Rising gas prices bring worry

Advocates try to boost assistance programs for low-income consumers

Markeshia Ricks
Tuscaloosa News (AL)
July 21, 2003


With the price of natural gas going up and the economy still down, advocates for the poor are trying to make sure the budgets for their utility assistance programs don’t disappear.

“What most people don’t understand is that our client base has yet to recover from last winter’s bills," said Louis Barnett Jr., executive director of Community Service Programs of West Alabama Inc. “This increase only serves to worsen the situation for the elderly, those with disabilities and the working poor."

Last week, Alagasco, Alabama’s largest natural gas supplier, warned its 460,000 customers to expect higher heating bills this winter, while the Community Action Association of Alabama was lobbying members of Congress for additional funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

Community Service Programs of West Alabama, the local arm of the CAA, administers LIHEAP in West Alabama.

LIHEAP provides money to help low-income families pay home heating and cooling costs. Right now it is funded at $2 billion through fiscal year 2004, up from $1.7 billion the year before.

But anti-poverty activists are asking Congress for $3.4 billion for the 2004 fiscal year in anticipation of higher energy costs this winter and a continued economic slump that has forced more families to seek help from local social services agencies.

During the summer, CSP helps about 3,000 people obtain basic assistance with paying utilities, and an additional 900 whose services have been turned off or are under threat of being disconnected, Barnett said.

“The problem will be compounded and add more of a hardship to those who can least afford the increase," he said. “We will have to scrounge around for a way to help people."

In March, Alagasco increased its rates by more than 13 percent to offset an increase in natural gas prices, but the impact has yet to be felt by customers because gas usage during the summer is low.

Alagasco’s Tuscaloosa division serves about 38,000 people in Tuscaloosa, Pickens, Greene and Hale counties.

The company administers its own customer assistance programs, but a company spokesman could not provide exact numbers on how many people use those programs.

“We don’t keep track of the people who use the program, and we often refer them to other people for assistance," said Alagasco spokesman André Taylor. “But, speaking from general observation, we haven’t seen a great deal of fluctuation overall in the number of people using our assistance programs. It has been pretty much the same in the last few years."

But advocates at other assistance agencies in Tuscaloosa County tell a different story.
Karen Thompson, a social worker with Temporary Emergency Service of Tuscaloosa, said her agency doesn’t receive LIHEAP money, but more money for that program would mean less strain on TES’s assistance program.

“We get 50 to 75 phone calls a week about assistance with utility bills, but with the economy being so bad, our normal donations are at an all-time low," she said. “Any more funding the agency that administers that program can get is good for us because then the people they help won’t be calling us."

Thompson said she’s seen more people applying for utility and other assistance programs in the past few years because of the struggling economy.

“If programs like LIHEAP don’t receive more funding, it will put many individuals under a tremendous burden," she said. “These programs benefit many seniors who have fixed incomes. They have to have air and heat ó it’s hard when you don’t know what to anticipate."

Barnett said the flagging economy has brought a different type of clientele through the doors of Community Service Programs, which serves Tuscaloosa, Greene, Hale, Bibb, Fayette and Lamar counties.

“We are seeing more folks entering the system that have lost their jobs through downsizing or taking jobs at reduced pay," he said. “If we don’t get more funding, we might have to decrease the awards we make to people."

Barnett said awards are made based on a variety of criteria like income, age, disability and whether a person or family is about to lose or has lost service.