New Haven officials: Help available for high energy costs

NEW HAVEN — Simone Wilson doesn’t need a press conference or a collection of public and private sector officials to tell her there are ways to get current with her sky-high energy bills or try to lower them in the future.

She’s living it — but people don’t have to go through the stress that she did before they get help.

Since last October, Wilson, 28, has been working with the Community Action Agency of New Haven at 419 Whalley Ave. to get energy assistance and recover from what at the time was a shutoff notice looming.

She actually found out about some of the help available when she walked by CAA’s office, she said Monday.

But according to Mayor Justin Elicker, people now can find out about available help they might qualify for at a new city website, http:// newhavenct.gov/LowerYourEnergyBill.

After receiving energy assistance and other forms of help through the agency, “I feel a lot less stress,” said Wilson, of New Haven, the single mother of a child who is nearly a year old.

“I was so blessed to get assistance from here,” she said after a press conference in which officials led by Elicker and CAA President and CEO Amos Smith outlined the various forms of assistance available to people at a time when even people who haven’t previously had trouble paying their energy bills are scrambling to keep up.

Even with energy costs at what for many people are painfully high levels, there are things people can do to lower them, get assistance to catch up and ensure that their bills are lower in the future, officials said Monday.

“Today, we’re called to talk about how to help people to lower their bills,” said Smith, who said his agency helped 10,400 families, 80 percent of them New Haven residents, last year.

“Because of the budgets” and the price of heat and electricity this year, many of CAA’s clients “have run out of their budget” — even the ones who already have qualified for assistance, Smith said.

CAA recently sent their names to the state, which is working on a new plan to provide additional assistance to those who need it.

“Right now, we’re trying to assist and help out in as many ways as possible,” said Daisy Sanchez, CAA’s assistant manager for the Energy Department.

Elicker thanked both CAA and Neighborhood Housing Services, a New Haven-based nonprofit that also works to help people lower their utility bills, for the work they do.

With costs so high, he urged people, “Do not leave money on the table.” If people follow some of the steps outlined on the web page, “you will save money,” he said.

Meanwhile, “we’re trying to make it easier by bringing the partners together,” Elicker said.

He urged people to seek short-term assistance through the Community Action Agency, which runs the state’s CT Energy Assistance Program, which serves West Haven, East Haven, Hamden and North Haven in addition to New Haven, and the city’s Financial Empowerment Center. .

For longer-term relief, Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven, or NHS, manages the I Heart My Home CT program and can provide free one-on-one home energy counseling and audits that can help renters and homeowners to make home improvements to help lower utility bills and also improve health and comfort.

Residents and homeowners also can go to http://energizect.com/rate-board/ compare-energy-supplierrates to research and possible choose an alternative energy supplier, which also can save them money — an average of $80 per month per household — and help the environment by choosing a supplier that uses 100 percent clean energy, he said.

Jim Paley, executive director of NHS, said that right now, “We’re all suffering from an inflationary spiral, which we cannot deny.” But inflation “affects lowerincome families more than others,” he said.

He said he was proud of the I Heart My Home CT program, initiated by NHS staffer Kathy Fay.

Fay said the program serves “hundreds of people statewide,” helping them to get solar panels, additional insulation and giving them home energy audits.

“We are a cost-free, onestop shop,” Fay said. “We counsel renters, homeowners ... to ensure a transition” to a more fair and affordable energy future.

To arrange help from NHS, people can call 475227-7579, she said.

Sarah Wall from United Illuminating said that at UI, “We really feel our customers’ pain . ... It’s been very difficult to swallow these generation costs ... which are a pass-through cost,” she said.

People who get in touch with UI can arrange budget billing or even take part in an forgiveness program for past bills, she said. UI will offer an open house for people seeking assistance from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 111 Whalley Ave., Wall said.

Steve Winter, executive director of the city’s new Office of Climate and Sustainability, said people in need of help can call CAA at 203285-8018, Neighborhood Housing Services at 475-2277574 or compare energy supplier rates at http://energizect.com/rate-board. The city’s Financial Empowerment Center can be reached at 203-946-8523.

“Currently, alternative supplier rates are lower,”

Winter said.