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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Tag: LIHEAP

LIHEAP Grants Offered

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  • Hundreds seek help to keep the heat on, By Sheldon S. Shafer, January 2, 2013, Courier-Journal: “Nay Jones of Louisville showed up at the Urban Government Center on Barret Avenue Wednesday morning armed with a $300 utility bill from Louisville Gas & Electric Co. that she said she couldn’t pay.’I’m worried about a shutoff. I’ve had (the power) turned off two times before,’ she said, adding that she works four jobs and still having a hard time making ends meet. Getting some help paying the bill would be a big plus, she said. ‘I really appreciate this program.’ Jones was among the hundreds who had come to sign up for assistance from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, from which eligible people can get up to $400 to prevent a utility shutoff. The program is operated by the Louisville Metro Community Action Partnership, which is under the Department of Community Services and Revitalization…”
  • State offers heating assistance grants, By Sean Mccracken, January 2, 2013, Erie Times-News: “The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare this week will start offering grants to people facing ‘heating emergencies.’ The department’s Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, will offer crisis grants beginning today to people who have problems like broken heating equipment, who have a dangerously low supply of fuel or who face the possibility of having their heat shut off because of unpaid utility bills. Crisis grants are the second phase of LIHEAP’s annual program. The DPW has offered cash grants since the start of November to people in danger of having the heat shut off in their homes during the winter…”
  • Federal funding will help heat homes, By Jon Ostendorff, January 1, 2013, Citizen-Times:”Eblen Charities will partner with the Buncombe County Department of Social Services to get more heating assistance to needy people.The nonprofit, for the first time, will tap federal Low Income Energy Assistance Program funds in the partnership.That means an additional 1,500 to 1,700 families will get help.Assistance ranges from a one-time payment of $200 to those heating with electric, gas, wood or coal and $400 for those using fuel oil and kerosene. Low-income households with a person 60 years and older or disabled adults working with the Division of Aging and Adult Services will receive assistance first. That part of the program ends Jan. 31…”

 

Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program

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President Obama’s budget proposal targets home heating bill program, By Larry Bivins, February 20, 2012, Appleton Post-Crescent: “Once again advocates for the poor will have to appeal to Congress for an increase in funding for a program that helped more than 230,000 Wisconsinites last year pay their home heating bills. That’s because President Barack Obama has again proposed cuts to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The president wants to spend $3 billion on the program in fiscal year 2013, which begins Oct. 1. While that represents an increase over the $2.6 billion he requested in his budget plan for the current fiscal year, it is less than the nearly $3.5 billion Congress appropriated and far short of the full authorization amount of $5.1 billion Congress approved in 2009 and in 2010…”

Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program

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  • States get $845 million in home heat aid from feds, By Andrew Miga (AP), December 22, 2011, Boston Globe: “States got more than $845 million in federal home heating aid on Thursday, but the latest round of government funding won’t take the chill from the fuel assistance program, which is being cut by about a quarter this winter. New England, with its reliance on costly home heating oil, is expected to be especially hit hard by the spending cut. Several Northeast states already have reduced heating aid benefits this winter…”
  • Home heating help slashed by $1 billion, By Pamela M. Prah, December 22, 2011, Stateline.org: “Just in time for the cold weather and holiday season, states have learned that Congress cut $1.2 billion from a program to provide heating and cooling assistance to low-income families. The large spending bill that Congress approved this month for 2012 contained about $3.5 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Advocates of LIHEAP had hoped Congress would fund the program at its 2010 level of $5.1 billion; it was funded at $4.7 billion for 2011, an amount that several governors urged Congress to maintain for this year. President Obama’s budget proposal would have cut LIHEAP funding by nearly 50 percent to $2.6 billion, so the congressional figure came down somewhere in the middle…”