The Talladega County Chapter of American Red Cross and the Community Action Agency of Talladega, Clay, Randolph, Calhoun and Cleburne counties have programs in place to partially assist with, or in some cases completely take care of, the utility bills of citizens who qualify for their assistance.
At the Red Cross, Executive Director Pat Miller said most of the contributions going to help those in need have been provided by citizens of Talladega County.
Programs such as Project SHARE through Alabama Power Company, the United Way and the occasional grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency provide funds the American Cross can then give to those families in Talladega who have no other way to pay overdue utility bills for gas and electricity.
“Right now we are out of Project SHARE money,” Miller said. “Electric utility customers are able to designate $1, $5 or even $10 to be added to their bill each month to help people who can’t afford to pay their bill. We are expecting our winter allocation from Project SHARE sometime in January.”
Miller said a lot of donations come from larger donations made to the United Way each year, and that money is also spent wisely. She said the Red Cross would not be able to function without the United Way.
The Red Cross wants to make sure that the people who need the money the most are the first to benefit from these donations, so there are some guidelines the organization will usually follow when providing aid.
The amount of assistance provided is based on income and expenses for the person or family applying. Anyone who is disabled and receiving a disability check is most likely going to receive assistance from the Red Cross.
“We check to make sure that no other agencies are helping that person,” Miller said. “If another agency is helping them, we don’t help. If all the agencies are helping the same people we aren’t helping as many people throughout the state as we could.”
Miller also said every situation is different because each family will have unique circumstances bringing them to the Red Cross to ask for help.
As long as the family is providing just a power bill and is not requiring a deposit or appliances, the Red Cross should be able to help them out with that bill in some way.
“If there is a need, we will find a way to help,” Miller said. “Especially when there are children and the elderly involved.”
The FEMA money the Red Cross may be able to obtain at times does not have the kinds of restrictions on it the other money does.
Miller said the organization will not discriminate no matter who walks in the door.
The same is true for the Community Action Agency of Talladega, Clay, Randolph, Calhoun and Cleburne counties.
Executive Director Horace Sims said the agency is getting ready for its Low Income Energy Assistance program as soon as Gov. Bob Riley releases the money. The first amount of money released to the agency should be $219,516, which Sims hopes will serve about 108 people in north Talladega.
With this program, Sims said the agency should be able to serve about 25 to 30 people a day out of its Talladega office, and about the same number of people a day out of its Sylacauga office.
“We will continue to assist people until we consume that $219,516,” Sims said. “Then as the governor releases more money will continue to consume that until we have consumed the entire amount we are to receive. We are not turning anybody away, we will screen everybody to see if they qualify.”
As the agency helps people, Sims also said case workers will be able to load the names of those assisted into a computer so that other agencies throughout the state will be able to see who the Talladega agency has assisted.
The money will be available on a first come first serve basis, and will be figured on a sliding scale based on income. If someone brings their bill in asking for assistance during the roughly 30 days the agency begins taking applications for the state money, the agency will look at the income for the household and how many are in the home.
Those factors determine how much assistance the agency can provide. In some cases, the agency can provide more than the actual bill amount, creating a credit. In other cases, the agency is only able to provide a portion of the bill. Sims said the agency has no choice about how much it can help because it is all based on the scale.
“There are hundreds and hundreds of people in need,” Sims said. “And we can only help so many. We ask that people try to be patient because we realize this is a slow system. We hope there is not a stampede, if you will, because we cannot handle any more than we can take.”
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