The public has been denied the right to know where its tax money is being spent to improve low-income homes through a stimulus weatherization program in Texas.

In a letter ruling issued in response to a Texas Public Information Act request by Texas Watchdog for records to be opened, Christina Alvarado, an assistant state attorney general, said that because of federal law, the state Department of Housing and Community Affairs must withhold names, addresses, income and other information that would identify people as qualifying for the Weatherization Assistance Program, which outfits homes with window screens, air conditioning units and other means of cutting down energy use.

The department administers the weatherization program in Texas for the U.S. Department of Energy. In a letter to Jeffrey Pender, deputy general counsel for the department, Alvarado said the Department of Energy gets its authority to keep secret who benefits from the taxpayer-financed program from guidelines included in the Energy Conservation and Production Act.

Section 600.153(f) of the law, Alvarado said, requires the Department of Energy to keep confidential "any specifically identifying information related to an individual's eligibility application for WAP (Weatherization Assistance Program) or the individual's participation in WAP, such as name, address or income information."

The original request by Texas Watchdog asked only for the addresses where weatherization work had been done by contractors for Sheltering Arms Senior Services of Houston. At the same time Texas Watchdog made two other open records requests, for a copy of the contract between the Department of Housing and Community Affairs and Sheltering Arms and for copies of all reports done by the department after making inspections of weatherized homes.

The contract clearly states that the department has the right to ask Sheltering Arms to provide detailed information about the participants in the weatherization programs, including names, addresses, income information and more. When the department asked, Sheltering Arms declined, and their attorneys asked the state Attorney General for an open records letter ruling to support their bid to keep the information secret.

The department complied with Texas Watchdog's request for inspection reports. The Sheltering Arms report, outlining widespread workmanship and administrative problems, was the worst evaluation of any weatherization program to date in Texas. The report resulted in a shakeup in administration and oversight at Sheltering Arms.

While waiting for Alvarado's opinion, Texas Watchdog was able to determine through outside sources where Sheltering Arms did its first weatherization work. The Department of Housing and Community Affairs confirmed that contractors weatherized 681 units at Andover Place, Cambridge Village, Concord Green and Missionary Village, subsidized apartment complexes in Houston owned and operated by Radney Management of Houston.