“We have many households that are open that bill and go into shock,” said Debbie Miller, Anoka County Community Action Program.
The Anoka County Community Action Program (ACCAP) has an energy assistance program that can help pay gas, electric and water bills.
“There’s a lot of households in spread of being disconnected or completely shut off, so we’ve seen an uptick in applications.”
Each year, this program gets about 5,000 applications. Processing them all takes time, so Miller says apply before it’s a crisis.
“If your gas gets shut off you may be able to maintain for a few days using electric space heaters. If your electricity gets shut off you have no options,” said Miller. “It’s quite intense when somebody gets fully disconnected.”
And ACCAP works to make sure that happens to as few people as possible.
“Apply for the energy assistance program,” encouraged Miller. “It doesn’t hurt to apply. The worst you’re gonna get is ‘no.’”
Miller said the majority of rejections are because someone exceeds the income limits or fails to submit the required forms.
