Middle Class Gets in Line for Help With Rising Heating Bills

[Thom Little]

By Paul Vitello
New York Times
Sunday, Nov. 27, 2005


The main government assistance office in Suffolk County sits just off a busy road in an office park surrounded by a neighborhood of deep lawns and two-car garages. Everyone for miles around uses that road every day. But until recently, hardly anyone from the neighborhood - people whose status in the middle class was thought secured unquestionably by homeownership - ever turned into the office park to seek help inside the county's nondescript building.

This year, they have come in from the fear of the cold. They are retirees, young couples, the temporarily unemployed, the two-income families stretched to the limit of second mortgages and credit cards, a slice of the suburban demographic that social workers call "mortgage rich and pocket poor."

The cost of natural gas heat, already high, has risen 50 percent since last year. Home heating oil prices are up 30 percent. What that means for the larger economy will be divined by economists. A hint of what it portends for the average person, though, is apparent in early indications from offices like Suffolk's.

"We have more people applying for help, and more of them are in a higher income group than we've seen before," said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, a group of 50 state directors in charge of administering a federal home energy assistance program that offers one-time-per-winter cash benefits of $100 to $500.

"The sense is that there is a crisis coming," Mr. Wolfe said. "The question is, can the government get ahead of it?"



http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/nyregion/27heat.html?pagewanted=print

[BronxBoy]

1. The real question is

does the government WANT to get ahead of it?

[Missy M]

2. That is exactly right. The government knew this was coming and...

they have done nothing. What will come of this country when the middle class can't afford to pay their bills. I believe we are being ripped off by the utilities and Washington keeps on looking the other way.

[BronxBoy]

3. Yep...

We moved from that area about 18 months ago. A lot of homes in that area are heated by oil. It's going to be a rough winter for many if the weather gets really cold.

[Missy M]

4. My first cold weather natural gas bill is outrageous......

and it has been pretty mild up until this past week. I can't imagine what it will be from now on. We are all captives when it comes to the utilities and our choice is paying or freezing.

[SpiralHawk]

10. We are being ripped off by BushCo's Oil Cronies

Send a bunch of Texas oil men to Washington and give them control, what do you get?

[Nomen Tuum]

5. And where is that "faith-based" help?

Where are the churches?

Especially those mega ones?

I guess they're too busy paying for their pastor's winter vacation in Cancun...

[BronxBoy]

6. Please don't even get me started on them....

A lot of churches do perform valuable social work in the communities but I just don't get the idea behind a "Mega" church.

My wife has been trying to get me to go to church recently. One night we were having diner and flipping around the channels. We stopped on a channel where a preacher was doing his thing.

I can't even begin to tell you what he was preaching about: It was probably because this guy had a ring on that looked like a small sun. He could probably feed a hundred families with what that ring cost.

I got into trouble for the opinions I voiced that evening

edited for spelling

[sarcasmo]

19. Bronx Boy I go through the same thing with my wife. Religion and me don't

see eye to eye. Getting nagged weekly is really putting a strain on things. I will not be associated with a Christian church and she now knows that, but it sure doesn't make it easier.

[Wcross]

13. "Faith based help"

You misunderstood Mr. Bush's plan for Faith based help. He really intended to tell people they haven't got a chance in hell of getting any help so you ought to start praying!

[hadrons]

7. I wonder who most of them voted for????

[BronxBoy]

9. Suffolk County

was strongly Republican with pockets of blue. Dems just recently made a major showing in the last elections, seizing control of County government for the first time in quite awhile.


http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpuno134511104nov13,0,1473944.story

Nothing like those persky pocketbook issues to stir things up.

edited for spelling

[valerief]

8. As long as the wealthy stay warm and tax-free, I can sleep at night.

It just takes wearing a hat, gloves, and that extra blanket. Just you wait. That trickle-down stuff is gonna happen any day now.

[SpiralHawk]

11. "Mission accomplished." - George AWOL Bush

[ok_cpu]

12. "Middle Class"?

That's a pre- 9/11 idea.

[4dsc]

14. Get use to it!!

Complain all you want but I'm afraid the era of cheap oil, especially natural gas, is over..

Finite resources are going to cost more and more each year!! Then get this, the US only has about a 9 year supply of proven NAtural gas reserves at this time!! 9 years!!

[Javaman]

15. Gas goes down, heating oil goes up...

All in time for the holidays.

Folks, as soon as the oil we were getting from the European Petroleum Reserves (EPR) runs out, gas will go back up.

What is interesting, the oil from the EPR was supposed to help us after Katrina, however moron* and the European gov'ts allowed us only to buy just enough to allow people to run out and buy useless shit for christmas, thus helping the morons* corporate friends and the "economy". But like I said, it's only just enough to allow people to drive more, but as soon as the "holiday" is over and the real winter temps take hold of the nation, the prices will skyrocket again and we will have once again just delayed the inevitable.

So be prepared, high gas, high heating oil.

This will be indeed the winter of morons* discontent. And as a result the rest of us will be fucked.

[teryang]

16. When will European reserve imports end?

I speculated at one point that they could supplement American distallate supplies for several months. But would they do this?

[4dsc]

18. Rumors has it, they've already stopped

and come January, gas price will once again head upward!!

The era of cheap oil is OVER!!

[bluestateguy]

17. This is one thing I don't have to worry about

Where I live I don't need to use the heating in the winter. It's the summer electric bills that are bad, with the air conditioning. In fact, my winter electric bills usually drop down to 45 or 50 dollars a month.

[MountainLaurel]

20. Thank heaven for global warming!

A couple more years and we won't have to worry about that pesky winter thang!

:evilgrin: