Poor families left out in the cold

Staff Writer

As temperatures dip into the single digits this weekend, nearly 2,000 poor Pike County households may be left without heat.

A Pike County program that helps low-income families pay their heating bills has been out of money since last Thursday. But emergency money handed down by the state yesterday might help the situation.

The Big Sandy Community Action Program (BSCAP) is one of 23 agencies across the state responsible for dispersing low-income home energy program funds, said Executive Director Mike Howell. Most of the BSCAP offices serving the five counties — Pike, Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin and Martin — got 200 or more calls the day after funds run out, Howell said.

Energy Programs Director Dan McKenzie of Community Action Kentucky said the reason why 18 of the 23 programs are out of funds is two-fold. The program has received more than $20 million each of the past three years, McKenzie said, compared to the nearly $7.5 million in federal funding this year.

“The other side is the more need with the economic situation as higher prices for fuel, food and medicine all combined pose economic difficulty for people already poor,” McKenzie said.

According to BSCAP Communication Representative Dwayne Davis, nearly 2,000 fewer Pike Countians were helped this year versus last year during the Crisis Component of the heating program, which began Jan. 3.

The statistics from Phase I, which runs from November through December, show there is similar need this year among Pike Countians as last as the program took 2,663 applications in 2007, paying out $292,292 and 2,747 applications in 2006, assisting with $312,998.

“The president will release $450 million, but Kentucky will only get $2 million of that,” Howell said, adding HB 153 is asking the Kentucky General Assembly to kick in additional funding. “We don’t know if it will pass or how long it will take. I hope it does as there has been a lot of people we have had to turn away because we didn’t have any more money.”

Introduced into the House Jan. 8, HB 153 would declare an emergency and appropriate $10 million from the natural gas severance tax receipts for the General Fund in fiscal year 2007-2008 to support the program. The Kentucky Legislature Web site shows the bill is currently with the Appropriations and Revenue Committee.

In the meantime, Gov. Steve Beshear authorized emergency funding of $7.1 million Thursday for the program. The funding was made per the request of Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which disburses the funds to Community Action Kentucky, a press release stated.

Even with funding on the way at the federal level, it doesn’t give those in need of assistance a time frame in which they can expect relief.

“It’s one thing for the president to announce release and another when it will work through the bureaucratic process to get to us,” McKenzie said, adding the money is so far short of what has been traditionally appropriated that the agencies may still fall short of meeting the need. “We’ve got our fingers crossed and it looks like this weekend is really gonna be tough with temperatures dipping into the single digits.”

Last year Community Action Kentucky served 120,000 homes in the state of Kentucky and at an average of 1,000 per county and three to five per home, the number amounts to several thousand people per county.

“We want to get the word out to folks as to why our offices are closed, as some are frustrated, scared and they don’t know what to do,” McKenzie said, adding as a native Eastern Kentuckian he feels the pain.

“We will be announcing we have funding,” Howell said about when BSCAP actually gets the money.

Pike Countians can apply for energy assistance at the BSCAP office on Town Mountain Road near the Log Cabin Restaurant.