Gas and energy costs making it look like a grim and pricey winter
Rising costs for oil and gas are another blow to fragile budgets. Home heating and electric costs this winter could be much higher than last.
A recent XCEL Energy rate increase means homeowners will be paying about four percent more in October. But it's only one of a series of increases that could put energy bills over 50% higher than last year by the end of 2022.
"It's not getting any easier. It's getting rougher and rougher," said flower deliveryman John Lindsay as he filled his car with gasoline.
Hoping to be retired at 65 he is still working. Gasoline price hikes this year have been one thing, utility rates, another.
"During the summer it was obnoxious. I mean I'm paying $150 in the summertime."
"There are so many other expenses that have skyrocketed that everybody has. Priorities are competing, and there's just not enough for anything anymore," said Theresa Kullen, Low Income Energy Assistance Program (known as LEAP) and water program manager for the State of Colorado. "People are faced with choices about do I pay for heat and not eat nutritiously, or cut my medicine, so I can pay for my heat?"
Lindsay, who has a disability, echoed that, "I'm worried about my medications and everything. Both my wife and me are on medications that are ridiculous and it's just it's rough."
LEAP has seen a substantial increase in applicants over the past three years. Kullen believes another 10% increase is possible this year with rising prices. LEAP helps people pay for home heating. This year the program created a cap at $1,000 for the heating season. "We have had to cap the among of funding that we can issue to a particular household because we need to make sure that we have enough funding to help everyone that applies." It is possible there will be more funding she believes when Congress works out the budget, which is currently in a continuing resolution. But the money is not there yet and the program has to plan for what it has.
"We wanted to raise our cap just because the prices have gone up so high, and we know It's going to cost people more to eat their homes in the winter, but we can't because we can only work within the allocation that we know we're getting from the Federal Government not what we anticipate or hope to get somewhere down the line."
"What's making it more challenging now than ever is a lot of the safety nets that were in place during COVID are kind of disappearing," said Janelle O'Malley, program service manager with The Action Center, a non-profit human services agency service Jefferson County.
"It's really challenging especially for folks that don't have the ability to increase their income," she explained, citing retirees. "They don't have the ability to make more money when costs rise. And so this rise in utilities and food it really has a negative impact on folks."
The Action Center is a conduit for money that is available from Energy Outreach Colorado which heads a network of industry, state, and local partners to give assistance for people to pay their utility costs.
"It's really hard for people to keep up. And you know the way budgets work, when one thing goes up it's going to come out of someplace else," she explained.
People who apply for help are past due on their utility bills. O'Malley expects to see the number of people applying for help rising dramatically.
"Folks that were in previously stable situations are now in unstable situations and not because they changed anything they were doing, but because costs rose around them and their fixed incomes didn't."
The effects can make life harder.
"If you've got young kiddos in the home, they tend to get sicker when they're cold. School-aged children can't concentrate when they're too cold in the home, explained Kullen. "Our senior population needs their temperatures higher because the blood circulation sometimes is not as robust as somebody that's up and active."
There is still help she explained and with the LEAP program, people need not be behind yet on their heating bills.
"We want people to apply. We're here to help people," said Kullen.
How to get help:
The LEAP program will open for new applications on Nov. 1.
https://cdhs.colorado.gov/leap
There is also a heat helpline for people to get information on how to apply: 1 866 432-8435
People can also call 211, to ask about heating and utility bill help.
And here is a directory of local agencies that can help you apply for money from Energy Outreach Colorado, including The Action Center, which serves Jefferson County: