As the cost of living rises, some families will have trouble paying to keep their homes warm this winter. One option they may not have considered is the Home Energy Assistance Program.
“It’s a program that’s been available to vulnerable households for over 30 years, and it’s meant to help those households cover their heating costs,” said Joe Diamond, executive director of the Massachusetts Association for Community Action (MASSCAP), an association of 23 federally mandated anti-poverty agencies.
Diamond said the program can help people pay “whether they heat with utility services, natural gas, electricity, or what we call delivered fuels, oil or even wood pellets.”
Eligibility for HEAP is based on factors including household size and gross annual income of household members. Both homeowners and renters, including those whose heat is included in their rent, can apply.
“When you apply for the Home Energy Assistance Program, it’s one application and it’s for the entire energy programs,” said Elizabeth Berube, executive director at Fall River- and Taunton-based Citizens for Citizens Inc.
Berube said Citizens for Citizens is one of “between 20 and 21” community action agencies that subcontract with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to administer the federal heat program. Community Action Pioneer Valley, which serves Hampshire and Franklin counties, also participates.
“It’s a life-saving program,” Berube said. “We are actually covering a portion of someone’s winter heating bill, and without the program, they could be facing freezing.”
In addition to helping with heating bills, Berube said the program could “get you on discounts if you heat or have electric service” in Massachusetts.
“We also provide energy efficiency, like weatherization, window replacement, and if your heating system needs repair or replacement, the program can help you with that as well,” Berube said. “It’s quite an array of services with that one application.”
Diamond noted “many people aren’t aware that they could qualify for fuel assistance.”
“Maybe they’ve never needed to use services ever before, but our guidelines are actually very generous,” Berube said.
The limit for HEAP assistance is 60% of state median income.
“For a family of four, it’s $94,608,” Berube said. “Anybody who makes that amount of money would say, ‘No way, I’m not low income, this I’m sure is not for me.’”
That’s why this season, Berube said, the program has a new name in the state. While known nationally as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program or LIHEAP, in Massachusetts, the first two letters have been taken off.
“Somebody may just [not] think of themselves as low income,” Berube said. “We definitely wanted to cast that net to try to reach more people.”
Diamond said MASSCAP is expecting “about $144 million” from the federal government, which allows them to serve “about 150,000 households.”
If you heat with a deliverable like oil, Berube said you would receive “somewhere between $630 and $1,050,” and utility heating like electric would be “between $510 and $850,” depending on the number of people in your house and your gross income.
“To cover their home heating oil cost, for example, they’ll receive about $1,000, which is enough for a tank of home heating oil,” Diamond said. “Which, in New England, is not usually enough for the entire season, but it’s extremely helpful.”
Diamond said his organization had worked with legislators over the past 30 years not just to “help their constituents with fuel assistance,” but also to ask, when necessary, for a “state supplemental allocation,” when they “see that the federal dollar isn’t going to last the whole winter.”
“We, as the fuel assistance network, find it incumbent on ourselves to make sure that we talk with our legislators every year about the need for supplemental resources,” Diamond said. “What is also consistent every year is that we work with our legislators to make sure that everybody that needs fuel assistance gets it.”
Berube said once a client is approved, both the vendor and the client are notified of the amount for the winter season, and the vendor will send Citizens for Citizens the bill.
“We just don’t want people to go without, or stay cold, or choose between heating and eating or filling a prescription,” Berube said. “We definitely want people to access that if they’re eligible.”
HEAP applications opened on Oct. 1 for this heating season, which will last until April 30. Applications can be submitted online, by mail or in person at your area HEAP agency. More information about fuel assistance programs at Community Action Pioneer Valley can be found online at communityaction.us/sector/home-energy/.
James Buckser writes for the Greenfield Recorder from the Boston University Statehouse Program.