Warm fall weather Thursday belied a sense of chilling urgency as more than 300 Coloradans flocked to an exposition on low-income energy assistance.
Agencies that provide money for utility-bill help said demand for assistance this winter will be at record levels, even as budgets for the programs stay flat or go down.
Unless new financial sources are found, the federally funded Colorado Low Income Energy Assistance Program will drop its average annual payment from $366 last year to $300 this winter.
Xcel Energy has estimated that typical gas and electric residential bills this winter will be about $235 a month.
“I just don’t know what to expect,” said Connie Mullins, 55, an east Denver resident who applied for energy assistance for the first time Thursday. “My house is always so cold in the winter. I’m in an old house that really sucks up the heat.”
Mullins recently completed radiation and chemotherapy for lung cancer and will be unable to work until next summer.
Her Social Security disability payments won’t become effective for several more weeks, leaving her with no income and the expectation of record- high utility bills.
Mullins said she felt better about her prospects after being counseled by one of several dozen city, county and state workers at the exposition.
The staffers, sitting behind a phalanx of folding tables in the Denver Human Services building at 1200 Federal Blvd., offered advice in English and Spanish on how to fill out applications for financial assistance.
For Lakewood retiree Steve Dolce, winter signals the season in which he will have to make tough decisions on where to cut his budget – from food, clothing, medical care or utility costs.
“I’m going to have to make ends meet, but I sure don’t know how I’m going to do it,” said Dolce, 75.
The utility bill for his Lakewood mobile home in February was $192.
Even though he has weatherized the home, he expects winter bills this year to be well above $200 a month.
“I get $856 a month in Social Security, and that’s not going to go very far with heating bills going up so much,” Dolce said.
Last year, the energy assistance program distributed about $46 million to approximately 96,000 qualified Colorado households.
But last year’s funding included an emergency appropriation of $10 million from the state of Colorado.
Program officials don’t know if the state will offer a similar amount this year, and efforts to increase the federal program’s $2.2 billion budget – of which Colorado receives $30 million – so far have failed in Congress.
“All we know right now is that we’re pretty far from having the resources to meet the needs,” said Glenn Cooper, director of the assistance program.
A separate program, Energy Outreach Colorado, distributes money raised from donations to 90 agencies in Colorado that work with qualified low-income households.
So far, the program is facing a $2.5 million shortfall in its $7 million budget, said Skip Arnold, executive director of Energy Outreach Colorado.
“This winter is shaping up as a catastrophe for many Colorado families,” Arnold said.
Staff writer Steve Raabe can be reached at 303-820-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com.
