From WZZM Grand Rapids:
Cuts to state funding for emergency energy relief are threatening to leave hundreds of West Michigan families out in the cold.
Agencies that provide that help are scrambling this week to help as many families as possible before the money runs out. A WZZM 13 viewer contacted 13 On Your Side about the problem.
"This is unprecedented," said Mary Trucks, executive director for FiveCAP Community Action Agency, which serves Mason, Manistee, Lake and Newaygo counties. "For rural and low income families it will be devastating."
Trucks says when Congress passed a continuing resolution for 2011, it rolled back funding for many state-level programs to 2008 levels. That meant a $49 million cut to the money Michigan uses for energy assistance.
The Michigan Department of Human Services, facing money shortages with money for other programs, is juggling cash to put it where it is needed the most.
Not sure that DHS can just "juggle" money that is allocated from the feds for specific purposes, but the report goes on to say that DHS has indeed pulled back the funding - while the need in this area has grown 35%.
From 9 & 10 News Cadillac:
Hundreds of households in the Grand Traverse area alone will be left without any help when it comes to heating their homes.
The state helps to fund emergency heat programs for community action agencies.
But they're taking that funding away starting next week.
From the Midland Daily News:
The Mid Michigan Community Action is losing more than $500,000 of LIHEAP Crisis Assistance funding that is being reclaimed by the state. That amount would have served up to 1,000 families across Bay, Clare, Gladwin and Midland counties.
...
Agencies were given one week notice of this decision.
Nothing out of the Detroit papers or the AP yet, but it's still early.
Welcome to the trickle-down austerity movement, cutting off heating assistance in the dead of winter. When Republicans in Congress say they want to return to 2008 funding levels, this is what they are talking about - ignoring all the increased need caused by the Great Recession. And chances are, all these new Republican governors and legislators at the state level will be happy to oblige.