Northwest Iowa — It’s that time of the year, the weather is getting very cold and furnaces are being used more and more.
Mid-Sioux Opportunity Coordinator Pam Ericson in Sioux Center tells KIWA that LIHEAP is a program to help families pay their heating bill during the winter months. The first day to apply for the elderly was October 1st, while everyone else couldn’t apply until November 1st. The last day they will take applications will be April 1st.
According to Ericson in order to apply a person would need their social security number, a copy of their most recent utility bill, and proof of their income for the past 30 days. When a family is approved, based on their income, a computer program will decide a percentage of the bill the family will receive help with. Mid-Sioux will then send that money to the family’s utility company.
Ericson tells us that some utility companies will take out a percentage every month to apply to the bill, while others will take it all out and use it for the bill until it runs out. This is solely up to the utility company she says.
LIHEAP has a certain amount of money the program can use. Ericson says as long as she has worked there they have never run out of money, however, it could happen.
Ericson says that this year they have noticed many new people are applying for heating assistance. She says it could be because of the economy, with everything going up many families are having difficulties paying some bills. She tells us what counties Mid-Sioux covers.
The Lyon County office is in Rock Rapids, the Sioux County office is in Sioux Center, the Ida County office is in Ida Grove, the Cherokee County office is in Cherokee, and the Plymouth County office is in LeMars.
To apply for LIHEAP you can call 1-800-859-2025 or visit https://midsioux.org. Mid-Sioux is the community action agency serving those counties. The local community action agency serving Osceola and O’Brien Counties (and several others) is Upper Des Moines Opportunity. So if you live in one of their counties, call them instead toll-free for more information about LIHEAP at (800) 245-6151 or visit udmo.com. If you live in another area of Iowa and don’t know who to contact, you can get information from the Iowa Department of Human Rights at humanrights.iowa.gov.
