For Cathy McCorkle, getting life-saving stent surgery was easier than getting financial help to replace her blown central air conditioner.
He suffered a heart attack in late July when temperatures were in the mid-90s in his hometown of Mount Holly, North Carolina. Its AC system has been up and running since spring. He, like 2,000 other state residents, is awaiting approval for aid through a community outreach program.
McCorkle, a 65-year-old retired school bus driver and cafeteria worker, said he couldn’t afford to spend $12,000 to replace the system on a fixed income of $2,200 a month. The unit also provides heat. So, as autumn and winter approaches, he is worried about the cold.
“I don’t have money to buy a new device and winter is coming,” he said. “I just don’t know what to do.”
Increasingly extreme and variable weather conditions have made air conditioning a more important utility for more consumers in various parts of the United States. Last weekend, for example, parts of normally mild San Diego soared to nearly 110 degrees, breaking decades-old records. This has forced aid groups to stretch their dollars further to help.
But many groups say federal budget cuts have tied their hands: As funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) was cut to $4.1 billion this fiscal year from $6.1 billion last year, nearly 1 million fewer households received assistance. Heating and cooling needs according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) and the Center on Energy Poverty and Climate.
Renewable funding for LIHEAP depends on: appropriations bill used to finance the government. If Congress, which faces a Sept. 30 deadline, instead passes a stopgap measure, the program would receive an appropriation that could fund it for six months or less. But LIHEAP administrators won’t know their total funding or full capacity for assistance until the full annual spending bill is passed, said Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA, which represents LIHEAP’s state administrators.
“There’s less money to help families pay their utility bills,” said Wolfe, who the group projects will see at least 3.5 million households face foreclosures this year. LIHEAP was originally created to help low-income residents stay warm during the winter, but advocates are calling for a restoration of more than $2 billion in additions from the CARES Act era and a $1 billion increase for emergency aid so that their coffers can be included. more commensurate with the changing climate. Average cost of cooling an American home from June to September It will be $719, which is about 8% more than last yearThe highest level in a decade, according to NEADA.
Brian Sarensen, who manages the program at the state Department of Commerce, said administrators in Washington state “still have people asking for AC.” But those requests aren’t expected: The program closed its doors on July 31, marking the first time in four years that Sarensen hasn’t worked year-round.
Washington, D.C., unlike, say, Phoenix, isn’t usually known for its scorching weather the temperature reached 100 degrees last week marked the 100th day. But last week saw a triple-digit heat wave descend on southwest Washington and parts of Oregon. Sarensen’s team wasn’t around to offer help.
“We had calls during our last heat wave and our agencies just don’t have the LIHEAP funding,” Sarensen said. “Pandemic funding is gone.”
Thanks to some creative budget strategies — such as changing the name of its subsidy from “cooling benefit” to “other emergency service” so residents can get AC sent in the fall when it’s cheaper — Sarensen said the program helped 91,000 households this fiscal year. . That’s up from nearly 100,000 the year before, with an additional $30 million from the CARES Act. Before that, it was about 65 thousand.
“It’s just the reality of running a program that can’t serve 100% of the eligible population, and every state is dealing with the same thing,” Sarensen said.
Agencies in North Carolina are also turning to other options to support their operations. When LIHEAP funding ran out for Blue Ridge Community Action — McCorkle applied for help replacing a central air conditioning unit — the group turned to the weatherization program included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. That process is also on hold, said Stephanie Ashley, the group’s executive director. The state’s energy department has re-adjusted state funding based on heating needs rather than the number of residents meeting income thresholds.
“We did the energy audit,” said Ashley, who estimates that about 560 households are on a waiting list for home weatherization assistance. “We have work orders. We are ready to go; we are just waiting to receive a signed contract from the state administration.”
LIHEAP administrators in many states cite rising temperatures as another reason why the program should be administered in the same way as a safety net program like Medicaid or SNAP. Unlike these so-called entitlements, LIHEAP funding can run out without helping everyone who is eligible. It also means that its effectiveness is more vulnerable to the political whims of Washington
“I don’t think there’s any appetite at the federal level to open up a federal law guaranteeing services in this particular political era,” Sarensen said. House Republicans hold the same narrow majority as they did during last year’s government funding negotiations, when they unsuccessfully tried to kill LIHEAP by 70%. as part of the plan “Stopping wasteful spending by Democrats”.
“Nothing will happen after the election,” Sarensen said.
What Vice President Kamala Harris nor does former President Donald Trump He mentioned direct utility or weather assistance in his campaigns for the White House. More than 3.4 million households claimed tax credits included in the Inflation Reduction Act to invest in home energy improvements. According to the US Department of the Treasurybut it also spread slowly, Wolfe said.
In the meantime, policymakers and utility regulators should consider other contingencies, such as implementing seasonal shutdown protections and expanding access to income-based utility rates, said Karen Lusson, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.
“Why, as a society, when we accept that access to utilities is essential to everyday life, do we continue to have policies that allow households to disconnect simply because they can’t pay the bill?” he added.