Here’s a brief overview of the income guidelines for most typical families:

For information on larger families, or for other Fuel Assistance related inquiries, please call our offices at (508) 676-7397 or (508) 676-7398

Joe Silvia, director of Citizens for Citizens Heating Assistance Program, reviews the completed project at the home of Kevin Cabral in Somerset. The homeowner said he would not have been able to pay for the project except for the CFC program.

FALL RIVER — Over the past 28 years, Citizens for Citizens has serviced 301,471 area clients through its Fuel Assistance Program—spending approximately $175 million in the area to ensure families will be able to pay their home heating bills during the winter months.

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) — best known as fuel assistance, provides states with grants to help low income families pay their heating and in some states cooling bills.

It is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Administration for Children and Families. LIHEAP has been in existence for the past 28 years, providing financial assistance for home heating, energy crisis intervention and is the gateway to many other energy related programs, such as weatherization and the heating system repair program.

LIHEAP funds currently help over 5 million households nationwide and approximately, 130,000 households in the state of Massachusetts.

Citizens For Citizens, Inc. has operated the fuel assistance program since its origin. Through technology and automation, fuel assistance has matured into a very systematic and regimented program that was once a “first-come first serve” type of program.

Liz Berube, the CFC Fuel Assistance Program director, recalls that in the early 80s, potential clients would line up down Griffin Street at the wee hours of the morning to get an appointment for assistance.

She said in the 1970s, clients who were not eligible for fuel assistance in the could receive a thermal blanket for protection against the cold.

The director stated: “Funding in the early years had been somewhat adequate in relation to actual energy costs, and in fact, clients could actually divide benefits to be paid between both gas and electric. Unfortunately, program funding has not kept up with the rapid increase in energy prices now preventing the program to pay for anything but the primary heat source and in many instances, benefits only allow us to pay for a small portion of a client’s winter bills.”

Ms. Berube said that currently, CFC services approximately 13,000 households in a given year of which 41 percent are 60 years old and half of CFC’s fuel assistance clients receive Social Security benefits. She noted that 29 percent are clients who represent the working poor and only 10 percent represent those who are receiving some type of public assistance.

CFC’s fuel assistance services area Fall River, Somerset, Swansea, Berkley, Dighton, Freetown, Westport Lakeville, Rehoboth, Seekonk, Taunton.

Ms. Berube noted that during the early 1980s, the fuel program extended its services for two years to cover the Greater New Bedford area as well.

She said, “CFC has maintained a positive working relationship with the social service agencies in our entire service area and continue to work hand in hand trying to ensure that all potentially eligible clients apply for assistance.”

Ms. Berube noted that while LIHEAP is primarily intended to help defray the cost of heat during the winter months (Nov. 1 through April 30), additional programs have come and gone through the years in which eligibility was specifically for those eligible fuel assistance clients.

She stated, “Massachusetts funded a Low Income Sewer and Water Program in which CFC administered on the behalf of homeowners. The homeowners actually received a small stipend paid directly to the city/town water and sewer department to help defray the high cost of water and sewerage. Unfortunately, with state budget cuts, this program has been eliminated.”

She noted that another program operated by CFC in years past, was the “Cooling Program.” In the late 1980s and early 90s, this cooling program was established to reduce the threat of someone dying due to extreme heat. CFC was awarded funds to purchase air conditioners and fans that were distributed to the elderly and the vulnerable population; households with individuals with disabilities and those with children under the age of 3.

In the late 1990s, this program was born again, but this time CFC made payments directly to electric companies on behalf of the most vulnerable population assuming client’s electric usage would double with the use of fans and air conditioners.

Currently, CFC manages a small program for eligible fuel assistance clients called “LASER” in which the prime objective is to help families not now part of the “system” of energy related services to achieve energy independence, and become economically self-sustaining.

A caseworker provides instruction and support for clients to better manage their day-to-day finances, plan for future needs and make good energy use decisions. Through a structured program of economic development for families, LASER maximizes the impact of existing resources, while it creates a sustainable framework for coordination among utilities, energy programs and community based service providers.

Services provided can include referrals for medical care, housing advocacy, childcare, job training, lowering credit card debt, food and protection from utility shutoffs. CFC also offers “free income tax” preparation to these clients to save them the cost of a paid preparer while assuring that all allowable deductions and tax credits have been incorporated on the return.

Fuel Assistance clients are responsible to document the entire household’s gross income by providing proof of income for a minimum of 4 weeks but not to exceed 52 weeks. Clients must also provide copies of a heating and electric bill as well as proof of identity.

Currently, applications are done by an intake worker who enters client demographic data into a fuel assistance website available only at CFC’s two intake sites. Any potential client who does not wish to apply at one of our CFC sites, can apply for assistance at our city/town council on aging or in some instances veteran sites. Area Council on Aging sites have continued to accept applications at their senior citizen drop-in centers and forward all applications to CFC for determination of eligibility. They have been and continue to be a great asset to the fuel assistance network.

Working hand-in-hand with all our local community agencies allows us to maximize the benefits available to our clients.

Once a client applies, he/she will receive written notification of eligibility or of a denial. Vendors are also notified of clients who are eligible and the amount of assistance awarded to each individual household.

CFC has vendor agreements with all of the area’s major gas, electric, oil, propane, kerosene and wood companies. Payments are made directly to the vendors on behalf of clients once billing is received. There are a small number of clients who are eligible for some type of assistance if their heat is included in rent and are not living in any type of subsidized housing.

In the early days of fuel assistance, all paperwork, i.e. client applications, notices and payments were done manually. Due to computerization, all of the manually done tasks have become automated. There are also many fringe benefits for clients who are approved for fuel assistance. Not only do clients have part of the winter’s heating bills paid, but are eligible for a phone discount and in many cases a discount on the already high electric bill.

Although, the fuel program is considered an “assistance” program, and is not intended to pay the entire winter or annual heating costs for eligible households, our clients find it impossible to keep up with the bills not covered by our program. Eligibility is based on total household gross income, family size and vulnerability to heating costs. Benefits are dependent on the federal budget allocation for a given year.

In some years, Massachusetts has also contributed to the federal funding allocation for fuel assistance.

Ms. Berube is chairperson of the Massachusetts Energy Directors Association, and an activist fighting on behalf of most vulnerable clients in a yearly battle to restore State funding for fuel assistance by testifying at our State House.

As a member of the committee that meets quarterly with the Department of Public Utilities (the department that regulates the non-municipal utility companies), she hears real life stories of clients and continue to advocate on their behalf.

She is also a member of the Department of Housing & Community Development’s LIHEAP advisory committee that allows me to address issues from both an administrative and client perspective.

Ms. Berube commented:

“Even though the program has been simplified throughout the years, my staff and I continue to see thousands of desperate individuals and families who are looking to us for miracles. With the high cost of rent, insurance and food, they barely have enough money to pay the electric and heating bills.

“There are thousands of elderly households in Massachusetts and more specifically in the Greater Fall River and Taunton area, who have served their country and have worked their entire lives only to be living on menial fixed incomes trying tirelessly to make ends meet, whether it means not filling a prescription or skipping a meal. This is reality. Each time the phone rings we hear panic from our elders and families that do not have other resources to tap into.

“I truly believe that LIHEAP is a life saving program by preventing low income elderly and the working poor from choosing between staying warm, eating, housing, clothing and medicine. No one should be forced to choose between the basic needs of life to survive and we at Citizens For Citizens, Inc. take pride in making sure this does not happen! I am proud to be the fuel assistance director here at Citizens For Citizens, Inc. and will continue to play an active role on the improvement and continuation of this much needed program.”