where the black mold was found, but in all rooms on the second floor. Her back door, initially installed backward, was fixed. And contractors put in a new furnace she said saved her about $60 monthly when comparing 2023 bills to 2025’s.
Woodley’s roof was also entirely redone. When she saw the black roofing being rolled out, she initially panicked and called her program representative, as she had requested a mixed green color. It turned out the green was on the opposite side of the black.
“I know he got so tired of me,” she said, laughing.
The roof upgrades allowed Woodley to qualify for Illinois Solar for All, a state program providing eligible homeowners with solar power. She said she previously applied for the program but was unable to get panels installed due to the condition of her house.
Now solar panels rest on top of the green roof. When combined with upgraded capacity for her house electrical system, Woodley said her electricity bill in October was less than a third of what it was in 2025: $54.75 compared with $184.62.
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Energy efficiency is a particularly important part of the renovations, Gramigna said, both for environmental reasons and to protect families during severe weather events such as the storms Chicago experienced this summer.
According to a representative of the Cook County Bureau of Administration, the last three homes in the program were in the finishing stages of paperwork and undergoing radon testing. The program ends Oct. 31.
“Although this project is being wrapped up, I think that more and more opportunities like this need to be available to people, to residents,” Gramigna said. “We look forward to the next program that can offer these kinds of services, because there’s quite a bit of need out there.”