LANSING – Even after the federal government last year poured nearly twice as much money into helping Michigan residents pay utilities and avoid shutoffs, the state’s crisis prevention program is still struggling to keep up with added demand brought on by increasing unemployment and winter’s high energy costs, experts told a House subcommittee on Tuesday.

Payments for the federal Low Income Energy Assistance Program, along with other crisis intervention funds from the state, totaled $158.6 million in 2009, nearly doubling the $87.7 million spent as of October 2008, said Barbara Anders, director of the Bureau of Adult and Family Services at the Department of Human Services.

While at first DHS officials were hopeful that 2009’s increase in LIHEAP funds, which go toward fixing broken furnaces, paying for heating materials or preventing shutoffs from a utility company, meant they could easily help anyone who qualified, the state’s economy will likely turn out more people in need of assistance than can be helped this year, Anders said.

“At first, when we got all of the federal money, we thought we would just skate through the year, but we’re spending an average $3 million a week on crisis intervention now and if that keeps up, we’ll run out of funds before the year is through,” she said, adding that with warmer weather approaching, need will likely taper somewhat.

At a presentation to the House Energy and Technology Consumer Protections Subcommittee, Ms. Anders said DHS paid an average of $501 per household to more than 126,600 low-income people to keep their lights on in 2008. But early projections had closer to 200,000 people coming to the department for assistance in 2009, with each household needing about $715.

While the state prohibits utility shutoffs in the coldest months, DHS and other community organizations are focused now on paying off unpaid balances for those people who will have outstanding debt to their utility companies when the Spring thaw hits, officials said.

By providing a match with participating utility companies, DHS plans to spend $10.25 million of crisis funds in 2009 to pay up to $2,500 of a household’s utility bill to avoid shutoffs later in the year, Anders said.

DHS in 2008 also paid for winterization or energy related home repairs for nearly 2,000 households and saw nearly 438,000 people take advantage of the home heating credit, a tax benefit to help low income residents offset the cost of energy.

John Miller, with The Heat and Warmth Fund, said his nonprofit organization, too, has seen a dramatic increase in people in need, especially when it comes to people who have never been low income before.

THAW has helped coordinate payment for utilities for more than 2,000 people this winter alone, “an unprecedented need, and dramatically more people who went from earners last year to unemployed this year,” Miller said.

Providing public education about services available to help with heating and energy costs is even more vital when there are many people now in need that are new to public support, he said, adding that the state should use advertising campaigns and the media to alert people to the starting point for getting assistance.

Subcommittee Chair Rep. Jeff Mayes (D-Bay City) said that he’s considering many types of legislation that would protect people from shutoffs, but seemed most interested in enacting laws that would help connect those in need to help.

For example, he questioned why DHS is no longer running the Energy Direct program, a pilot the department oversaw three years ago that flagged people at risk of shutoff and notified the state.

For now, DHS officials said, implementing the new Bridges computer system, set to go statewide by August, is the top priority, then they hope to phase back in a system of identifying people in need.

In the meantime, Mayes told DHS, they might see “a mandate to reintroduce the program.”

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