As the longest-ever federal shutdown stretches into its second month, thousands of upstate New Yorkers who rely on heating assistance are at risk of being left in the cold.
The shutdown has frozen funding for the federal Home Energy Assistance Program — known as HEAP — which helps low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities pay their heating bills. Applications, originally scheduled to open Nov. 3, have been postponed indefinitely. That has left local governments, which administer the program, with few answers for how to assist the 1.5 million New Yorkers who rely on HEAP.
For residents like Stephanie Kucharek of Catskill, the uncertainty is terrifying…