Resolution to Increase Funding for the Low Income Home Energy assistance Program (LIHEAP)
Adopted at the in 2015
WHEREAS, LIHEAP is an essential resource for our communities' most underservedpopulations, including the working poor, the disabled and the elderly living on fixed incomes; and
WHEREAS, LIHEAP is an exceptionally efficient and targeted program, with stateblock grants flowing to local agencies which provide short-term, mostly one-time,assistance to help cover a portion of their heating costs in the winter and cooling costs inthe summer; and
WHEREAS, LIHEAP prevents low-income families from having to choose betweenpaying to heat or cool their homes or purchasing necessary medication and food; and
WHEREAS, the US Census Bureau reported that 14.5 percent of the country, or 45million people, have incomes below the poverty threshold. This total is still significantlylarger than the 12.3% in poverty in 2006, before the recession began; and
WHEREAS, energy costs continue to place an enormous burden on the budgets of low-income households; and
WHEREAS, total funding for LIHEAP has declined by more than 30 percent in recentyears, from $5.1 billion in FY2010 to $3.4 billion in Fiscal Year 2015; and
WHEREAS, during this period (FY2010-201), the number of households served fellfrom approximately 8.1 million to 6.7 million. Meanwhile, the average LIHEAPpayments have been reduced by roughly $100 since 2010, dropping from $520 inFY2010 to $425 in FY2015; and
WHEREAS, at the current funding level of $3.4 billion, the LIHEAP program is onlyserving roughly 20 percent of the eligible population,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference ofMayors supports an increase in LIHEAP funding and urges Congress to increase theappropriations of the LIHEAP program to at least $4.7 billion in the FY 2016 budget torespond to the high demand of eligible households.