Summer Heat Relief Extended; Winter Heat Help to Begin

As Louisville metro’s summer heat relief assistance program winds up, the winter assistance program is about to begin. Program director Andrew Bates says that he anticipates utility bills will be high during the winter months. People needing help can begin applying for a subsidy in October. That part of the program lasts six weeks. And it can serve as many people as are qualified. Bates says emergency funding for people whose utilities are about to be shut off kicks in this January.“We will be able to provide funding for the subsidy phase. But in terms of the amount of money that will be remaining for the crisis phase, there’s not been any increase in funding to help us this year," says Bates.Bates says utility bills have dogged many low income Louisvillians this year. The city’s heat relief program received some extra funding in August to help people pay those bills. It ran out in just three days.