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Michigan calls it State Emergency Relief

Michigan Heating Assistance: State Emergency Relief

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services runs the federal heating grant in Michigan. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services publishes no fixed opening date for the season. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services takes applications online.

State Emergency Relief
What it is called here
State Emergency Relief
Ask locally
The season
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services publishes no fixed opening date
Set locally
The income limit
the agency publishes a rule rather than a figure
Yes
Crisis component
a separate, faster application
The answer

Heating assistance in Michigan, in one screen

State Emergency Relief

State Emergency Relief

Run by
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
The season
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services publishes no fixed opening date for the season.
The income test
The test is The department states eligibility on income and assets together with an immediate need such as a past due or shutoff notice, and does not print a percentage figure for State Emergency Relief on this page., set out in the state agency's own table rather than as a percentage of either national measure.
How to apply
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services takes applications online.

Energy & Weatherization, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

Temporary heat and utility assistance may be available for eligible low-income families and individuals when heating or electric service has been or will be shut off.
Energy & Weatherization, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
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Who qualifies

The State Emergency Relief income test in Michigan

The test is The department states eligibility on income and assets together with an immediate need such as a past due or shutoff notice, and does not print a percentage figure for State Emergency Relief on this page., set out in the state agency's own table rather than as a percentage of either national measure.

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.

Eligibility is based on: Demonstration of immediate need (past due/shutoff notice); or Declared need for a deliverable fuel such as fuel oil; or Verified need for energy-related home repair; and Income; and Assets.
Energy & Weatherization, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
If you cannot wait

The crisis route in Michigan

State Emergency Relief is itself the crisis benefit, paid when heat or electric service has been or will be shut off or when a deliverable fuel is needed.

A crisis application and a regular one are different transactions on different clocks. A household with a disconnection notice, an empty tank or a dead furnace should start with this one, say plainly on the call what the emergency is, and have the notice or the delivery ticket to hand.

State Emergency Relief is a crisis intervention program that provides assistance for energy-related expenses such as heating fuel, electricity and home repairs.
Energy & Weatherization, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
A white residential propane tank standing on a concrete pad beside a mown yard, with bare trees and a wooded ridge behind it
For a household on propane or heating oil the benefit usually arrives as a delivery to a tank like this one rather than as a credit on a bill, which is why a state that pays vendors directly will ask which dealer you use before it asks anything else. “Propane Tank - panoramio”, Corey Coyle, CC BY 3.0
The other half

Whether Michigan also stops the utility disconnecting

Once the household files, Nov 1 to Mar 31

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 Michigan Public Service Commission’s own words, is on the Michigan winter shutoff page.

Next winter

Making the house cheaper to heat in Michigan

Michigan runs 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.

Weatherization Assistance Program provides free home energy conservation services to low-income Michigan homeowners and renters. Services reduce energy use and lower utility bills.
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Weatherization Assistance Program in Michigan

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.

Michigan 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
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Heating assistance in other states

Michigan winter shutoff rulesWhether Michigan 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.

Michigan read September 23, 2026 from Energy & Weatherization, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, 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.