Another Voice / Winter
State is working to offset high home heating costs
It’s no secret that difficult economic times have hard-working New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet. Everyone is feeling the pain of rising prices at the supermarket and at the gas pump. But the worst may be yet to come, as record-high home heating prices are expected this winter.
That’s why New York, under Gov. David A. Paterson, is already hard at work preparing to minimize the impact of the pending crisis for low-income families this winter. The governor has pledged to do all he can to make sure New York’s families do not freeze when it gets cold, and plans to work with the Legislature during a special economic session Tuesday on steps to curtail the rising costs of home heating.
Earlier this summer, Paterson convened the leaders of numerous state agencies, including myself, for a first-ever winter fuels summit. This meeting was held in recognition that New York residents use more home heating oil than those of any other state in the nation, and that record-breaking prices for heating oil and natural gas could go even higher.
The state’s central tool for addressing this crisis is the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP), which assists income-eligible households in meeting their home energy needs. Eligible families can receive a regular benefit and, if necessary, emergency benefits. While the program does not open until Nov. 3, New Yorkers can go to our website, www.otda.state.ny.us/main/heap , to find more information. When the HEAP season opens, they’ll be able to go to our new state website, myBenefits. ny.gov, to do a simple pre-screening and find out if they’re eligible for HEAP (and, while they’re at it, food stamps, the earned income tax credit, and free school meals for their kids).
In light of concerns about the coming winter, we’ve already made several changes to the HEAP program:
• We’ve increased the maximum regular HEAP benefit to $585, up nearly 8 percent from this past winter. We’ve increased eligibility levels to the maximum permitted under law. For example, this year a family of four can earn as much as $45,312 and be eligible for a HEAP benefit — up from $43,308 last winter.
• We’re waiving the requirement that people apply for HEAP in person, in cases where that may present a hardship.
HEAP is a federally-funded program, and properly so, as the cost of energy is a national problem that requires a national solution. But as things currently stand, funding for New York State would be considerably lower than last year, under the president’s budget. The funding proposed by the president would leave us about $250 million short of what we need to meet the likely heating needs of New Yorkers this winter. The president and Congress must double last year’s level of HEAP funding as soon as possible.
David A. Hansell is commissioner of the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.
