Hardship Grant Program opens
The $1 Energy Fund, the state’s largest Hardship Fund has opened its Hardship Fund Grant Program for this year’s heating season and as part of their public outreach will be speaking at the Fayette County Commissioners’ meeting today. Projecting that this will be one of their busiest program years ever, $1 Energy representative will talk about the services they provide to Fayette County residents and the valuable contributions their community and utility partners make in the community. The group hopes to receive a proclamation from the commissioners recognizing these contributions and encouraging people to support their efforts. Program officials said the organization assisted nearly 500 Fayette households with more than $139,000 in utility assistance.
According to Cindy Datig, $1 Energy’s executive director, “This year all consumers will be experiencing a number of significant challenges. We will all be facing record high natural gas prices which have only been worsened by the loss of so much production due to Hurricane Katrina. The sharp rise in gasoline prices has also had a profound impact especially to the working poor families who are struggling to get to their minimum wage jobs. According to recent reports, there are approximately 100,000 households without utility service across Pennsylvania. The mission of the Dollar Energy Hardship Program is to make sure no one faces a Pennsylvania winter without heat, light or water”
In fact, according to Datig, since the program’s opening day of Oct. 3, more families have applied for assistance than in any other October in the program’s history. Most of the grants were made to households whose services were terminated and were reconnected after receiving the $1 Energy grant, Datig added.
Datig also wants to thank the 15 participating utility companies that are matching all contributions from their customers in Pennsylvania. $1 Energy is putting a call out to the community to please pitch in to help our neighbors who may not have electric, gas or water service in their homes.
“Dollar Energy’s success is built from neighbors helping neighbors and we hope those that can, will dig a little deeper to assist people who have made a sincere effort to pay their utility bills but are truly in need.”
For more information about $1 Energy visit www.dollarenergy.org