More seeking help to pay power bills.

Byline: SCOTT MABEN The Register-Guard

Summer's fade to fall brings a sense of apprehension, even panic, to thousands of Lane County residents saddled with home heating costs they can barely afford.

For households hardest hit by last year's unprecedented power rate increases, the winter forecast is pretty bleak, said Jay Formick, executive director of Oregon HEAT, a statewide nonprofit group that helps low-income Pacific Power customers pay their electricity bills in emergencies.

"We're looking at continued recession and high unemployment," Formick said. "What we learned last year from that combination is it hurts people very badly. And it was compounded last year by rate increases."

In the year since most utilities bumped up rates as much as 36 percent, record numbers of county residents have sought financial help to cope with higher bills, managers of assistance agencies say.

The number of households vying for limited money has more than doubled in some cases. In other cases, programs have more money to offer in anticipation of greater demand for help.

At the same time, customers are feeling greater pressure to make their payments on time. In August, the Eugene Water & Electric Board mailed final notices for overdue bills to nearly 10,000 customers - up from a 12-month average of 6,800.

And EWEB has required more than 5,000 customers this year to post deposits because of late payment habits.

The utility has had a deposit policy for years, but its board decided to begin applying the policy more consistently when EWEB's unclaimed payments for the year reached a record $800,000 last fall.

Mary Ellen Bennett, the low-income energy assistance coordinator for the county's Human Services Commission, predicts the coming winter will again prove a trying time for many county residents.

"I don't believe the economy has improved that much," Bennett said. "We will probably end up with a lot of people on waiting lists again."

The higher costs are especially hard for seniors on fixed incomes.

Irene Stump, 78, saw her average EWEB bill shoot up $52 a month, to $210.

"I think this is just ridiculous," said Stump, who lost her husband to cancer in July and lives on his railroad pension. "When you're expected to pay bills as outlandish as these are, you give up something you want to do. It didn't happen to be food, but it came close."

The two were on a level payment plan, which estimates their annual bill and divides it equally among 12 monthly payments.

Last fall's 36 percent residential rate hike didn't show up on their statements until April, when the couple received a $411 bill reflecting the six-month difference in a lump sum.

"I about had a stroke," Stump said. "That's atrocious."

It was especially troublesome because of the added expense of her dying husband's prescription medication, she said. Stump has managed to pay her bills by cutting out frills, such as eating out.

Thousands of others are in worse shape.

"People are having a real tough time," said Lorraine Boose, who coordinates the Residential Energy Assistance Challenge, or REACH program.

REACH, funded by EWEB and three other utilities, provides bill-payment assistance as well as weatherization, conservation and energy education services to help households lower electricity use. Today, 280 households are enrolled.

"We see a lot of crises," Boose said. "We see people having to sacrifice necessary things like food and medicine to pay their utility bills. It's pretty bad right now."

Sarah Ross of Eugene said she put off paying medical bills for her husband earlier this year because her EWEB bill had risen so dramatically over the winter.

"Those are the ones I kept putting on the back burner. Now they're in collections, some of them," she said.

Ross, who described her family as on the borderline of being low-income, received some financial relief this year through another EWEB program. She also is on a waiting list for some federal bill-payment assistance.

Tapping these programs is a bit awkward, Ross said, because she's using some of the same resources as the people she helps as a family advocate for the Head Start program at Westmoreland Elementary School.

"Everyone I work with is struggling with their energy bills, and the families I work with are, too," she said. "It's a big problem, not just a personal problem for me."

High need for help

Many more people are seeking emergency money to keep the lights on - a trend EWEB commissioners anticipated last fall when they voted to raise rates.

The board dedicated $2.5 million to programs that aid low-income customers this year. The lion's share, $1.8 million, vastly expanded Energy Share, a service that offers residents up to $300 a year in credits on the electric portion of their bills.

In the past, customers donated all that Energy Share had to offer - enough to help about 1,000 households a year. With the infusion of EWEB funds, more than 3,200 households have received subsidies so far this year. And with less than four months left in the year, nearly two-thirds of the cash remains.

"We will not run out of money this year," said Gaylene Glidewell of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, which contracts with EWEB to coordinate Energy Share payments.

Requests for Energy Share dollars have slowed to 50 to 60 customers a week, but that's still high for the summer when power use is at its lowest, Glidewell said.

She also expects the need for assistance this fall and winter could surpass last year's call for help.

"We see a lot of working poor. We're seeing a lot of people who never received anything before. It's been a noticeable difference," she said. "I'm expecting that to be even greater this coming winter, because the economy hasn't take any major jumps here."

Another popular service - one that's available to all county residents - is the federally funded Low-income Energy Assistance Program.

The county received $1.3 million in LEAP funds last winter, and was able to help about 5,300 needy households. The money ran out, however, with another 3,600 households waiting for help.

The county unexpectedly received another $140,000 in emergency money in mid-August and expects to use it to help 560 households with one-time payments averaging $250.

The county plans to receive another $1.3 million this winter and hopes to have the money to start helping people as early as November, Bennett said. But she cautions that the money could come late.

"We always encourage people to do all they can to ensure they stay current on their bills," Bennett said. "It's too dicey to plan on getting a LEAP payment. People should do all they can to get caught up or even ahead on their bills going into winter time. And conserve, conserve, conserve."

Deposits required

Some residents may be too deep in the hole to crawl out in time for cold weather.

One Eugene woman, a single mother of four, said she has gone without electricity in her home since July 15 and without water since Aug. 21, with no certainty that she'll have the utilities restored anytime soon.

EWEB shut off her service for failure to pay, and it wasn't the first time. For now, friends supply her family with water and sometimes she cooks in a microwave powered by an extension cord running from a neighbor's house.

But Kim - she asked that her last name not be published - said she lacks the income to cover EWEB's rates as well as the security deposit the utility now requires her to post. She said she put down a $340 deposit three years ago and owes another $115 deposit, plus more than $300 in past due charges.

Kim admits she has had a spotty payment record, but she said she's trying to turn that around. She's attending classes at Lane Community College and hopes to get work as a medical transcriber. But the required deposits only compound the financial burden of low-income residents, she said.

"You shouldn't have to put these deposits down," she said. "It's like a punishment or something. They need to give people a break."

A customer who can't demonstrate good credit or payment history must put down a deposit equal to twice the high monthly bill from the previous 12 months. The amount easily can exceed $500 for residents already pressed to pay their power costs.

EWEB this year has required deposits more than 5,100 times - far more than in past years. In all, less than 10 percent of current residential customers have had to post a deposit, spokesman Lance Robertson said.

The policy, which uses a rigid point system to determine when a deposit is required, tolerates late payers to an extent. A current customer can receive a final billing notice up to five times in a 12-month period and still not be required to post a deposit, Robertson said.

"You have to have had a fairly long history of not being able to pay your bill to get a sufficient number of points to require a deposit," he said.

Deposits also are returned to customers, with interest, if they pay promptly for two years.

Chuck Dalton, EWEB's customer relations manager, said deposits undeniably are a hardship for many customers.

"Of course they don't like it," Dalton said, adding that low-income customers frequently are the ones with bad credit. "I imagine most low-income folks have to post deposits."

Often they must cobble together subsidies, donations and other funds to qualify for first-time service or get the power turned back on.

If they can't get service restored within 72 hours, Dalton said, it's a sure sign they don't have the ability to pay.

"Some households are viewed more sympathetically than others, such as those with children, a disabled resident or senior citizen," Dalton said. "But just single adults in otherwise good health - those folks really have limited resources to draw on."

He said he doesn't know how many customers go more than a few days without EWEB service but suspects several dozen are in that position.

To get by, some use gas generators for bursts of power and propane stoves to cook meals and heat rooms.

"They really kind of revert to a camping sort of mode," he said, adding that most EWEB programs are designed to prevent customers from losing service in the first place. "It's difficult when somebody's that far in the hole."

At St. Vincent de Paul, several residents come in every week seeking help after their power had been shut off, Glidewell said. Recently, two separate customers came in who had been without service for more than two months, she said.

"They had just totally run out of resources in the community," Glidewell said. "We tell people never wait until you're turned off. Once you're turned off, it takes away a lot of options with the utility. You lose some of your bargaining power."

EWEB SERVICE SHUTOFFS

The number of service shutoffs due to nonpayment has risen in the past year.

Final notice Disconnect 

Sept. '01 4,892 40

Oct. '01 9,000 44

Nov. '01 5,642 40

Dec. '01 5,640 114

Jan. '02 7,192 210

Feb. '02 5,388 60

Mar. '02 7,169 218

Apr. '02 6,764 157

May '02 7,213 155

June '02 5,816 102

July '02 6,914 134