Frigid winter leads to spike in fuel assistance
Calls for heating assistance in Brookline have gone up dramatically from last year, reflective of a brutally cold and difficult winter.Marty Wisler, a social worker with the Brookline Community Foundation who administers the foundation’s Safety Net Fund for emergency purposes, said the number of requests for heat assistance has grown by around 60 to 70 percent compared to previous years.”We have helped numerous people this year,” she said.Wisler said Safety Net helps residents after they have run out of oil or they have received a cut-off notice from their heating utility, and funds are used to try to keep that resident’s heat on.”Once they get a cut-off notice, then we can move very quickly to help them,” she said.She said this year, the biggest complaint has come from residents with oil heat who have run out of oil. Those residents include a number of seniors, she said.”Generally, people went through their resources more quickly than they thought,” she said.With oil complaints, she said the center has had to move more rapidly because the tenant often doesn’t realize they have a problem until the tank is already empty.With shut-off notices for gas heating, the center has more time to help the resident out before the heat is shut off.She said the Community Foundation responded to every complaint this year for heat assistance.The BCF started the Safety Net Fund in 1989. The funds are meant to respond to the needs of Brookline residents in emergency situations, including food and rental assistance, as well as heating support.John J. He called this winter a “natural disaster.”He said the ABCD has run out of funds for fuel assistance, and is currently lobbying the state Legislature to release federal money to Massachusetts to deal with the bitter cold this winter.There have been 575 applications for heat assistance from Brookline residents this year, Drew said. Seventy percent of those applicants are senior citizens.Residents with oil, gas and electric heating all call for assistance, but those with electric heating were the hardest hit this year, because of a spike in electricity rates, he said.Drew assumes that most residents who got heat assistance from the ABCD have already exhausted their benefits this winter.”People are doing anything they can to try to get some heat,” he said.The center is relying on contributions now to help residents.Page 2 of 2 – The areas that get the most assistance from ABCD are the Boston neighborhoods of Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan.”We have a lot of winter ahead of us possible, and a lot of people who are not in a position to weather it,” he said.Ruthann Dobek, the director of the Brookline Senior Center, said the center acts as a site for ABCD in Brookline in order to make it easier for residents to apply and get assistance.ABCD offers assistance to all families in Boston and surrounding areas that live at or below 60 percent of the state median income. Census Bureau.She said more people should be informed of services they could sign up for.Many come to the center looking for a shoulder to cry on about how bad the winter has been and how they’ve had to survive with limited heating options, only to discover that they can get assistance by applying for it, Dobek said.The center gets about five to six calls or complaints a week about heat-related issues during the winter season.”There’s a pretty constant need for fuel assistance,” Dobek said. If your heat has been shut off or you have run out of heat, you can contact the Safety Net Fund at the Community Mental Health Center at 617-277-8107.
