Will funding for emergency oil supplies meet demand this winter?
As published in The Keene Sentinel.
It's a small piece of the federal budget, but the $5 billion program that helps people with low incomes purchase home heating oil is a big deal to those struggling to make ends meet through a New England winter.
Last winter 5,222 Monadnock Region households benefited from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, according to Beth Daniels, who runs the local program at Keene-based Southwestern Community Services.
This year 3,580 households have already started an application or qualified for the money, she said, and she is confident this year's enrollment will be as high or higher than last year.
But the money is less certain, caught up in budget wrangling in Washington, D.C.
President Barack Obama has proposed cutting the program's funding in half; the numbers under consideration in the House and Senate are more generous but would also entail deep cuts.
State and local officials say they are focused on collecting as many applications as they can as early as possible so they know what the demand will be, while they wait to hear from Washington how much money they have to meet that demand.
New Hampshire's fuel assistance program, managed by the Office of Energy and Planning, is completely funded by federal dollars, according to Celeste Lovett, who runs the program at the state level.
"If we find out it's really bad news the Office of Energy and Planning will tell us what to do at that point, whether we lower the income guidelines or the benefit amount. That would be catastrophic if that happened," Daniels said.
Right now, a family of four with an annual income below $44,700 would qualify for assistance.
Home heating programs in this region receive additional support from the Monadnock United Way, Daniels said, and also take direct cash donations -- of which 100 percent is passed on to needy families, with none going to administrative costs.
Last year the average benefit given to New Hampshire families was $700, which is enough to pay for about 200 gallons of fuel, while the average household burns 800 gallons each winter, Daniels said.
The state is planning on providing the same $700 to all qualifying families this year, Lovett said.
Daniels encourages anyone who is worried about heating costs this year to fill out an application as early as possible, and also suggests that friends, families and neighbors refer anyone they know to be struggling to Southwestern Community Services for help.
There are also low-cost steps that work well to reduce the cost of heating a home.
"Plasticing the windows is going to cost a lot less than a fuel delivery," Daniels said.
tagged with: federal budget, home heating costs, LIHEAP, Southwestern Community Services
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