Funding Cuts May Leave Poor In The Cold North Idaho Group Uncertain How Much Feds Will Approve

With winter just around the corner, the North Idaho Community Action Agency doesn’t know how much money - if any - it will get this year to assist poor families with their heating bills.

“It’s never been like this before,” said agency director Gerald Garvey.

“This is all new. We don’t know what to expect.”

Federal cuts in programs administered by the state are worming their way through Congress, with decisions expected in December or January. Officials expect deep cuts or the death knell for some local aid.

A proposed 35 percent dip in the Department of Energy’s heating assistance program is now before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

All the money from NICAA’s heating program comes from DOE.

Last year, that program assisted with heating bills for just under 6,000 households in Idaho’s five northern counties between November 15 and March 31, said project coordinator Gary Domanski. Average assistance was $160 per home.

Funding for that Panhandle program ranged from $1.1 million in 1991 to about $848,000 in 1995.

“We certainly won’t be able to serve the population we have in the past - not the way we have in the past,” he said.

NICAA also has been told to prepare for a proposed 47 percent cut in funding for its weatherization program.

That project sends people to homes, apartments and trailers to install insulation, weather stripping or caulking.

Cuts in the weatherization program would not take effect until next year.

“We did 250 homes last year,” said Ann Swift, with NICAA.

When funding is cut, she said, aid goes only to those who are most unable to to do the work themselves - elderly, disabled people, or families with children.

State officials with the Bureau of Family Support Services are now kicking around ideas on how to handle the expected cuts, said the bureau’s Robyn Carlson.

Ideas range from raising the qualifying income threshold to spreading the aid a little thinner.

Raising the income level would squeeze out many seniors who aren’t at poverty level, but who still struggle, Garvey said.

“That’s the question,” Garvey said. “Give a little to a lot of folks or more to less folks.”

Utility ratepayers contribute to other programs that help others heat their homes.

Project Share, paid for in North Idaho by Washington Water Power and Kootenai Electric utility users, set aside $59,376 last year. That money is used solely for emergencies and helped more than 300 families, said project coordinator Margaret Belote.

“That’s for people with no money, no resources, who have done what they can to make negotiations with utilities,” she said.

Contributions to those voluntary programs are down about 16 percent said Susan Nielsen, Project Share coordinator with WWP.

“Traditionally, donations are highest during cold months, but we had a mild winter last year,” she said.

, DataTimes