Nearly 1 million New York City households relied on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) last winter to help afford their heating costs, more than any other region in the state. Applications for this year’s benefits are on hold indefinitely until federal funding resumes, officials said.
A program that helps low-income New Yorkers pay for heating in the winter is on hold because of the federal government shutdown, state officials announced Wednesday—at a time when many households are already behind on, or struggling to pay for, their energy bills.
Nearly 1 million New York City households relied on the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (known as LIHEAP, or HEAP) last winter to help afford their energy costs, more than any other region in the state. Applications for this season were supposed to open Nov. 3, but are being delayed for at least a few weeks—or until the federal government reopens and reallocates funding, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.
“Thanks to Washington Republicans’ government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers are about to be left in the cold,” Hochul said in a statement. “By refusing to open the government and delaying heating assistance funding, Republicans are once again willfully turning their backs on their constituents.”…