How will Central Oregonians stay warm this winter?

(Update: Comments from NeighborImpact, residents)

Fall starts Friday, and we can certainly feel it in the air.

Many residents might have already turned on their heat.

But that’s not easy for everyone, including Tumalo resident Marie, who didn’t want her last name used.

“So yeah, I never really expected to at least not be able to pay the bare essentials,” she said Wednesday. “What is somebody like me going to do without their services?”

Marie never expected to struggle with her heating bill, but after becoming disabled, life quickly took a turn for the worse.

“It’s just amazing how you can go from — not riches, I was never rich, but I would definitely say I was middle class — to very low income class,” she said. “It was just very fast, very devastating.”

Last year, NeighborImpact (a 21 Cares for Kids partner) provided heating and energy assistance to nearly 5,000 households across Central Oregon.

Joyce Cranston, NeighborImpact’s energy assistance manager, said the program is extremely important for many Central Oregonians.

“With the rental situation as it is in all of Central Oregon right now, they’re having to make really, really hard choices about, do I pay my rent, do I get my medicine, do I pay my utility bills?” she said.

And those choices aren’t ones that anyone wants to make, including George Heinz, who joined NeighborImpact’s board of directors after needing heating assistance himself.

“Income is very limited, so over the past few years living over here in Prineville, we’ve had to seek energy assistance to help with the gas bill or heating needs during the winter,” Heinz said. “You know, those kind of stack up during the winter, and once, twice a year, we’ll have to seek some of that help to keep our head above water.”

The brutal winter Central Oregonians saw last year meant NeighborImpact’s funds ran out sooner than expected, as more people applied for help than in years past.

But funding has been provided by the federal government, and NeighborImpact will be taking appointments for assistance starting Oct. 1.

For more information on NeighborImpact, visit their website:
http://www.neighborimpact.org/

And for energy assistance call: 541-504-2155
Or weatherization: 541-3162034