Stories like this break my heart.
Living on a fixed income of less than $1,200 a month, Wyoming resident Lee Rowley had a choice.
He could buy groceries or pay his gas and electric bills.
Rowley chose food. Earlier this week, his gas and electricity were shut off.
"I guess I'll have to figure out something," said Rowley, 69, a retired furniture worker who rode a bus to the Salvation Army in Grand Rapids on Thursday seeking assistance.
Like many others in West Michigan, Rowley was told he could get help with his electric bill. But the agency's funding for gas bills is gone.
It's a dilemma for scores of local residents, many of whom got help with utility bills in winter. But many agencies ran dry of funds by summer.
Their woes are tied to the sharp increase in the cost of natural gas, which saw the average bill jump by $60 a month.
That prompted a flood of calls to agencies such as Heart of West Michigan United Way in Grand Rapids, which has fielded more than 4,000 since January.
The calls normally slow down after winter, according to Janine Johnson, vice president of marketing for United Way.
But Johnson said the agency received 965 calls for utility help in June, a 58 percent increase over June 2005. Calls for help from senior citizens jumped 177 percent for the same period.
Compounding the problem, the utilities stopped their winter protection plan at the end of March. That had allowed low-income customers to make minimum monthly payments equal to 7 percent of their estimated natural gas bill.
But with that protection gone, some customers face bills they simply can't pay. Tim Pietryga, spokesman for Consumers Energy, said gas and electric shutoffs are up about 2 percent statewide over last year.
"They get hit with these huge bills. They can't pay them. We begin to see them shut off now," said Karen Tolan of ACSET. Tolan also is chair of the utility subcommittee for the Kent County Emergency Task Force.
Hypothermia or heatstroke- take your choice, poor people.
We call ourselves civilized?