BRUNSWICK — With rising costs and decreases in federal heating assistance funding, the Midcoast Warm Thy Neighbor program is looking to raise around $20,000 for heating assistance through the end of this winter season.
Craig Phillips, interim executive director of Tedford Housing, which runs the heating assistance program, said that amount will allow the organization to serve the same number of households as last year.
According to information from the nonprofit organization, the program had helped 141 households and 331 individuals as of Feb. 8, providing $45,834 in heating assistance.
Last year, the organization provided $52,636 in assistance to 193 households, but Phillips said the increasing cost of fuel and propane is also raising the price tag on providing that level of help.
“Those funds are serving fewer people than last year,” Phillips said.
Deep cuts in federal fuel subsidies — through the Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) — this year exacerbate the problem. Maine is slated to receive $16 million less in LIHEAP funding this year than for the winter of 2010-11.
As a result, the program has experienced a steep increase in the number of “turn-aways” of people who applied for heating assistance. Last year, three applications were turned down. This year, the first full year of Tedford running the program, 12 applications have gone unfulfilled to date.
Warm Thy Neighbor was founded by Freeport resident Sarah L. O. Smith and supported by an area interfaith council prior to last year, when Tedford took on management of the program.
The trend of increasing turn-aways is matched in the two emergency shelters that the organization runs as well, Phillips said. So far this year, turn-aways at the organization’s shelter for individuals have increased by 9 percent. The number of turn-aways at Tedford’s family shelter has increased by 23 percent.
That doesn’t mean families do not receive help from Tedford, Phillips said, but that the organization is not able to house those people in units the organization owns on Federal and Union streets.
For more information about Tedford or the Warm Thy Neighbor program, call 729-1161 or visit www.tedfordhousing.org.
news@timesrecord.com
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