What's Happening in Massachusetts re Heating

Heating crisis looms for low-income residents

December 18, 2007
By CHARIS ANDERSON
Standard-Times staff writer
December 18, 2007 6:00 AM
With more than four months left in the home heating season, many low-income residents across the region already have spent their allotment of federal heating assistance and could run out of oil heat next month, local advocates say.
"We just wanted everyone to be aware there could be some dangers out there of people freezing, and our hands are basically tied," said Liz Berube, director of the fuel assistance program at Citizens for Citizens in Fall River. "It's going to be very scary.
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"We wanted to be honest and say, 'We have no additional funding. There's nothing we can do,'" said Ms. Berube said.
The federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance program is designed to help cash-strapped households pay for their home energy costs. In Massachusetts, the current maximum grant is about $850, which includes some supplemental state funds.
The immediate crisis hits people who heat their homes with oil, according to Bruce Morell, executive director of People Acting in Community Endeavors, which administers the federal assistance program in greater New Bedford. While a moratorium for gas and electric utilities went into effect Nov. 15, making it illegal to cut off their customers' heat, there is no such protection for oil customers.
When someone's tank of heating oil runs out, he must pay to have more delivered. If they don't have the payment, they will not receive a delivery, Mr. Morell said.
For households in the Northeast that heat with oil, estimated heating costs for this winter will reach an average of $1,879, a 25 percent increase from last year, according to a report by the Energy Information Administration.
Statewide, the average cost of heating oil as of Dec. 11 was $3.21 a gallon, up from $2.41 at the same time last year.
Below-average temperatures in November and December have made the heating situation more dire.
According to the National Weather Service, November's mean temperature in the Boston area was 43 degrees, two degrees colder than normal. Thus far in December, the average temperature is just 30.2 degrees, nearly seven degrees colder than normal.
"I'm very worried about our oil clients," PACE's Mr. Morell said. "We're working and doing everything we can, tapping every source that we can, to try and help people from freezing."
A fiscal 2008 budget for the program, which would have raised emergency contingency funding for the program by $250 million over last year, passed Congress but was vetoed by President Bush on Nov. 13.
A new omnibus appropriations bill is now before Congress, according to the office of U.S. Sen. John Kerry. Under this bill, the federal heating assistance program would receive $2.6 billion, of which $2 billion would be available immediately. The remaining funds would be placed in an emergency fund.
The bill was expected to pass the House Monday night, according to a release from Sen. Kerry's office, and will then be considered by the Senate.
In the meantime, both federal and state legislators are pushing hard for additional funding sources for the heating assistance program.
Sens. Kerry and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., along with 22 Senate colleagues, co-sponsored a bill to provide $1 billion in emergency funding for the heating assistance program.
And last month, Gov. Deval Patrick authorized $15 million in state funds to supplement the federal program, which equated to about 50 gallons of oil for PACE's clients, according to Mr. Morell.
"The reality is this is a federal program, and the state doesn't have the resources to solve the problem," he said. "That's not to minimize what (the state) did. Fifteen million dollars is a lot of money, so you can see the magnitude of the problem."
Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association, agreed that the program — and its funding — should be addressed by the federal government. But in the absence of action on the national level, the states will have to step in with additional funding, he said.
"What choice will they have?" Mr. Wolfe asked. "You can't have people dying. You can't have people freezing to death."
Statewide, the number of people applying for the heating assistance program has increased this year, according to Ms. Berube, and Citizens for Citizens, which administers the program in the Fall River area, continues to see new applicants.
Many of their clients will run out of federal assistance funds by the second week in January, Ms. Berube said, and, unless a budget is passed that increases the program's funding, those clients will not receive any additional money.
Once the funds run out, people will start to make dangerous choices to heat their homes, such as using electric space heaters, according to local advocates, and others will prioritize heating bills over other expenses.
"What these folks do is, they'll stop paying rent; they'll stop buying food; they'll stop buying medication," Mr. Morell said. "They'll do everything they can to stop their household from freezing."
Both PACE and Citizens for Citizens are urging their oil clients to apply for a heating assistance program run by Citizens Energy, a Boston nonprofit organization. Under this program, residents who already qualify for the federal heating assistance program or who are at 60 percent or less of the state's median income will receive a voucher for 100 gallons of heating oil.
But 100 gallons of oil will only buy people a little time, according to local advocates, and a heating crisis still looms.
"The price of oil continues to go up," Mr. Morell said. "It leaves people who have oil for their primary heating source ... in a tremendously difficult situation."
Ms. Berube agreed. "It's just like a domino effect of disaster."