Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Energy Assistance Funds Still Available

One of our biggest programs in terms of the number of people served is our Energy Assistance Program.  We annually serve over 11,000 households with this program.  Because of many changes and issues with the program this year, we still have the ability to serve many more people before the program closes down on May 15th.

It has been a truly difficult year for this program, both for our staff, and admittedly, for our clients as well.  First, the start date of the program was delayed a month from previous years.  We also only received a small portion of our funding at the start of the year, ran out of that, and had to shut down the program for a few weeks at the end of 2012.  We also saw a very significant reduction in the benefit amounts per household.  This change was put in place because of a fear of significant budget cuts, which only partially came to fruition.

All of these changes, and many other issues, have made it a particularly difficult year to administer the program.  We also know that it has been particularly difficult on the families we serve, and we are working hard to advocate for changes to the program next year.

In the meantime, however, because of these changes we have the ability to serve many more clients between now and May 15th.  If you or someone you know could use help with your utility bills, please contact us today.