Return to Current Issue

People are not going to be able to pay it," said Lillian Drummond, leader from the South Austin neighborhood in Chicago. Drummond works with a program through South Austin Coalition Community Council (SACCC) that helps people get their heating reconnected.

Illinois law prevents power companies from shutting off people during the winter months. People who were disconnected this autumn start the winter in a potentially life threatening situation.

Bobby Bennett Norman of the Energy Advocacy Council in Springfield, Illinois and former Chicago energy organizer says that 85 percent of all low-income people pay their energy bills. "The real question is-at what sacrifice. What is going by the wayside?"

"Low-income households spend twice as much of their income on energy as any other household," affirmed Michael Karfan, a spokesman for the US Department of Health and Human Services. According to Drummond people who get their heat cut off try to warm up with space heaters, kerosene or hot plates - all of which are fire hazards. A woman in Chicago died in an early October snowstorm because her space heater caught her couch on fire.

Laura Dungan of Sunflower Community Action in Wichita also tells of a family who died in the winter of 1998. The children were doing their homework by candlelight because the electricity was shut off. "The whole place went up."

Yet despite the dangers there is very little organizing being done on the energy issue now.

One reason is lack of funding. "It's not that we're not hearing about it from our folks," said Laura Dungan. "People have huge bills and they're already struggling . We just don't have staff to pursue it right now." Dungan cited a lack of funding and a focus on other priorities.

"It was one of the big issues [for NPA groups] 15 years ago," said Bennett, who was involved in deregulation deals in Illinois. But lately, she said, "There hasn't been many dollars going into it."

Diane Rundquist of Michigan Organizing Project says that it's partly the cushion of past wins in her part of the state that are staving off serious hardship in the neighborhoods. "We won an agreement with our gas company that they have to work with people based on their ability to pay - not based on what they want people to pay." The program has been pretty successful. "It [the rising energy cost] hasn't been an issue other than gasoline prices."

Phil Prehn of Syracuse United Neighbors also said that they were getting complaints from community members with skyrocketing bills. But he also says that "we've had this problem for many years . people live in 100 year old, large, wood-framed houses, not in good repair, not well insulated."

LIHEAP has earmarked extra federal money for people living at 150 percent of the poverty level. However each state creates its own cut off for federal energy assistance, and some states have set the bar lower. Illinois for example has set the cutoff at 125 percent. LIHEAP is administered completely by state and local agencies. Unlike other forms of assistance you don't have to already be shut off to qualify. Except for issuing warnings through the local press and releasing some extra funds the Department of Health and Human Services has no nationwide plan to address the problem. It is up to the states to ask the President to release emergency funds.

But often people only call for help when they are already in crisis, says Drummond. She usually sees applicants for assistance after they've been switched off. Some programs only target the most needy. "[Niagra Mohawk's] affordability program is for people with high cumulative back debt and negative cash flow," said Prehn. "The really last resort."

"We are totally energy dependent in this country," said Bennet Norman. She says that funding relief is important but doesn't begin to address the problem of affordable energy. "Housing stock needs to be more energy efficient," she says and notes that cooling is as important as heating. "You have a product in this country that gives life and without it people die.

"People have to have a crisis sometimes to get the ball really rolling," said Dungan.