State aid ends, but some Texans can get help paying power bills
The Public Utility Commission program that prevented at least 600,000 financially struggling Texans from having their power cut off for nonpayment expired on Wednesday.
But Texans who receive disconnection notices may have somewhere else to turn for help.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act that Congress passed in March provides an extra $94 million to help eligible low-income Texans affected by the coronavirus pandemic pay their utility bills, according to the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute, an Austin-based research group that focuses on energy and fuel poverty in Texas.
The supplemental funding is in addition to the $163 million that Texas received this year for low-income utility assistance under the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
The program, known as LIHEAP, helps to pay utility bills of low-income residents. To be eligible, Texas households must not earn more than 150 percent of the federal poverty level, or $39,300 per year for a family of four.
Utility assistance funds are distributed through community action agencies in Texas. In Harris County, the designated agency is BakerRipley, the neighborhood development group in Bellaire that can be reached at ( 713) 590-2327.
To find agencies in other counties, the Texas Association of Community Action Agencies offers a list online at tacaa.org/servicesmap.
Low-income households in Texas on spend about 10 percent of their income on energy, compared with 3 percent for higher income households, according to the institute.