• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) helps pay the heating or cooling bills of low-income families or individuals. Roughly 4.6 million low-income households received LIHEAP assistance in 2001, only 15.5 percent of the 29 million households with incomes low enough to qualify. More than 70 percent of those receiving LIHEAP had incomes below the federal poverty line in 2001. (Households are eligible if their incomes are below 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines or below 60 percent of state median income.) Nearly one-third (32 percent) of LIHEAP households had at least one member aged 60 or older; 30 percent of households had at least one member with a disability; 22 percent had at least one child aged 5 or younger. A year’s benefits averaged just $297 for heating or $219 for cooling.

  For more information on this issue, visit CHN’s Public Policy Priorities, 2013-2014.

  Advocacy Organizations

  Campaign for Home Energy Assistance
  Community Action Partnership
  Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
  National Community Action Foundation
  National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association

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