Skip to content
Alabama calls it LIHEAP

Alabama Heating Assistance: LIHEAP

Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) runs the federal heating grant in Alabama. Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) publishes no fixed opening date for the season. Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) takes applications at a community action agency, by phone and online appointment scheduler.

LIHEAP
What it is called here
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
Ask locally
The season
Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) publishes no fixed opening date
150%
The income limit
of federal poverty level
Not separate
Crisis component
the one application covers an emergency
The answer

Heating assistance in Alabama, in one screen

LIHEAP

Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)

Run by
Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA)
The season
Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) publishes no fixed opening date for the season.
The income test
The test is household income at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level, measured against the federal poverty level, so the qualifying figure is the same in every state that uses it and moves only with household size.
How to apply
Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) takes applications at a community action agency, by phone and online appointment scheduler.

Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), ADECA

ADECA contracts with community action agencies and local nonprofit agencies to deliver LIHEAP to low-income households throughout the state.
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), ADECA, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

ADECA contracts the program out and takes no applications itself, so the application window and the benefit are set by the Community Action Agency serving the county.

Advertisement
Who qualifies

The LIHEAP income test in Alabama

The test is household income at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level, measured against the federal poverty level, so the qualifying figure is the same in every state that uses it and moves only with household size.

Income is counted gross rather than after tax, and the household is everyone living at the address rather than everyone on the lease. Most states count the last thirty days or the last twelve months, not last year’s tax return, which means a household whose hours were cut in October can qualify in November on a year that looks too high on paper. Apply and let the agency do the arithmetic rather than ruling yourself out.

In order to receive assistance, the applicant's household income must not exceed 150% of the federally established poverty level.
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), ADECA, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
The other half

Whether Alabama also stops the utility disconnecting

No winter window

The two are separate: a heating grant is money and a shutoff rule is a restriction on the company. In several states an approved grant application is itself what satisfies the filing the shutoff rule asks for, which makes applying worth doing even for a household that thinks the grant will not cover much. The full rule, with Alabama Public Service Commission’s own words, is on the Alabama winter shutoff page.

Next winter

Making the house cheaper to heat in Alabama

Alabama runs Alabama Weatherization Assistance Program. It pays for the insulation and the air sealing rather than the bill, which is the only part of this that lowers next winter as well as this one.

ADECA contracts with local community action agencies and the Central Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission to deliver weatherization assistance to low-income households in all 67 counties across the state.
Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Alabama Weatherization Assistance Program in Alabama

In most states a household approved for the heating grant is automatically income eligible for weatherization, so the same paperwork does both. The waiting list is usually long and the work is usually free, which is a combination worth joining early rather than in the week it is needed.

Alabama heating assistance questions

Icicles hanging in a row from the eaves of a low brick apartment building against a clear blue sky, with a balcony rail at the right edge
A renter whose heat is bundled into the rent can still qualify in most states, and is among the least likely to apply. Where a state sets its income test against the federal poverty level rather than state median income, the line can sit twenty points apart for the same household. “Icicles on the eaves of a house in Quebec City”, Wilfredor, CC0
Advertisement

Heating assistance in other states

Alabama winter shutoff rulesWhether Alabama bars a winter disconnection, and what a household has to do.Winter shutoff rules by stateWhether a window, a forecast or a filing decides it where you live.Heating oil and propane pricesWhat the fuel costs this week in the states that report it.Firewood cutting permitsWhere a permit lets a household cut its own firewood.Heating assistance in every stateThe program names, the opening dates and the income tests side by side.

Alabama read September 23, 2026 from Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), ADECA, linked above. Opening dates, income limits and benefit amounts are set each program year and the agency can change them mid season, so the page linked above is the one that governs. Every state is on the heating assistance hub.