Home/Utilities

Debt Relief Assistance
12/1/06 Debt Relief Hotline 800) 291-1042
For families struggling with credit card debts (typically over $10,000); relief is available. This national agency will contact your client’s creditors, reduce payments, interest, and even principal amounts owed. Harassing collection calls will stop.
12/1/06 Free Bankruptcy Advice 800) 379-0985 Families who cannot use other debt solution may need to speak with an attorney. The nation’s largest consumer law firm has made this hotline available. Your client may call for a free conversation to discuss whether debt relief under bankruptcy makes sense for them.

Utilities Assistance
3/16/07 - Low cost alternative - Hot Water Heater/Furnace Plans
$2,000 To Weatherize Your Home
Families can receive assistance to weatherize their homes and apartments at no charge if you meet certain income guidelines. States allocate dollars to nonprofit agencies for purchasing and installing energy-related repairs, with the average grant being $2,000 per year. Contact your state Energy Office or the Weatherization Assistance Programs Branch, EE44, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20585; 202-596-4074;
Insulation of Home Assistance 800-DIAL-DOE
Income Eligibility Requirements: up to $28,418 for a family of 4
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
The Department of Health and Human Services announced it was releasing a $12,466,278 block grant to Mississippi to help families in need pay their home energy bills. The funds are administered by the Administration for Children and Families through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program Look up MS.
Heating Oil Assistance
Joe Kennedy and Cisco Oil have a program in 17 states where, if you are approved, you pay 60% and they will pay 40% for a one time delivery of up to 200 gallons of oil. The program runs through March 14th. This is geared towards low income homes and the elderly. Most of the states are along the East Coast. PLEASE CALL 1-877-JOE-4OIL (877-563-4645

Telephone Assistance
Lifeline Phone Assistance
1/31/06 - 50% Discount On Phone Service Under the Federal Communication Commission’s Link-up America and Lifeline programs, low-income households seeking telephone service are given a 50% discount on local connection charges, and may be able to pay installment payments on the remaining charge. To learn more contact your local telephone company.

Odds and Ends
2/19/07 How to Deconstruct and Reclaim building materials
EPA Mold Containment Article
Modular Housing Tax Reduced - MS only
Real People Relief
Efficient Housing Site
Efficient Housing Site - Rebuilding Better
Steps to Save Heat An article on AOL regarding simple steps to make your place more energy efficient.
New Spider In Town
Photo Restoration - by a professional First photo is free, will discuss price from there.
The Professional Photo Restoration Studio
PO Box 286157 New York, NY 10128

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Going Without Heat

I wrote about this problem about a month ago, sent a letter off to God and everybody - and it's just being noticed.
http://katrinaadvocate.blogspot.com/2007/01/heat-needed-letter.html
Talk about voiceless. I can't imagine being in the position these people are in!
How difficult - to tell anyone who will listen that things are BAD and nothing happens. Absolutely nothing happens.
This is where I'm going to get pissed at all of the volunteers. I write these letters for everyone to send. I don't write them for MY health. I write them for the survivors! We are their voices - so speak up! Shout! Use the letters I write - send them to the people I suggest, plus any YOU think of. It's the only way things will continue to progress.
It takes and extreme action to produce a moderate reaction within our society. So start screaming!

Trailer residents complain of cold
Many can't afford propane, activist says
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
By Ed Anderson
BATON ROUGE -- Hurricane victims, living in FEMA trailers near Baton Rouge for more than 17 months, told a legislative panel Monday that some residents are going without heat in near-freezing weather because they cannot afford to pay for propane for their temporary homes.
Wilbert Ross, president of Katrina Rebirth Promise Land Inc., an organization that represents about 3,500 residents dislodged from their New Orleans homes by Hurricane Katrina, said the federal government last April cut off a food service and vouchers to pay for propane to heat the trailers, cook food and heat water for people living in the Renaissance Village trailer park in Baker.
With temperatures that have dipped below freezing recently and are expected to hover in the 30s this week, Ross said, the state should help pay for the propane. On average, he said, the 3,500 people his organization represents buy two propane tanks about twice a month at a cost of $20 per tank.
He said that when residents moved into the trailers after the hurricane they were told shelter, propane and food would be provided. Now, Ross said, residents at times have to make a choice between spending money on heat, food or baby supplies like diapers.
Speaking to members of the Joint Senate Committee on Local and Municipal Affairs and the House Committee on Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs, Ross said the propane problem is especially acute for elderly people on fixed incomes, single parents who cannot leave their children alone to work, those who have exhausted other benefits and residents who want to work but do not have the transportation to jobs.
Collecting cans
He said church and community groups have pitched in to help, and park residents collect and recycle cans to buy propane.
"We have got 10,000 needs and not enough money to address those needs," said Andy Kopplin, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the state's chief hurricane recovery oversight agency. The authority has allocated about $15 million to the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps to provide social services and mental health counseling for hurricane victims. He said he will talk to corps Chief Executive Officer Raymond Jetson about the food and heating problems.
"These are survival issues as opposed to long-term construction or planning issues," Kopplin said. He told residents of Renaissance Village that much of the grant money has stiff criteria that prevents using it on propane.
Jetson told the panel that besides the LRA's allocation his agency has received $32 million from the federal Temporary Aid for Needy Families program that can be used only for people who meet certain income levels with children.
Of the money the corps has received, Jetson said, about $3.5 million is not restricted. He said his office has used some money to help pay for propane and feeding programs for residents of the village. "We have less than $2 million left and some of that is earmarked for other needs," he said.
Jetson said last month that he would seek $100 million from the state to finance the programs his office wants for resettling and caring for displaced citizens.
Jetson estimated about 15,000 families living in trailers at about 400 sites around the state could benefit from the program.
Politicians pitch in
"If I could get out of here today without leaving someone behind, I'd get out of here running," said Ross, a dishwasher and former Lower 9th Ward resident. "Even if we had a portable kitchen (to cook meals) that would be better."
"If it is not morally wrong, it is on the verge of criminality if you let our citizens suffer when they were put in a condition that they cannot control," said Sen. Heulette "Clo" Fontenot, R-Livingston, to LRA and other state officials in the audience.
"It will be shame on us if people are freezing and going hungry," said Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, chairman of the Senate panel. Sen. Diana Bajoie, D-New Orleans, pointed out to Kopplin and others that the federal government is still paying for housing and utilities for hurricane victims, and the least it can do is pay for to heat the trailers of displaced citizens.
Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Slidell, said he was going to donate $1,000 from his campaign fund to buy propane for some residents, and Bajoie said she will kick in $300 to $400 to buy baby food and diapers for families who are struggling. Bajoie said she will make telephone calls to others to solicit contributions.
"That is the most deplorable thing I have heard," Schedler told Ross of the conditions he described. Schedler said that government should find a way "to heat these trailers and feed these people" or "private corporate America" should do so with donations.
"You are going to embarrass FEMA and HUD (the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development)," he said. "If you have to embarrass people into it, so be it. We as a state are sitting on $2.5 billion (in past and projected surpluses); we should be embarrassed."
. . . . . . .
Ed Anderson cane be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com.