Home Heating Assistance May Not be as Widespread This Year

When News Channel 7 met Elaina Oswald and her daughter Kaitlyn Monday morning, she was frantic her electricity would be shut off tonight, and with it, her heat.

“Especially having kids, i mean, it's getting cold, it's going to get colder,” said Oswald.

“I mean I can't go without electric,” she said.

Oswald and her mother Hazel Malett have fallen on hard times and live together. They got a notice from Duke Energy that the power would be turned off if they didn't pay up.

“I don't know what I’m going to do. I'm just hoping and praying they can help me," said Malett.

But this year, we're told many agencies that offer home heating assistance are having to turn people away..

Paul Clay, the Executive Director of T.O.T.A.L. Ministries in Sartanburg says the agency is down $30,000 this year. The agency has been forced to cut out rent assistance starting today -- and cut back on home heating help.

“What we did is we decided if a person has been coming for more than 5 years, we're just done helping them, they're not getting any help at all. We're only going to focus on people who are new coming in for help, said Clay.

Down the road, Salvation Army Captain Ray Morton says he's also seeing a spike in need and a drop in resources.

"For the time being we just ask people to please be patient and just give us a couple of weeks so that our funding can come in and then we are prepared to help throughout the rest of the winter season," said Captain Morton.

Meanwhile, Oswald and her mother were able to get the $100 needed to keep the heat on through the end of the month. But in less than 30 days they'll have to come up with the remaining $500 to keep the lights on through the holidays.

AGENCIES OFFERING AID:

T.O.T.A.L. Ministries:

420 Union St
Spartanburg, SC 29306-3554
(864) 585-9167

The Salvation Army:

1529 John B. White Blvd
Spartanburg
864) 576-6670

Greater Spartanburg Ministries

680 Ashville Highway
Spartanburg, SC 29303
864-585-9371

Piedmont Community Action:

300 S Daniel Morgan Ave,
Spartanburg
(864) 463-4676