Record numbers seek heating aid

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By Michael Drost

D.C. residents are applying for help to pay their utility bills in record numbers, and there may be worse to come: Heating costs are forecast to rise up to 23 percent this winter.

D.C. resident Michelle Williams, a single mother of two, said Wednesday that she asked for help when her utility bills — including air conditioning — increased to more than $200 a month.

"They just got higher and higher, and it's only October so it's not going to get any better. I just couldn't afford it," said Miss Williams, 39, who was standing in line with dozens of other residents at the Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center in Northwest to receive city assistance with her energy bill.

Because an unprecedented number of residents are asking for help in tough economic times, D.C. officials have extended at least one deadline for nearly 1,000 people who were turned away from an enrollment event.

The D.C. Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program helped a record number — more than 30,000 — households during fiscal 2008. Of those, 8,000 had at least one child younger than 5. The program offers one-time grants to help low-income residents pay overdue utility bills and suggest ways to use less energy.

"People are now more than ever in need of assistance, whether it comes to utility bills or other financial hurdles," said Alan Heymann, spokesman for the D.C. Department of Environment (DDOE), which administers the program.

About 1,000 D.C. residents were turned away from an annual Joint Utility Discount Day, hosted Sept. 30 by the city and utility companies to offer discounts on bills and to enroll residents in the city's energy-assistance program. Organizers were overwhelmed when more than 7,000 residents arrived.

As a result, the city will give those turned away until Oct. 10 to sign up for the program. About 1,200 people have visited the office in search of help in the past nine days.

Lery Johnson, 35, of Southeast found the doors closed when he went to the Sept. 30 event with hopes of getting a discount on the $1,300 bill he owes the utility companies for the past year. He returned Wednesday to the Reeves Center.

"These past few months have been brutal, and when I got there, they told me they couldn't help and that I had to come back out here," he said.