Oregon Heating Assistance: LIHEAP

Oregon runs the federal program as Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), administered by Oregon Housing and Community Services. 18 different program names appear across the states compiled here, which is why a search for the federal acronym often misses the page a household in Oregon actually needs.

Oregon Housing and Community Services publishes no fixed opening date for the season. That is the date as the agency describes it rather than a fixed calendar day. The agency's own words: "Please note: OHCS administers the LIHEAP program in Oregon. OHCS does not determine eligibility or award grants to households."

The test is Household income at or below 60 percent of Oregon's median income, by household size, with gross income counted before deductions., set out in the state agency's own table rather than as a percentage of either national measure. Oregon Housing and Community Services puts it this way: "To be eligible for energy assistance under either program, a household income must be at or below 60% of Oregon´s median income."

Oregon Housing and Community Services takes applications at a community action agency, by phone, by mail and home visit. The program line is 1-800-453-5511, option 1. The application itself lives on the agency's own site rather than on a federal one.

Public Utility Commission of Oregon sets a separate rule on that, and its short form is: At or below 32F, Nov 1 to Apr 30. In several states the two are linked, because receiving assistance is itself what switches the disconnection protection on. The winter shutoff page for Oregon carries the rule.

Oregon Housing and Community Services runs Weatherization Assistance Program, which is the companion to the bill payment side. Its own words: "The Weatherization Assistance Program is a federally funded program. It provides low-income households with home weatherization services."

Both, in the way that matters to a household. The money is a federal block grant; Oregon Housing and Community Services decides what it is called, when it opens, who is eligible and what it pays. Across the states compiled here that produces 18 program names and 8 different opening months, so the answer is a state answer even though the funding is federal.

On Oregon Energy Assistance Programs, Oregon Housing and Community Services, which is the page every figure here was read from. Oregon Housing and Community Services is the agency to go back to when a date or a threshold changes, because a state can move either between program years.