Two changes coming to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program this fall.
UCHRA Deputy Director LaNelle Godsey said the LIHEAP program helps low income people pay for electricity, natural gas, and propane. Godsey said the program start date has been pushed back a month from October to November. Godsey said the program also now requires users to have an email address.
“All of the COVID contracts went 1away. so that lowered the amount of LIHEAP funds that are available,” Godsey said. “So, I think this is a time where THCA just looked at the LIHEAP program as a whole, looked at what changes needed to be made. Any changes they wanted to make going into the future.
Godsey said there should not be a gap in services for people already enrolled in the program. Godsey said it will still take about 90 days to start recieving benefits.
Godsey said the decision to push the LIHEAP year back a month had to do with some changes to the program. Godsey said work with the federal government, among concerns about ensuring efficiency were factors in the delay.
“We would still be sending out any payments so that folks that had enrolled in the program and were approved, we would be sending that out in that month of October,” Godsey said. “We would be closing out our program year from 2025 and getting ready, training our staff on the changes, and getting ready to start that November 1 to start recieving applications.”
Godsey said the program’s swap to exclusively digital correspondence is an effort to get more with the trend of going paperless. Godsey said she is aware that many people in the program did not have email addresses before, so they could struggle adapting.
As a result, Godsey said people without email addresses need to ask for assistance when it comes to hearing from the LIHEAP program.
“We know that there could be some seniors out there that don’t have email addresses,” Godsey said. “So the first thing I think folks would want to do is, is there a family member that you trust? Is there a family member that assists you that would allow you to use their email address so that you could look for information and correspondance from the LIHEAP program?”
Godsey said people without access to an email address should contact their local UCHRA office for help setting up an email. Godsey said she does not want seniors to miss out on benefits because of the inability to access an email.
