Connecticut residents are struggling to afford basic utilities like heat and electricity as the gap between what residents are asked to pay and what they can afford grows.
That’s the finding of a new report from Operation Fuel, an organization that provides emergency financial assistance to families struggling with their utility bills. The organization says with bills increasing, demand for help is skyrocketing.
During the most recent application period, which ran from August to October, Operation Fuel says the number of families seeking assistance doubled, a trend that was seen earlier this year as well.
“Our recent summer/fall program … was about two months, and we received roughly 4,000 applications in that time,” said Gannon Long, the agency’s chief programs officer. “The year prior, we had gotten 4,000 applications over about four months.”
Demand is rising due to a growing affordability gap, as the organization says energy bills across the state are becoming harder for people to pay.
“That affordability gap grew 37% in just the three years since our last study and that doesn’t account for the rate increases last year, other things that maybe have made that actually worse,” Long said.
The annual report looked at the costs of housing, energy, water and transportation in each municipality and compared them to median household incomes. Within each municipality, the report compared the costs of living with the area’s median household incomes.
As the affordability gap grows, surges in demand are shrinking application windows for assistance, Long said.
Earlier this year, Operation Fuel paused applications for energy assistance due to extreme demand. The window for applications briefly opened again in April, but the group signaled another closure was looming.
In April, Operation Fuel eventually closed its winter/spring application period a month early after being inundated with requests for assistance.
Statewide, Hartford and Bridgeport have the highest energy burdens, while New Haven and Hartford have the highest water bill burdens.
And while the affordability gap grows across the state, the burden isn’t shared equally among all Connecticut residents, Connecticut Consumer Counsel Claire Coleman said.
“Many Connecticut residents, particularly those living in our cities and people of color, have a higher energy burden than other residents,” Coleman said.
