Although I knew it could happen any day, it still surprised me when Tucson Electric Power (TEP) shut off the electricity to my home. It was late January 2025. I could not afford my electric bill, but I had qualified for assistance through the federally funded Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). I believed that the Community and Workforce Development department, responsible for administering LIHEAP, was primed to pay the bill. I had applied for (and was granted) assistance the previous summer and the process was only supposed to take up to a month.
However, it was now six months later, and something was keeping the bill from getting paid. Caseworkers kept telling me that my application was pending.
A company representative I spoke with for this story told me that my company file shows the utility company and the agency called each other several times, but no progress was made on paying my bill…