As the weather gets colder, lower-income Americans will be depending on a program that helps them heat their homes.

The program is called the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Every year the federal government provides states, tribes, and territories with several billion dollars to help eligible families pay to heat and cool their homes. 

Although the Trump administration proposed eliminating the program, committees in both the House and Senate included it in their budget proposals. But until Congress passes a spending bill, heating assistance funds are running low, just in time for winter. 

Linda Botica lives alone in Chicago. She’s 74 years old, and said her monthly Social Security check is her only source of income. 

“I'm at the point where, after I pay my rent, I only have, like, $200 to live on for the month,” she said.

Which means LIHEAP is crucial for her in the Chicago winter. She’s received it for five years. But her annual benefit, she said, has shrunk each year. So she keeps the temperature on her electric baseboards pretty low.

“I'll sit with my coat on, you know, it's only me here. You know, it sounds so ridiculous, but it's reality,” she said.

Receiving LIHEAP assistance to keep the heat on was reality for over 5 million American households in fiscal year 2024. The money flows from the federal government to states, then typically to local nonprofits, which sign up residents for assistance. 

Usually, households that get their applications in quickly find out how much assistance they’ll get for the winter around Nov. 1.

“And that is absolutely not going to happen this year,” said Liz Berube, head of Citizens for Citizens, the nonprofit that administers LIHEAP in southeastern Massachusetts.

Even if Congress approves LIHEAP funding, she expects it’ll take weeks for that money to get out the door. 

Which means, for now, her organization isn’t hiring seasonal staff it typically brings on at this time of year to process thousands of LIHEAP applications. 

“We're just asking for patience, because you may not be able to get through to us but if you are an emergency, you know, just please keep trying,” she said.

States can carry over some leftover federal LIHEAP money each fiscal year. Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Edward Augustus said the commonwealth has about $7 million on hand.

“We think it'll serve about 11,000 families, but unless this government shutdown ends, once we run out of that $7 million, we'll have nothing to help eligible households with,” he said.

Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services laid off most of the staff administering LIHEAP at the federal level. 

Funding still went out, said Katrina Metzler, head of the National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition. But she worries about the program’s future, even if it does get funded.

“We don't know whether those funds will be released in a timely manner, and whether the typical way that the government works will be what we can expect this year. It's just throwing everybody off,” Metzler said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services blamed Democrats for the federal shutdown, and said it will “work swiftly to administer annual awards” once the government reopens.