Heating Assistance Takes Dramatic Federal Cut

{Frankfort, Kentucky}...Tens of thousands of low-income Kentucky families could be without heating assistance this winter because of a dramatic cut in federal funding. The federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, has allocated $24 million to Kentucky. With $3 million left over from last year, Kentucky has about $27 million for the program. For the past two years, the state had been allocated about $60 million and had used almost all of it each year. The program has two parts. Millions are allocated to families during a subsidy phase that helps all eligible households at or below 130 percent of federal poverty guidelines. Whatever money is left from the subsidy phase is used to assist families with a heating crisis. In 2010, the state spent $16.2 million assisting 113,900 families with subsidies. It then spent $41.7 million helping more than 190,000 families in crisis. Mark Cornett, a state deputy commissioner overseeing the Department for Community Based Services, which supervises LIHEAP for the state, says it appears that, with the funding level, very little will be left over for crisis.