Title
Briefing on the Utilities Assistance Program
Recommended Action
None - discussion item only
Staff Recommendation
None - discussion item only
Body
In the past two years the BPU has taken action to expand the availability of funds available to support the community through the Utilities Assistance Program. While initially established to provide assistance for Gas and Electric services only, the program has been expanded to make assistance available for all services. “One Time Assistance” was added to allow for utilization of the fund to help customers with an unanticipated financial situation that results in a short-term financial need. A program to provide year around assistance for qualifying customers over age 65 was added. Most recently, the use of the median household income of the “Los Alamos Census Designated Place” as the financial criteria instead of the “Santa Fe Metropolitan Statistical Area” was adopted, raising the qualifying income threshold and allowing for more households to potentially qualify. The Addition of account holders qualified through the Social Security Administration for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for eligibility for year around assistance was also added with that last revision.
The UAP is funded entirely by voluntary donations from Los Alamos residents and customers. In the current COVID-19 situation, while several of Los Alamos’ largest employers have continued operations in one form or another and many resident’s income has been unaffected, there remains a likelihood that there will be many residents with increasing financial need. Both the Board and the Council have expressed concern and desire to explore how the fund may be utilized to provide more assistance and to more people if needed, but to do so additional donations would need to be received. We have already conducted some outreach to make sure citizens that may be in need are aware of the assistance available, and also to solicited a...
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