Year-round funding of LIHEAP necessary due to extreme weather, advocates say
For more than a million families this summer, escaping the extreme heat will mean facing high energy bills they can’t pay.
With temperatures continuing to hover in the 90s and 100s, the National Energy & Utility Affordability Coalition (NEUAC) said the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is there to help those families.
As part of LIHEAP Action month in August, Katrina Metzler, NEUAC Executive Director, said utility companies are working with nonprofit partners to spread the word about the program.
“The things that they do that are most effective are partnering with their local agencies that administer and implement the program,” she said. “There are those customers who may see their utility as the trusted resource and maybe not necessarily know the nonprofit in the community. We need them to be good partners and help with outreach to those customers.”
Reporting for the program shows that in the first and second quarters of 2023, $3.7 billion of LIHEAP funds, about 60 percent of the $6.1 billion allocated by Congress, had been spent. In the first quarter, the program helped 3.3 million homeowners, while in the second quarter, it helped 2.8 million. Households can receive LIHEAP assistance in multiple quarters.
Utility companies are doing their part by letting their customers know help is available to them through their websites and through social media.
Earlier this month, Entergy Arkansas tweeted information about the program on the company’s website.
“Entergy Arkansas customers who need help paying their summer utility bills can apply now for up to $475 through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP),” the company said on its website. “In Arkansas, the Arkansas Department of Energy & Environment manages the program, but applications for assistance must be made through a community-based organization. Eligibility is determined by household size and income. For example, a single individual with a maximum monthly countable income of $1,859 and a family of four with $3,574 would both be eligible.”
Still to be determined, however, is how much funding is needed to help families during the heat emergency.
Metzler said funding for LIHEAP is set by the federal government once a year. Those funds are limited and can run out, she said. As the country faces extreme weather in winter and summer, some areas may not have enough funds available to help with summer cooling bills.
“I can tell you that what I’m hearing from the field is that applications are up, and that people are suffering in the heat, and that it is becoming incredibly necessary to address crises in the summer,” Metzler said. “However, our resources are limited and oftentimes programs run out of money during the winter heating crisis and don’t have anything left for a summer cooling program. We just don’t have the resources at all levels to administer a year-round program in many places.”
Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), an organization representing the state directors of LIHEAP, said this is the third year in a row that extreme weather conditions have affected the U.S.
“Whether you live in the northeast and Midwest where Canadian wildfires are causing record-breaking air quality issues, or in the south where a heat wave has wrought scorching temperatures for three weeks straight, it is a bad time to be outside for many Americans,” Wolfe said in a recent statement. “But for the estimated one million households who will be shut off from electricity this summer because they cannot afford their bills, even being inside their homes is dangerous… when the heat has persisted for weeks, or the outside air is dangerous, opening a window will only make things worse. The current weather and air quality emergencies are putting millions of Americans at risk of heat-related and respiratory illnesses as well as unaffordable home energy bills.”
Wolfe said LIHEAP funding is only sufficient to help about 5.8 million of the 34.2 million households eligible for LIHEAP assistance. NEUAC and NEADA are calling on the federal government to fund the program year-round.
So far, Congress has added little to the program’s funding. In July, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee proposed an $11 million increase to the program as part of the Fiscal Year 2024 budget.
“This represents a major win for customers who struggle to pay their bills,” said Grant Barton, Alliant Energy’s Communications Partner, on Alliant’s website.
However, the current federal budget ends on Sept. 30. A budget for 2024 has not been passed yet, and some pundits have warned a government shutdown is looming as Republicans and Democrats battle it out over spending limits.
