LIHEAP, Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, is a program that helps households pay for their heating utilities bill over the winter time with a one time payment.  Households can apply for LIHEAP through the US Department of Health and Human Services and with the Federal Government shutdown and President Donald Trump firing the entire LIHEAP staff, delays and uncertainty have boiled over.

Abra Dougherty, Resource Development and Communications Coordinator with MICA, told KFJB that LIHEAP is complicated.  She says, “LIHEAP program year starts in Oct/Nov for services, but our contract year technically starts in December. In normal years, we get next contract years funding in November but we are still using up last years contract money through December. So, there is a bit of overlap for that funding.” She continues, “We are fine through December to process applications because we still have FY25 funding, which is normal. We just do not have the FY26 money to use when FY25 is done.  Now, payments made to utility vendors is completely reliant on federal funding, so those are delayed as of now.”

She says families that apply and are approved are protected by the moratorium which protects their utilities from being shut off.  Dougherty says MICA is running all services as normal through November.

Zach Tomesch, News Director KFJB