As frigid weather settles on the Monadnock Region, two area organizations are working to help keep low-income people warm this winter by providing shelter and heating bill assistance.
Southwestern Community Services, a local nonprofit that supports people in need across Cheshire and Sullivan Counties, expects to spend $4 to $6 million in federal funding to help more than 5,000 households heat their homes in the coming months. Another agency, Hundred Nights in Keene, recently opened an overnight warming shelter to help people experiencing homelessness stay warm as temperatures dip.
Despite the unusually warm fall weather this year, temperatures have begun to drop in the past few weeks. Temperatures are expected to dip as low as 16 degrees this weekend, and 15 degrees Monday night, according to the National Weather Service.
Heat is a basic human need in the chilly New England winter, and it can be an expensive one, said Southwestern Community Services CEO Beth Daniels.
“For a lot of folks barely getting by, that additional wallop of a high heating cost … just puts them right over the top,” she added.
Federal heating assistance is available for households making up to 60 percent of the state median income in N.H. counties.
In Cheshire and Sullivan Counties, that translates to almost $45,000 for one person and about $88,000 for a family of four, according to agency’s website.
The average statewide benefit last year was a little under $1,300 but households can receive anywhere from $100 to $2,177 to help with heating bills, according to a news release the N.H. Department of Energy issued Tuesday. The funds are paid directly to utility companies, Daniels added.
That money can be the difference between choosing to forgo food or essential medication to keep the house warm.
“In my conversations with people over the years, many of them are getting by, but barely, and there is not a whole lot of wiggle room for emergencies,” Daniels said.
SCS has been processing applications since July, and so far have almost 3,500 eligible households participating in the program. And even though they will begindistributing funds Sunday, through the end of April, people can still apply by calling SCS or walking into the organization’s office Keene or Claremont.
Daniels, who said the organization normally helps between 4,000 to 5,000 households, expects roughly 1,600 additional applications to come in.
“I get the sense that folks are feeling maybe a little bit unsettled,’ she said, referencing inflationary pressures that have increased the prices of many everyday goods and services in recent years.
Though inflation cooled somewhat, consumers are still feeling the pinch. The cost of food and other necessities remain higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic. For low-income households, these increases hit much harder.
Meanwhile, Hundred Nights Shelter in Keene will conclude a five-night run Sunday of its overnight warming center at the Kingsbury Resource Center in Keene that began Wednesday night.
Additionally, the 48-bed facility has opened the center a handful of cold nights over the last three weeks, with plans to be open every night this winter, according to Director Becky Beaton.
Beaton said the shelter is at capacity each night but the warming center allows the organization to accommodate more people without violating its licensing requirements.
The center was also open on Nov. 13, 14 and 21 and had five guests utilize the space each of those nights. Hundred Nights hosted 7 on Nov. 22.
“We know there are still many in our community staying in places not meant for habitation and likely without heat,” Beaton said in an email.
She previously told the Sentinel she hopes the center, which was only open on the coldest nights last winter, will have the available resources to open every night this winter.
Exposure to cold weather is a common cause of hypothermia, a condition that occurs when a person’s core body temperature drops only about four degrees below 98.6, according to the Mayo Clinic. The condition can be fatal.
And although people are most likely to develop the condition at very cold temperatures, according to the U.S. Forest Service it’s possible to develop symptoms, which include shivering, confusion, clumsiness and clammy skin, but in water or if a person is wet, even 40 degree weather could cause problems.
“We believe that the consistency of being open every night will help our community know where they can go this winter,” Beaton said. “So we are working towards that.”
Sophia Keshmiri can be reached at 603-283-0725 or skeshmiri@keenesentinel.com.
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