Table 4.

Environmental, health and social consequences of energy insecurity.

Consequence	Related codes	Exemplary quotes
Environmental	Hazardous exposures	For three months there was a gas leak and I ended up going to the hospital. … The smell kept on coming up [but] the [stove] pilot wasn’t lit. I had to call the gas company. I said, “Look, you have to come down here. This gas is killing me.” …
	Heat stress	As for summertime, electricity is obviously higher because of air-conditioning. It’s so hot and we live on the third floor. It is burning hot. It is extremely hot.
	Cold stress	If I open this door you feel like you’re standing outside. There’s no heat in here and there’s no heat in the kitchen. He [the landlord] says it’s a four bedroom but really it’s a big, huge, empty house.
Health	Asthma	In the wintertime its more [of a problem] ‘cause he [child] gets sick more with asthma.
	Chronic stress	“Stress. It adds stress. It’s silly sometimes, but I think like, “Geez. My lights are gonna shut off.” Even though I know they won’t but even if I’m behind a few days a week I worry. I worry about a lot of things. I do. I mean, I know it won’t happen but I worry about it. I do. I worry a lot.”
	Mental health trigger	Every time I call I get nowhere, that’s why I told my psychiatrist. Then I went into a depression, you know, ‘cause I’m trying to show them my bill and everything and don’t nobody ever have funds for me. So I told her I feel like I’m being targeted, which I know better, but I was just feeling low, you know …
Social	Parental fear and stigma	One day I didn’t have no money to pay my bill and they was gonna turn off my lights. When they turn off your lights people look at that and I didn’t want nobody coming in here and take my children from me because I don’t have my lights on.
	Family disruption	My bills started raising up and raising up and I went to the doctor’s because they turned off my gas. So, I sent my kids to their aunt’s house ‘cause I didn’t want them in the house since you can’t cook or give them a bath or nothing. I didn’t want them here. And then I went through my depression thing- it just went down for me.
	Residential instability	From all my apartments I’ve always had faulty heating systems and I always had to pay my own utilities. That’s one of the reasons why we moved so much.