A faulty furnace has left Chris Eikenberg struggling through the winter to keep her house, two kids and a husband warm.
With space heaters blasting, a stoked fireplace and an electric stove providing the only sources of warmth, it wasn’t long before energy expenses easily exceeded the family’s income.
Now, like thousands of other Coloradans, the disabled 46-year-old former surgical nurse is relying on government help with the bills.
That help, however, is dwindling.
Federal dollars used to supplement state aid through the Low Income Energy Assistance Program, known as LIEAP, haven’t been allocated and Colorado officials say they are resigned to not getting them.
As a result of the $13.5 million loss in federal aid, state officials estimate they will drop the average energy-assistance grant to $202 this year from $545 in 2006.
For families like the Eikenbergs, who live in Pierce, just south of the Wyoming border in Weld County, it could be the difference in keeping the heat turned on.
“We’ve been behind since October and we pay what we can,” Eikenberg said. “We were hoping LIEAP was going to help us through it. Finances are tight and we really needed this.”
The Eikenbergs have a $681 three-month heating bill.
Congress last year supplemented each state’s LIEAP funding by several million dollars. Not so this year.
A bill before the House offers a total of $200 million nationally – just $360,000 for Colorado.
“Hope is beginning to fade,” said Liz McDonough, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Human Services, which runs the LIEAP program. “It’s just not enough.”
More than 107,000 families received LIEAP assistance in Colorado last year. Nationally, about 6 million families will be helped this year, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association.
Grants are based on income, and a family of four can’t earn more than $3,083 a month.
“When it comes to food or paying the utility bill, they’ll pay the bill first and go hungry,” said Jim White, community-affairs manager with the Volunteers of America.
The group’s Meals on Wheels program feeds about 1,800 homebound seniors averaging 87 years old, White said.
“They just can’t afford to have the heat turned off and will do without to stay warm,” he said.
The same is true of struggling younger families, according to Lisa Washington-Smith, a caseworker with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
“One client, a woman with three children, last year received more than $300 from LIEAP,” Washington-Smith said. “This year, it’s under $100. They’re in a tough place.”
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
