Connecticut has enough money to set aside to pay heating bills through at least the end of November or December, according to the group that helps administer LIHEAP. But the program faces uncertainty if the shutdown persists. Connecticut lawmakers are considering covering the cost temporarily with state budget reserves.
“The situation will get much more perilous for folks who do need those resources as we move later into the heating season,” said Rhonda Evans, executive director of the Connecticut Association for Community Action. More than 100,000 households were served last year.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the assistance program, blamed the federal shutdown and the delay in LIHEAP payments on congressional Democrats and said the Trump administration is committed to reopening the government.
“Once the government reopens, ACF will work swiftly to administer annual awards,” the spokesperson said, referring to the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within HHS. The spokesperson did not directly answer whether the timing could be affected by the administration’s earlier decision to fire workers who run the LIHEAP program.
Wolfe, from the group that represents state program directors, predicts there could be delays into January. He noted there are questions over who will approve states’ program plans and how the money will be released when it becomes available.
“Once you’ve fired the staff, things just slow down,” he said.
Low-income families face mounting obstacles
Chapman, the retired school aide, may be eligible for a program through her gas utility to prevent being shut off this winter. But the roughly 9% of LIHEAP recipients who rely on deliverable fuels such as heating oil, kerosene, propane and wood pellets, typically do not have such protections.
Electric and natural gas companies are usually regulated by the state and can be told not to shut people off while the state waits to receive its share of the LIHEAP money, Wolfe said. But it is different when it involves a small oil or propane company, fuels more common in the Northeast.
“If you’re a heating oil dealer, we can’t tell that dealer, ‘Look, continue to provide heating oil to your low-income customers on the possibility you’ll get your money back,’” Wolfe said.
Mark Bain, 67, who lives in Bloomfield, Connecticut, with his son, a student at the University of Connecticut, started receiving financial assistance for his home heating oil needs three years ago.
“I remember the first winter before I knew about this program. I was desperate. I was on fumes,” said Bains, who is retired and relies on income from Social Security and a small annuity. “I was calling around to my social services people to find out what I could do.”
He has been approved this year for $500 in assistance but he has a half tank of oil left and cannot call for more until it is nearly empty. By that point, he is hoping there will be enough federal money left to fill it. He typically needs three deliveries to get through a winter.
Bains said he can “get by” if he does not receive the help this year.
“I would turn the heat down to like 62 (degrees) and throw on another blanket, you know, just to get through,” he said.
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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this report.
