State program to help needy with utility bills is swamped

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.

Southern Nevada residents can call (702) 486-1404 for information about the energy assistance program.

The program, meant to help the poor pay electricity and gas bills, is now "making a difference in people's lives," said Linda Mercer, energy assistance program manager of the Nevada Welfare Division.

Mercer said the program helped about 20,000 households in the fiscal year ending June 30, about 28 percent more than the year before, when the program left $14 million in the bank because the state was having trouble getting the word out.

A Sun story in June 2004 revealed the situation facing the program, while a yearlong marketing campaign also got under way.

The result, Mercer said, is that demand went way up in the last 12 months -- so much that applications are now taking three months to process, instead of the 30-day maximum her agency aims to reach.

An exception is made if applicants are faced with losing their electricity because of not paying their bills, she said.

The 2005 Legislature approved funds for hiring new personnel in order to help reduce the backlog, and the Las Vegas office will be doubling the number of workers from four to eight in the coming weeks.

The program is expected to help more than 20,000 households this year with about $15.5 million.

This may mean that 2007 rolls around with the program coming up short in funds, Mercer said. "We may be challenged to meet the need."

The program dates from late 2001, created by a bill in that year's Legislature. Since then, residents of the Las Vegas Valley and around the state have paid less than a quarter extra on their monthly electricity and gas bills. That money, called the "universal energy charge," goes to the program.

About 70 percent of the program's applicants come from Clark County. Statewide, there may be 168,000 households eligible for the program.

About 36 percent of the households getting help have at least one person 60 or older. About 46 percent of the households have at least one disabled person.

And all are low-income, since eligibility is based on financial need and energy use.

"These are vulnerable people," Mercer said.

Take Norman Gibbons.

The 64-year-old, retired former businessman recently renewed his application to the program, which he used for the first time last year.

A visit to his tidy, comfortable, knick knack-filled mobile home appeared to support what Gibbons described as "a better life than most people ... just without money."

His slide into near-poverty, perhaps uncommon, was the result of a 1997 divorce settlement which left him the home, and his wife, the beauty salon he owned, eventually leading him to learn to live off of Social Security and food stamps.

This means paying $554 of his $599 monthly Social Security checks for the lot on which his home sits, near Nellis Boulevard and Twain Avenue, and using $149 in monthly food stamps for food.

Which is where the energy assistance program comes in.

Gibbons gets about $345 this year for his electricity bills, which he keeps low by creating a lifestyle that includes sleeping in the day, cooling off in the evenings by the pool at his mobile home park and using fans instead of air conditioning.

The pool, he said, also helps keep him fit, an important consideration after a 1999 heart attack.

As for the 100-degree-plus temperatures he sometimes endures in his house during the day, he said, "When life dealt me the hand it did, it came down to a matter of survival."

Charlotte Stevens, 70, lives on Flamingo Road near Boulder Highway with her husband, Benjamin, 76, on $1,349 a month in combined Social Security checks. They keep cool by using a swamp cooler when they can and an air conditioner the rest of the time.

For the last month or so, she said, she has been mostly using the air conditioner, and expects her next electric bill to push $200.

She just got her application for the state program in the mail Saturday.

She said programs like the state's energy assistance plan are useful to households like hers, which she described as "very budget-minded."

"We don't drink, smoke or party -- we pay bills."