Newberg Graphic Online

Help available with energy bills for local households

Energy costs — Informational meeting to be held Thursday afternoon at Adult Enrichment Center by YCAP

• By: Amanda Newman  
• Published: 10/27/2009 5:01:28 PM
• Last Updated: 10/28/2009 8:57:11 PM

    Energy assistance is available for low-income Yamhill County households through YCAP (Yamhill Community Action Partnership), which is accepting applications for 2009-2010 LIHEAP payments.
    The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, formerly known as LIEAP, provides energy assistance to low-income households to help cover home heating costs. YCAP will discuss LIHEAP and its other energy assistance programs at an informational meeting at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Newberg Adult Enrichment Center, 101 W. Foothills Drive.
    Doug Bartlett, former director of YCAP, instigated the meeting after noting a lack of awareness of LIHEAP. He said energy assistance is particularly important because many low-income houses are heated by oil, which is expensive in the winter. But as LIHEAP, federally funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is distributed locally out of YCAP’s McMinnville office, he said, many people in Newberg don’t know about it or don’t realize how easily accessible it is.
    “I want as much federal money of our taxes to come back as possible,” Bartlett said. “We are in a negative situation in Oregon — we pay much more in taxes than we get back in service dollars.”
    He explained that he recently volunteered to make repairs in the home of a disabled man and his wife. The woman had always chopped wood for heating, but was now using a walker and unable to continue. They didn’t know about LIHEAP.
    The meeting will also cover two other energy assistance programs dispensed by YCAP: OEAP and OLGA. The Oregon Energy Assistance Program, for Portland General Electric customers only, is mostly given on an emergency basis to households with shut-off notices or no power. The Oregon Low-Income Gas Assistance program, exclusive to Northwest Natural Gas customers, is the smallest of the programs, but Northwest Natural customers are a minority in Yamhill County, explained Kraig Ludwig, manager of YCAP’s energy programs. He said 80 to 85 percent of their customers have electric heating, through PGE or McMinnville Water and Light.
    LIHEAP is YCAP’s biggest energy assistance program, Ludwig said. In the 2008-2009 fiscal year, which saw a 67 percent LIHEAP funding increase, the program served about 1,900 Yamhill County households with almost $817,000 of assistance. This year, he said, “We anticipate near or as much funding as we received last year.”
    Assistance ranges from $200 to $550, based on income, household size, and energy burden. To be eligible, applicants must have a household income at or below 60 percent of the state median. The application period began Oct. 1 for seniors and disabled people; general applications will be taken in December.
    Bartlett and Ludwig are encouraging all those interested in the program to attend next week’s meeting and learn what it’s all about.
    “Congress has recognized this program as being essential, because they realize heating is a safety concern,” Ludwig said, explaining that low-income households often find themselves choosing between heat, food, medicine and other essentials in the winter. “Health and safety is our biggest concern.”
    For a LIHEAP application, call 800-945-9992 ext. 140 or stop by the YCAP office at 800 N.E. Second St. in McMinnville.

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