Some $3.6 billion in funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program was released Friday, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, thus marking an end to a delay in fuel assistance funds since the federal government shutdown.
“This release of LIHEAP funding is essential and long overdue,” Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA, told the Associated Press. “Families can finally begin receiving the support they need to keep the heat on as winter begins.”
States typically receive their allocations for LIHEAP, which helps millions of low-income households pay to heat and cool their homes, at the beginning of November.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the assistance program, has not yet issued a formal public announcement about resumption of the funding, but had said after the end of the government shutdown that one of its agencies would “work swiftly to administer annual awards.” However, Wolfe said state agencies told his organization they’ve received award letters from the Department of Health and Human Services, enabling them to begin distributing assistance to households.
Locally, the delay in funding has resulted in Community Action Pioneer Valley operating its fuel assistance program on an emergency-only basis.
“We are currently only allowed to serve heat emergencies while we wait for the federal government to release contract amounts and funding,” Community Action Pioneer Valley Executive Director Lev BenEzra said in a Nov. 19 statement. The agency’s website said a post around that time that regular benefits were expected to be available in four to six weeks.
The social service organization defines a heating emergency as having no fuel source (oil, propane/LPG, kerosene, wood, pellets, coal) available or being within three days of running out; having less than one-eighth of a tank of oil/kerosene or less than 20% of a tank of propane/LPG; or having received a shutoff notice for an electric or natural gas primary heat source.
According to BenEzra, the fuel assistance program at Community Action Pioneer Valley alone provides approximately $8 million, which keeps 10,000 families across Franklin and Hampshire counties warm during the winter.
Efforts to reach BenEzra on Friday following the announcement about the release of $3.6 billion in funding were unsuccessful.
On Nov. 20, Gov. Maura Healey joined the call in demanding that the Trump administration immediately release funding for LIHEAP, which typically helps more than 150,000 Massachusetts households.
“LIHEAP serves as a crucial lifeline for Massachusetts families and people across the country,” Healey said in a statement. “It’s bad enough that the Trump administration shut off funding for heating assistance, SNAP, Head Start and other essential safety net programs that people rely on during the shutdown. But now, with the government reopened, they are telling us that it’ll [take] more time to get LIHEAP funding flowing again. This is unacceptable, especially as the holidays approach and temperatures continue to plummet. President Trump needs to immediately release LIHEAP funding and not leave our families out in the cold.”
The Healey-Driscoll administration has been using leftover federal funding from last year to support households with heating emergencies until the LIHEAP funds could be released. In her letter to Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, Healey urged the Trump administration to promptly release the highest allowable amount of LIHEAP funding authorized, ensure that the program is fully staffed and operational so that states and community partners can implement their assistance plans without delay, and provide clear guidance and coordination to the states regarding timelines, eligibility and disbursement mechanisms.
During the 2024-2025 heating season, the Massachusetts Home Energy Assistance Program provided more than 159,000 Massachusetts households with financial assistance to heat their homes through the winter. The majority of those households, 54%, were seniors on a fixed income and approximately 11% of the households assisted have children under the age of 6, according to Healey’s office.
With friends and neighbors who rely on LIHEAP fuel assistance, Northfield resident Laura Fries recently took to the Nextdoor social media site to share resources.
“We’re just in a time when there’s a lot of upheaval at the federal level and when folks are living paycheck to paycheck or less than that, then the fear contributes to this difficulty in figuring out which resources you need,” Fries said.
Greenfield resident Kementari Whitcher, who used the same social media thread to spread the word about the state of Community Action’s fuel assistance, expressed concern for a friend who benefits from LIHEAP.
“There are few enough safety nets for people in need in our country anyway,” Whitcher said, “and having the shutdown and having [fuel assistance] affected and having [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] affected is just so offensive when basically they’re just giving tax breaks to the wealthiest people among us and letting the people who are most in need just twist out there in the wind with no support.”
Mentioning “cruel public policies and neglect,” Whitcher said she wants people “to hear a voice that’s standing up for the people in need.”
“I want people who are caring and care about their neighbors to speak up,” she said, “and let people know that we are the majority.”
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.