Weatherization and the Stimulus- any insight?

I just had an interesting conversation with an unemployed carpenter/weatherization specialist who got laid off 3 weeks ago, and as of yesterday is "houseless"- he doesn't want to say he's "homeless" cause he is more hopeful than that. He is not anticipating any work until May 15th at the earliest. There was about $500 million in stimulus money offered to California for weatherization improvements with 16 people allocating those funds. I know that there are amazing organizations like Green for All and Solar Richmond that are working to train people in under-served communities for the "green economy"- but what about skilled, educated, and older folks that work in a small community like Lake Tahoe who don't have work. Where do they go? How do they get in on it? How do they work together? I anticipate that there are a lot of them.