Volusia County, FL - On Tuesday, the Volusia County Council approved a six-month extension for a program which provides emergency heating and cooling assistance for the elderly.
The Emergency Home Energy Assistance for the Elderly program was approved by the Council in July of last year, and it provides crisis energy assistance to those eligible households with at least one person, age 60 or older, experiencing a heating or cooling emergency.
The original contract with the Northeast Florida Area on Aging was expected to run until March 31 of this year. It will now be extended until September 30 of this year.
Now that the contract extension is approved, the budget for the program will also be increased by $12,860 for a total of $107,241. According to the County, the new contract will allocate $1,142 for administrative costs of the program, $15,970 will go toward operating costs, and $90,129 will be allocated for direct client assistance.
"In some ways, we're the only safety net," said County Manager Jim Dinneen. "It's easier and more cost-effective to keep people from becoming homeless than to fix it, and sometimes a utility bill for people who are stressed can make all the difference to start that downward spiral."
The County Council also approved an ordinance to reduce the required number of members of the Volusia County Affordable Housing Authority’s advisory committee and reduce the amount of housing advisory committee meetings per year. Because Volusia receives annual State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) funds, it must have an established affordable housing advisory committee. The required number of committee members will be reduced from 11 to eight, and committee meetings will be required twice a year, as opposed to quarterly.
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