GLOBE EDITORIAL: WARDING OFF THE COLD

Despite a couple of mild days, temperatures this winter have been cold overall. Home heating prices are high. Thousands of poor Massachusetts families can't afford to pay their heating bills. They need more state and federal help, both now and in the long term. "It's getting desperate," says Robert Coard, president of ABCD, a local antipoverty agency, pointing to high oil prices and weather that has been colder than normal.

Among those who need help are elderly and disabled residents on fixed incomes. Others are low-wage workers. To make ends meet, they may put up with the cold, run space heaters that can cause fires, or spend less on food or medicine in order to spend more for heat.

There is some relief. Through LIHEAP, the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, states get money to keep radiators and furnaces going. This winter, Massachusetts has $91 million in LIHEAP funding. And in November, the state Legislature added another $15 million. From this pool, 140,000 needy families have gotten as much as $865 to pay their heating bills.

Sadly, this isn't enough.

Take the plight of heating oil users. Given prices of more than $3 per gallon, they'll have to spend $2,800 to $3,200 to stay warm through the winter, according to John Wells, the vice president of energy and real estate at ABCD, which distributes LIHEAP funds. This cost is a big jump from past years. Many families have no way to come up with the money.

Other residents are juggling overdue utility bills. By state law, they'll be able to keep their gas and electricity service through the winter. But if they fall too far behind on their payments, they could lose these services in the spring, according to Charlie Harak, a lawyer at the National Consumer Law Center.

While additional federal funds have been released, LIHEAP also needs a major overhaul. It's current $2 billion in funding is about the same amount that the program had in 1986. Because of inflation, this money buys a lot less than it did two decades ago.

Massachusetts must also act. Even though it's cold here every winter, there is no line item in the state budget for fuel assistance. There should be. Having state funding in place before winter starts would make it easier to anticipate how much fuel assistance families would receive.

-Adapted from: “Warding off the cold”, Globe Editorial, The Boston Globe, January 8, 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/01/08/warding_off_the_cold/

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