Just about all of us are scratching and clawing our way through these cruel mid-winter days. But as we justifiably groan and moan about The Terribleness That Is This Winter, let’s also remind ourselves that it’s a much more serious struggle for many of our friends and neighbors who aren’t able to heat their homes.
This story in The Eagle Tribune last week served as such a reminder for me. It details a single mother struggling to keep her two young boys warm in their home this winter and expressing concern that she may not be able to going forward, because funds for the Federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) are running out. Two hundred thousand low-income households in Massachusetts rely on LIHEAP and are facing such a very, very dangerous fate.
Community Action agencies across the state are scrambling to get as much funding as possible to help as many in need as they can. It is a perennial scramble, of course, but it’s a much more dire problem these last few years, and an even worse one this winter. Funding for the LIHEAP program nationally peaked during the nadir of the recession in 2009 ($5.1 billion) and has precipitously dropped off since ($3.4 billion this year). Yet, as most all of us outside of D.C. are aware, the need for this (and other forms of) assistance remains very high. Meanwhile, home fuel prices have risen above their pre-recession levels. And again, this winter has been especially tough. After a brief respite later this week, it promises to remain that way in Massachusetts into at least the first week of March.
Last Fall, during the Federal government shutdown, Massachusetts state lawmakers passed a bill to provide $20 million in emergency heating assistance. But when the government re-opened, the state funds were pulled back. Community Action agencies and other advocates for the poor are urging state lawmakers to make those funds available now. We should do the same. The need is even more urgent now than it was then.
Last Thursday, while lawmakers in the Senate passed a supplemental budget bill (S. 2010), several senators submitted an amendment (50) to make those funds available, but unfortunately, it was rejected.
These people who rely on heating assistance are suffering and desperate, and we should be doing everything we can to help them. The Community Action agency in my hometown of Haverhill realizes this, and for the first time ever they are asking for donations from the public. We can hope that Obama releases more emergency contingency LIHEAP funds (as he did last month), but ultimately state lawmakers are in the best position to provide immediate and substantial help.
Please consider taking a minute to contact your state lawmakers and urge them to provide it.
My heat went out last week and I thought my hands and feet would never get warm again. I remember seeing my breath as I waited for the heating repair guy to show up. I finally went and sat in the car because I just couldn’t take the cold anymore, emissions be damned. I had that option.
This shouldn’t be an issue, why can’t Massachusetts use the “rainy day fund” to support providing heat for people in need!?! Community Action agencies in Massachusetts shouldn’t have to go begging people and competing with other city agencies for funds. In my state people shouldn’t be without heat, and it is a safety issue!
Burst pipes cause greater expense to people who can’t afford it and fires are started with space heaters and lives are lost. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be old, or with children, or any age and not be able to be in a place that was warm. Lets not tolerate this!