PARIS – Providing heating assistance to those in Androscoggin and Oxford counties is a yearly juggling act for Community Concepts Inc.’s Koriene Low.

She is the director of community services and is responsible for overseeing the $2.4 million Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program that will provide fuel assistance to more than 6,000 people this year.

But her program is funded federally and the funds have only been certain at the beginning of five of the 17 years she has been involved.

The questions of funding also impact her staff.

By the third week of January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has not provided nationwide the full $1.788 billion in LIHEAP funds approved by Congress.

According to Sen. Susan Collins, this meant Maine would be about $3 million short of what had been promised.

Collins said in a recent study that 79,728 Maine households were eligible for LIHEAP, but in 2001 only 54,421 received assistance.

Low said the national percentage of usage was also reflected in the counties Community Concepts serves in Maine.

Finally the funds were released in the last week of January.

“This winter has been extremely tough on families,” Low said. “A lot of folks are on unemployment or their unemployment has run out and there have been layoffs. We’ve had extreme cold in January and the cost of fuel has increased.”

Low said this year has also been difficult on her staff. She started with nine staff members and six volunteers in September 2003. Six of the staff members are hired on a seasonal basis, from September to the end of April.

“In January, we had already started the layoff process for staff because of no approved budget,” Low said.

She said the staff was also challenged because the agency served 20 percent more families than last year with the same number of staff.

The staff does intake work in Androscoggin and Oxford counties and visits those who are home bound. Four years ago there were about eight sites serving the two counties.

By program’s end this year, staff will have served 22 sites and will have made more than 400 home visits.

Low said she receives about $190,000 to operate the program.

Maine State Housing Authority is the grantee with the federal government and actually receives the funds and Community Concepts is the subgrantee.

Low said that according to federal law, administration costs for the funding cannot exceed 10 percent of the grant. MSHA gets 2.5 percent of the funding and Community Concepts gets 7.5 percent.

She said the program is funded based on clients served the previous year, so the administrative rates are capped according to the prior year.

“There had been years when we receive no funds from October to February,” Low said. “We get program dollars to help people, but no administrative funds. So there are staffing challenges.”

Low said if Congress does not pass the budget by Sept. 30, the funding goes to “continuing resolution,” meaning approval is tied up until Congress decides to pass it.

She said LIHEAP is not an emergency program, and it takes about one month from the time an application is submitted to receiving the funding.

There is still funding available for those who meet the income guidelines. Appointments at various sites in the two counties are booked until Feb. 29, according to Low.

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