The state of Maine will not be able to open its emergency heating fuel program as planned on Nov. 1 due to the ongoing federal government shutdown, officials announced this week.
The Low Income Heating Emergency Assistance Program, also known as LIHEAP, provides a one-time payment to eligible households to help pay for a portion of that season's heating expenses. Regular LIHEAP payments are usually made directly to heating vendors for an eligible household's heating oil, propane, wood, natural gas or electricity.
Under LIHEAP, the state can also provide eligible households with emergency heating fuel assistance through its Energy Crisis Intervention Program, which served roughly 7,000 Maine households last year. The crisis program is meant to help households facing an imminent heating emergency.
The state usually receives LIHEAP funding through the federal government around this time of year, says MaineHousing's Erik Jorgensen.
But because the government is shut down, the state does not have money available to issue regular payments or emergency crisis assistance.
"Nothing else substitutes for this," Jorgensen said. "Like with so much of this shutdown, the people who are being hit hardest are the ones who can least afford it. They're older people; they're disabled people."
Jorgensen said it may take up to 30 days after the shutdown ends until federal heating assistance funds are available in Maine.
"There would definitely be a delay," he said. "Unfortunately, it's not like turning on a faucet."
Still, the housing authority is encouraging people to apply for benefits through their local community action agency. Community action program are still continuing to process LIHEAP applications, though the Maine Community Action Partnership said Thursday that agencies will pause administration of the program after Dec. 1.
The partnership said it fears that Mainers will be forced to use unsafe methods to stay warm if heating assistance is delayed through the coldest months of the year.
“The prolonged federal shutdown has created an environment where vulnerabilities are being pitted against one another,” Victoria Forkus, the partnership's executive director, said Thursday in a statement. “We believe every Mainer deserves to be warm, fed, housed and supported with dignity.”
