Missouri assistance available for lofty energy bills

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – The Missouri Department of Social Services’ Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program could help you pay those hefty home energy bills.

Otherwise known as “LIHEAP” and run by the Office of Workforce and Community Initiatives, this program provides assistance to those that qualify through either one-time payments or in a crisis.

Jeriane Jaegers-Brenneke, DSS Deputy Director, said this program helps folks meet some of their basic needs.

“We’ve said multiple times at the Department of Social Services, if you can’t meet your basic needs, and there’s a lot of psychology around that, right, you can’t do certain other things, either,” said Jaegers-Brenneke.

DSS Assistant Deputy Director Ken Chapman says there is something special about giving people a helping hand.

Said Chapman: “The work that we do is helping them to help themselves. It’s not a handout, it’s a hand up, and that makes all the difference in the world.”

The energy assistance portion of the program provides a one-time payment for one fuel type for your heating or cooling costs from October to September, while the energy crisis intervention program helps pay your energy bill when you have a sudden, unexpected, uncontrollable loss of financial resources, life-threatening situation, or any circumstance that threatens your stability if energy aid is not supplied.

“To me, what we do is really about the health, the health of the community, the health of the family, the health of our schools, the health of our hospitals. We’re about the health of Missourians, and that is really cool,” said Chapman.