It’s beginning to get cold. That has to with La Nina or El Nino or La Bamba or J-Lo or something like that, but the fact is that it’s beginning to get cold.
If you have plenty of money as it’s beginning to get cold, God-love-ya and please go back to thinking about becoming a TAX-AIDE volunteer; if you don’t have a lot of money as it’s beginning to get cold, or you know someone who is in that unenviable situation, please stay with me.
There is a program that can help folks without a lot of money as it gets cold, and it’s called LIHEAP (pronounced “LieHeep,” and it stands for “Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program,” but I can’t imagine why you’d care). What it does is help you pay for your home heating costs – Interested? Good! Here we go:
LIHEAP, which is available in both Clallam and Jefferson counties, can provide anywhere from $25 to $1,000 toward those costs, depending upon your income, etc, so let’s start there. Let’s say that you’re Mom, Dad and two kids – Your monthly income has to be at or below $2,328; for a couple, $1,532 or if you’re just you, $1,134 – There’s a scale that runs up to a household of nine, but you get the drift.
By the way, if you live in Jefferson County and are a customer of Puget Sound Energy Company, PSE has their own “Energy Help Fund.” To get in the ballpark for that, for a family of four, income at or below $2,794; for a couple, $1,839 and for just you, $1,361. And FYI: The PSE Help Fund opens in Jefferson County again after the LIHEAP money is gone, so there’ll be more help available down the way – The two programs do NOT run concurrently. OK so far? Good – Hang in there.
The “season” for LIHEAP began ten days ago, on November 1st. It’s run by Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP) for both counties. Here’s what you do: Get on a computer and go to http://www.olycap.org/ and click on the thermostat, then go from there. No computer or don’t get it or whatever (maybe because it’s getting cold and you’re shivering)? OK, in the Port Townsend area, call 385-2571; in Forks, call 374-6193 on a Monday and in Port Angeles/Sequim, call 452-4726 between 1:00-4:00 p.m. on Tuesday or between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. on Thursdays.
Depending upon how the funding goes, OlyCAP will open a January calendar for appointments in December, so if at first you don’t succeed…
TIME OUT: Some of us are familiar with LIHEAP because it’s gotten cold before and we haven’t had a lot of money before. In the past, we had to mail in stuff, which then sat in a huge pile because a lot of folks without a lot of money were getting cold, then nothing happened for LONG time, because the pile was so big, so the utility companies became unpleasant and turned things off and things got worse and colder and…BUT! OlyCAP, to their credit, has figured that out, so those days are gone; now, it’s sit-down-with-a-person, 1:1 appointment, so things get done when they need to get done.
Obviously, there could be another problem: How do I get to a 1:1 appointment with a person if I’m “home bound?” Good question. Here’s OlyCAP’s good answer: Beginning December 1st, they’ll come to you, if need be, if you are an Elder, a person with a disability or a family with children under the age of six; down the road, they’ll be locating themselves strategically hither-and-yon around the Peninsula, to make the seemingly impossible, doable.
Good for them.
Now, not for the faint of heart, here’s how things go in my head: “OK, it’s cold and I don’t have a lot of money, and it looks like I might qualify for these things. I’ve actually managed to get an appointment that I can actually make and I’ve actually figured out a way to get there; so, I walk in, sit down and find out that I don’t have some magic piece of paper, so I’m…unhappy!” Right. Not good. Here’s what you actually need to have:
Bring proof of income for anyone in the household who’s 18 or better, or if that anyone is still in high school, bring a school ID. If you’re a member of a Tribe, bring a letter from the Tribe saying that your application for Tribal LIHEAP is denied. Bring ID for everyone in the household! – Driver’s license or photo ID or passport or birth certificate.
Bring a current utility bill that has the account #, with your name and address on it. If you’re renting and heat is included in the rent, bring a copy of the rental agreement or lease. If you’re primary heat source isn’t electric (or in Jeffco with PSE, natural gas), you’re going to have to provide some kind of proof of residency.
Now, go back to the part about going to http://www.olycap.org/ and clicking on the thermostat: There’s a form there that you can print or look at that spells out everything I just said, in a bit more detail, OK?
Can I absolutely guarantee that everything will go perfectly? No. Can I promise you that OlyCAP will have enough money to help everybody that needs help? Of course not. Can I assure you that you’ll be able to get an appointment exactly when you need or want it? Not on this planet, but here’s what I can assure you of:
These are good folks who are honestly trying to help, and if you’re cold and without a lot of money, it’s worth a shot. Doing nothing won’t make it any warmer.
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