The heat is on, but help falls short

Last winter, Stayci Bell paid more than $200 a month to heat her four-bedroom house in Coon Rapids. All things considered, her full-time job was enough to support her and her six kids at home. This year, though, uncertainty about the economy led her to seek help with her energy bill.

"Times are tougher this year," she said. "I just wanted to have that little help. Money is hard to stretch, and I didn't want to any threat of having my heat disconnected this winter."

The combined impact of volatile natural gas prices, historically high gasoline and grocery prices, and a conspicuously ailing economy has folks fearing the onset of winter, and increasingly seeking help.

The outlet Bell sought out is the federally funded, locally administered Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Minnesota's grant allocation has more than doubled from two years ago, to $164.2 million this year. Still, administrators say, the increase won't be enough to get all of the expected participants through the home heating season.

"The need is always going to be greater than what we can provide in assistance," said Bill Walsh, spokesman for the state Department of Commerce, which sets guidelines for the program.

LIHEAP offers energy grants to people whose household income is less than 50 percent of the state's median income, weighted for household size. The idea is to help at least some maintain heat and electricity in their homes -- for reasons of health and safety -- over the winter months.

As of Monday, 81,405 households statewide had submitted applications for the first-come, first-served assistance program, up about 20 percent from October 2006. During the last cold-weather season, the program served 126,000 households.

LIHEAP is funded by a federal block grant; the state sets the guidelines and leaves individual grant administration to 38 local Community Action Programs (CAPs). Starting Wednesday, the state Commerce Department began releasing funds to local CAPs, which sends grants directly to clients' utilities to pay down past-due balances or get ahead of the winter's bills.

Bell, who works at the Anoka County CAP, said she didn't want to take a chance on the economy. She expects to receive $301 in assistance over four months.

"I'd be left trying to pay the high energy costs all by myself, which in the real world is what's expected," Bell said, "but every now and then when the economy gets worse and worse but wages stay the same, your pride can't get in the way of asking for help."

With the additional monies available, state officials have increased the grant cap from $1,200 to $1,325 a year. The $500 average grant is expected to stay about the same. The hope, Walsh said, is to serve more Minnesotans, and make a slightly larger impact on utility bills.

Locally, administrators say, more people have requested applications for the first time, and have been getting their paperwork in earlier.

In Anoka County, Debbie Miller saw similar daily numbers; she also has seen a change in the people applying for help.

"It's everyone this year," she said. "We're seeing a lot more working families apply this year, beyond the fixed-income folks. ... They don't know what they're going to do. They're concerned because they can't make their money stretch to cover everything they need to have."

At the Scott-Carver-Dakota CAP, outreach director Susan Hilla said her staff is bracing for a torrent of applications at the end of the "grace period" granted by this year's temperate fall.

"We would have been twice as busy if the weather had been colder," she said.

Part of the challenge also is to help clients help themselves, arranging and staying on top of payment plans, and reducing their bills by using less energy.

Ruth Woodstrom of Andover, a LIHEAP client off and on since her husband died 20 years ago, recently received a smaller water heater and a high-efficiency furnace. Over the past two years, she's used the income freed up by her energy grant to purchase more energy-efficient windows for her 1940s-era home.

"I want to stay here," said Woodstrom, who recently turned 89. "What else can I do? I want to be independent. I've often wondered how I can thank them for what they've done for me."