The Federal Program L.I.H.E.A.P. is being threatened with possible cuts again. I am in my fifth year managing L.I.H.E.A.P. in the New Hampshire Upper Valley, also known as Fuel Assistance. Each of these years I have run across mass media articles regarding large cuts to this necessary heating/cooling program. This year as well as last year there was talk of cutting the program by up to 50%.
I have been asked if this program will still exist once government votes on the budget. My answer, same old same old business. I am still taking applications and I expect that the program will survive. This program has to survive! There are households with children, disabled members and the elderly that depend on this every year to make ends meet. I see a lot of fixed income households in my office. A fixed income with rising fuel costs and no increase in Social Security benefits makes life a little more stressful. I couldn't imagine that the government would let the less fortunate households die in their homes due to hypothermia or for the southern states heat exhaustion. That is a lot of blood on ones hands. At least in New Hampshire we have RSA: 165 (City Welfare), as for all of the other States, I'm not so sure what resources they will have for their communities. It is always good to have a plan B.
