With the federal stimulus plan now law, Virginia officials predicted Wednesday a massive ramp-up in home weatherization.

The program appears likely to grow both in terms of property owners assisted and technicians hired to do the work.

Willie Fobbs of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development said Virginia is likely to receive an estimated $96.5 million for home weatherization from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which President Obama signed Tuesday.

The money is being considered a one-time boost to be spent over two years. The government has spent about $4 million a year statewide for home weatherization for most of the past five years and bumped it to $8 million this fiscal year. Twenty-two community agencies perform or contract for the work.

"The money is tenfold," said Fobbs, the agency's associate director of housing finance and housing preservation. "We all took a deep breath."

Fobbs said he has not completed a detailed analysis and can't yet predict how many homes will be weatherized or jobs will be created with the money.

Total Action Against Poverty in Roanoke is predicting a rise in its annual funding for weatherization from $700,000 a year to $3 million a year and a boost in homes weatherized from 190 a year to between 600 and 800 a year, TAP President Ted Edlich said.

The agency, serving the Roanoke Valley and Alleghany Highlands and nearby communities, will soon deploy a third crew. It is seeking five or six people who can be trained in insulation, weatherstripping and related work. Pay will fall between $10 to $16 hourly. A fourth crew is slated to be added in the summer and a fifth by the end of the year.

Christiansburg-based Com- munity Housing Partners, the largest home weatherization provider in the state, completing 350 to 400 units a year, could see its weatherization funding rise from $1.8 million a year to $10 million a year, said Bill Beachy, vice president of energy services at the agency.

More resources will enable officials to open the income-based program to more people. The maximum income to receive the free weatherization improvements will rise from $19,000 a year for a four-person household to about $40,000 a year, Fobbs said.

In addition, officials expect to weatherize multifamily dwellings and to raise the limit on how much can be spent on each dwelling. In the past, officials excluded homes with severe deterioration, such as a bad roof that might defeat the benefit of weatherization work, even if the owner qualified.

With new money coming, officials expect to tackle bigger jobs.

"There are fewer homes they will have to walk away from," said Floris Weston, a program official.