FUEL ASSISTANCE FIX NEEDED - EDITORIAL

THE LIGHTS and gas could be shut off in the homes of thousands of Massachusetts families who can't afford to pay their utility bills. Instead of leaving these families in the dark, state and federal officials should provide fast financial relief.

The problem started last year when Congress began handing out fuel assistance funds. Formally known as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), this program might also be called Barely Making It, because Massachusetts got $127 million for the winter of 2005-06, but only $81 million for the winter of 2006-07. Similarly, state officials put up $20 million for fuel assistance in 2005-06. But this past winter the state investment was zero.

These cuts had a damaging ripple effect: This winter, the highest grant an eligible family could get was $687, far less than the high of $1,049 they had gotten the year before. Rising fuel costs and weeks of cold February weather made the problem worse. Some 8,000 families in Boston, Brookline, and Newton alone could have their utilities shut off, according to ABCD, the local anti poverty agency, losing lights, stoves, and hot water. The fear is that some of these families will become homeless, creating an even larger, more expensive problem.

Now phones are ringing with calls for help. One single mother of three children trying to pay off $2,600 in overdue charges had negotiated a repayment plan. But since then she has been laid off from her job. Other families have utility bills of $500, $1,300, and $1,900, says an angry John Drew, ABCD's executive vice president, who charges that officials ignored warnings that this crisis was coming. Such stories of cascading debt are distressingly familiar. A single financial upset can topple eligible families -- those who earn 200 percent of the federal poverty line or less, or $40,000 a year for a family of four.

State officials can help by releasing emergency funds -- possibly in an upcoming supplemental budget. And federal officials should restore some of the $46 million that Massachusetts didn't get this year. But even this extra money would only be enough to pay part of the overdue bills. These low-income families would still have to set up and manage repayment plans -- a tough task, unless their finances dramatically improve.

The country needs a better approach. Fuel assistance should be more adequately and predictably funded. And more government programs should help families prosper, using comprehensive programs that stretch over three to five years and help adults get more education, better jobs, greater financial literacy, and even help buying homes. The goal should be to manage the crisis, then take steps to prevent it from recurring.

-Adapted from: GLOBE EDITORIAL “ For thousands, a dark future”, May 21, 2007, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/05/21/for_thousands_a_dark_future/

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