{"id":17800,"date":"2025-11-20T20:07:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=17800"},"modified":"2025-11-20T20:08:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:08:56","slug":"assistance-available-for-northwest-ohioans-for-heating-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/assistance-available-for-northwest-ohioans-for-heating-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Assistance Available for Northwest Ohioans for Heating Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Through The 2025\/2026 HEAP Winter Crisis Program<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Special to The Truth<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nThe Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio, Inc and the Ohio Department of Development want to remind older Ohioans that assistance is available to help with their home energy bills during the winter months.<br \/>\nThe Winter Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) helps assist low-income households or those who have a disconnection notice, have been shut off, are trying to establish new service on their electric bill, require air conditioning, or those with an elderly household member (60 years or older) who can provide physician documentation that cooling assistance is needed for their health. Qualifying medical conditions can include lung disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, asthma, and others.<br \/>\nTo qualify for assistance, Ohioans must have a gross income at or below 175% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines for a household of up to seven members and 60% of State Median Income for a household of eight or more members to pay their heating bills. Applied directly to the customer\u2019s utility or bulk fuel bill, the benefit can help manage heating costs.<\/p>\n<p>To apply for the program, clients are required to schedule an appointment.<br \/>\nWhen applying, individuals need to have copies of the following documents:<\/p>\n<p>* \u00a0 Most recent utility bills.<br \/>\n* \u00a0 A list of all household members (including birth dates and Social Security numbers).<br \/>\n* \u00a0 Proof of income for the past 30 days for all household members (12 months for certain income types).<br \/>\n* \u00a0 Proof of U.S. citizenship or legal residency for all household members.<br \/>\n* \u00a0 Proof of disability (if applicable).<\/p>\n<p>Older Ohioans can reach out to us, the Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio Inc, at 419-382-0624 for help with assembling the required documents and completing their HEAP application.<br \/>\nThey may also visit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.energyhelp.ohio.gov\/\">www.energyhelp.ohio.gov<\/a>&lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.energyhelp.ohio.gov\/\">http:\/\/www.energyhelp.ohio.gov<\/a>&gt; to apply online or to download a copy of the application.<br \/>\nHEAP benefits are applied to an individual\u2019s energy bill after Jan. 1.<br \/>\nApplications for the Winter HEAP program must be received by May 31, 2026.<br \/>\nTo be connected to your local Energy Assistance Provider, call (800) 282-0880 (hearing impaired clients may dial 711 for assistance) or visit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.energyhelp.ohio.gov\/\">www.energyhelp.ohio.gov<\/a>&lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.energyhelp.ohio.gov\/\">http:\/\/www.energyhelp.ohio.gov\/<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Through The 2025\/2026 HEAP Winter Crisis Program Special to The Truth The Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio, Inc and the Ohio Department of Development want to remind older Ohioans that assistance is available to help with their home energy bills during the winter months. The Winter Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) helps assist [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[321],"class_list":["post-17800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17800"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17802,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17800\/revisions\/17802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17800"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=17800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}