'Pretty much exhausted.' Funds for Wake Co. energy assistance drying up in ongoing heat wave

ByElaina Athans

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Funds for Wake Co. energy assistance drying up

After several weeks of hot and humid weather, people are starting to get high energy bills in the mail.

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- After several weeks of hot and humid weather, people are starting to get high energy bills in the mail.

Wake County has an Energy Assistance Program to help residents with sky-high bills. Eligible households can receive up to $1,200 each fiscal year.

Unfortunately, Wake officials say they too are stressed out with the heat. The central North Carolina are continues to record hot temperatures. Monday, Raleigh experienced its hottest July 15 on record. This comes 10 days after Raleigh experienced its hottest day ever recorded.

"We've already utilized the majority of our spending that we received last week," said Wake Energy Economic Benefits Manager Felicia Downing.

She says the greatest challenge right now is demand and how quickly the department is running through funds.

More than $230,000 in state funding for Wake's Energy Assistance Program has dwindled down in a matter of days.

"We received $294,000 last week, which is the initial allocation. We typically receive millions, but we just received $294,000 for this week, and we've already pretty much exhausted that already," said Downing.

ABC11 is being told Wake will get another allocation.

We reached out to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) about utility bills funding. They provided this response: "North Carolina's federal LIEAP allocation was reduced by $55 million, so NCDHHS has less funds for the state fiscal year. NCDHHS' standard procedure is to release $5 million of the Crisis Intervention Program funds in July to the counties and closely monitor spend rates to determine when we are able to release additional funds. Currently, Wake County still has funds available for all qualified applicants."

The funds will help applicant like Raiven Foster.

"Over the summer, with the kids home, you're using your electricity a little bit more," said Foster. "It (the program) benefits a lot of low-income based families. I think it's good. As long as they have the funds that are available, they're to help as much people they can."