Shunecie Height juggled her gas and power bills, watching them accumulate despite keeping her apartment's thermostat low, and being glad she wasn't trying to heat an entire house.
Georgia Power lost patience when she owed $391 and was three months past due.
"My power got cut off," said Height, who lives in west Atlanta. "I know this is my fault."
The Fulton-Atlanta Community Action Authority paid the $350 Georgia Power bill this week in a one-time annual allotment and Height's power was back on Friday.
"If there is nobody out there to help us, then we'll soon be homeless," Height said.
Next year under President Barack Obama's proposed budget, it will be a lot less likely the money will be there for folks like Height. The president's proposal would cut Low Income Housing Assistance Program money from $4.7 billion to $ 2.57 billion.
According to an Atlanta Gas Light Co. memo, even when the federal government was allocating $5.1 billion in the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years, that amount was only enough to assist one in five eligible Americans.
Debbie Schmell, executive director of Tallatoona Community Action Partnership, said the proposed cut would have dire consequences for Cobb County and seven other Georgia counties that her organization serves.
Tallatoona received about $7 million for this fiscal year, which will serve about 20,000 families. In Cobb, for instance, she said there are about 65,000 people living in poverty and the agency can provide $350 to about 8,400 of those households to assist with heating bills this winter.
"Next year with the president's proposed cuts we will be able to serve about a quarter of those households," Schmell said. "Going without heat is a significant health risk especially for the elderly, the disabled and small children.”
Not everybody in need of assistance falls into those categories and even advocates say that educating many of them on steps to reduce their heating bills -- such as weatherizing their houses -- is a difficult process.
Gloria Lee, manager of the Fulton-Atlanta Community Action Authority office in Kirkwood, said some people even leave windows and doors open. "We work to educate them," she said.
Jacquelyn Brewster said she lost her job six years ago after a deteriorating disc in her back left her unable to walk for six months. She owns a poorly insulated house near Fort McPherson that racks up big gas bills every winter, but she hasn't weatherized her windows and doors.
She said she is usually able to pay her bills through cutting hair and with financial assistance from her children but the economy has cut into her income.
"This is a catch up thing -- it's not something on which I'll be dependent," she said while waiting Thursday on a $350 Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program grant. "I shouldn't have gone three months without paying but I was catching up my mortgage. I'd rather have a roof over my head."
Joyce Dorsey, executive director of the Fulton-Atlanta Community Action Authority, said that the president's proposal would impact about 12,000 people in Atlanta and Fulton County.
She said on any given winter day her organization sees between 400 and 500 people, most of whom have disconnect notices. "With the economy the problem is just getting much more severe. We are backlogged now in being able to service the families because there are so many people in need," Dorsey said.
The Georgia Department of Human Services oversees the entire LIHEAP program in the state. It has received $87.7 million for this fiscal year of the program, and it distributes the money statewide, said DHS spokeswoman Dena Smith.
The department said the number of families served this winter is 24,445 in Fulton, 21,284 in DeKalb, 8,408 in Cobb, 10,840 in Gwinnett and 942 in Forsyth.
Last year's state allotment was about $100 million, which was above average, said Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families. The year before, the allotment was for $80 million. The year-to-year difference is a congressional budget decision, Wolfe said.
Schmell said her colleagues around the state were disappointed that Obama, who got started in the public arena as a community organizer, would choose to target energy-assistance funding and community block grants funding as a way to try to bring federal spending under control.
Theodorsha Johnson, a grant recipient, said she hoped Congress blocked the president's proposal.
"I don't think he should cut it by half because that is going to put a lot of people in the dark," she said. "We can't live without power."
Staff writer Rich McKay contributed to this article.
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