🎙️ Energy Coordinating Agency (ECA) with Steve Luxton Today we’re joined by Steve Luxton, CEO & Executive Director and Lorraine Horton the Director of Community Programs at the Energy Coordinating Agency (ECA). Since 1984, ECA has worked to end energy poverty in Philadelphia. Through its 16 Neighborhood Energy Centers, ECA provides bill payment help, energy education, housing counseling, and access to programs like LIHEAP. Each year, ECA weatherizes 800+ homes, repairs or replaces 5,000 heating systems, and trains 200+ residents for clean energy jobs at its nationally accredited Knight Green Jobs Training Center. Under Steve’s leadership, ECA ensures families have safe, affordable energy while preparing the next generation for green careers.
🌐 ecasavesenergy.org | 📞 215-609-1040
📱 @ecasavesenergy (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X/Twitter)
🎙️ Understanding SNAP Changes with Mackenzie Libbey (CLS) Starting September 1st, many adults in Philadelphia may only receive SNAP benefits for three months every three years—unless they qualify for exemptions or meet new work rules. Mackenzie Libbey, Staff Attorney at Community Legal Services (CLS), joins us to explain what these changes mean, who may be exempt, and how to protect your benefits.
🌐 clsphila.org/SNAPchanges | 📞 215-981-3700
📱 @clsphila (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn)
🌐 ecasavesenergy.org | 📞 215-609-1040
📱 @ecasavesenergy (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X/Twitter)
🎙️ Understanding SNAP Changes with Mackenzie Libbey (CLS) Starting September 1st, many adults in Philadelphia may only receive SNAP benefits for three months every three years—unless they qualify for exemptions or meet new work rules. Mackenzie Libbey, Staff Attorney at Community Legal Services (CLS), joins us to explain what these changes mean, who may be exempt, and how to protect your benefits.
🌐 clsphila.org/SNAPchanges | 📞 215-981-3700
📱 @clsphila (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. You're listening to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Ballardmorrow. We're going to be talking
with Mackenzie Libby from Community Legal Services, who breaks down
the new snap changees starting September first and what they
mean and how you can protect your benefits. But first,
we're going to be talking about an organization that tackles
energy poverty in Philadelphia and prepares the next generation for
(00:22):
clean energy jobs. Certainly all of us want to save
money and we want to help the environment and save energy. Well,
we're going to be talking to a couple of folks
who are going to tell us more about how we
can do that. Steve Luxton is CEO and Executive director
of the Energy Coordinating Agency. Lorraine Horton is Community Programs
director for the organization. Founded in nineteen eighty four by
(00:44):
public and private sector leaders, ECA was created to address
the energy poverty crisis facing Philadelphia's low income families. At
the time, thousands of households were losing service due to
high utility costs. Federal assistance programs were underutilized. There's little
core nation between utilities and government resources. ECA stepped in
to change that. And today operates a resilient citywide network
(01:07):
of sixteen neighborhood energy centers. So I'd like to thank
you both for joining us here today and Steve for
listeners who may not be familiar, can you give us
an overview of ECA's mission, it's history, and how your
work has evolved to meet the energy needs of low
income families in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yes, ECA is a very unique organization. We're a big
nonprofit born in bred in Philadelphia, and our mission is
to help people conserve energy and to promote a sustainable
and socially equitable energy future for all. Essentially, ECA is
this multifaceted nonprofit that provides energy assistance to folks that
(01:48):
would come into our neighborhood energy centers, which we can
talk about. We run the City of Philadelphia's Heater Hotline program,
which is a critical program obviously when folks don't have
heat and they don't have the financial means during the
heating season to have the heating system fixed. We have
run a program for decades called the Heater Hotline. It's
(02:10):
a free service for folks that are income eligible to
call us up and give us their information. We qualify
them and if they are eligible, then we will come
out to their house to assess and hopefully repair and
get that heating system running, and all of that done
is at no cost to our client. We also have
(02:31):
a weatherization program where we go into homes and identify
opportunities in the home to make it more energy efficient
but also make it more comfortable for folks to live
in as well. Unfortunately, when energy prices go up, folks
tend to turn the thermosts down and maybe conserve energy,
(02:51):
which is great. Part of going on an energy diet
is conservation, but not to the point where you're not
enjoying your home home. So whetherise in a home allows
us to make it more warmer, comfortable, and use less
energy at the same time, and that's a critical service
that we provide because Philadelphia unfortunately has the distinction of
(03:13):
being the poorest big city in the country ten largest cities.
And energy burden is also one of the biggest problems
that low income folks face, and essentially, energy burden is
the amount of their total household annual income that goes
towards paying energy bills that could be gas, electric, and
(03:35):
it's not uncommon in a low income household to find
that the energy burden, which is expressed as a percentage,
to be as high as twenty maybe even twenty five
percent more often not ten percent. So that, yeah, that
sounds high. But here's how I put that into perspective.
For middle income Let's say their average energy burden for
(03:56):
most of us is about three four maybe five percent,
So you can see that a disproportionate amount of income
goes towards keeping their homes heeded.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Well, Lorraine, you are a community programs director for ECA,
and EC's Neighborhood Energy Centers are often the first point
of contact for families in crisis. I wonder if you
can talk about the critical role these sixteen centers play
and how they helped connect residents to programs like light Heap,
housing counseling, and energy education.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Number one, the Neighborhood Energy Centers was designed to help
income eligible families apply for lot heap because for years,
a lot of people didn't know how they even fill
out the applications. They were getting a lot of rejections
because of the documents that they didn't have or the
language that they didn't understand. So this was put together
(04:47):
to encourage communities to apply for the lot heat crisis
to keep them from being terminated, or for those that
were already terminated, we help them to get their services
back on. One of the programs that we we use
to do this outside of the Hockey Bos crisis is
that we just started helping PGW with the Hardship program.
That hardship program is for anyone that fits the income
(05:09):
eligibility of one seventy five percent or lets. They can
go into thirteen of the neighborhood energy centers right now
are offering services to be able to help them as
long as as long as they haven't used to programming
in a couple of years, so they can come in
and get up to fifteen hundred dollars to help them
either restore their services or to keep their services from
(05:31):
being terminated. They also help with getting on the CRP program.
They help with getting on people's cat program. We help
with the water program and other tier programs that they
have throughout the city for people to be able to
get on a budget type thing so that they can
keep their utilities on. And we also do a budget
(05:52):
counseling one on one with these clients so that they
can see how money is going out and how money
is coming in and actually have them choose between some
things that they can do to cut back on so
that they can keep up with their bills because a
lot of times people don't know really they don't realize
how much when it gets spending until you actually lay
it out in your face.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
So we do that.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
We also do one on one energy counseling and this
is also helpful to help them keep their services on.
So inside of most of our neighborhood energy centers are
located inside of other social service buildings that also offers
first time home buyers or helping people to find resources
that provide pampers for their babybits or other grants that
(06:37):
are out there. Free oil once a lot heaping crisis
is over, they can use grandom oil, they could be
other they can go PCA and get oil. We're also
starting with our we're going to be rolling out at
NBC which is a mobile energy center which will connect
in areas where we have that gap and especially with
scept them being cut roots that they are know that
(07:00):
they want to need to be able to get to
an agency. What don't having to find out what buzzes wanted.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, that's fantastic, so you're actually meeting people where they are. Steve,
There's been certainly a lot of movement on the federal level,
and I know that President Trump has cut drastically, if
not completely, light heat program and there are other energy
assistance programs which I have no doubt either are on
the chopping block or already been eliminated. Can you talk
(07:29):
about the impact of these cuts on the kinds of
programs that you talk about. There are lots of different
grant programs and support programs, but we're starting to see
a lot of that money drying up.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, we truly are concerned at this point in time
that we just seem to never really know either what
is possibly going to be cut. But in terms of
the critical assistance programs that are mission critical to ECAs
well li HEAP, as you mentioned heat Crisis, that program
complements the heater hotline that I mentioned, so it allows
(08:05):
us to treat low income folks both tenants, and there
are more folks in the city of Philadelphia that are
low income that do not own a home, that are
tenants than are homeowners. So there's a very large population
of folks that when their heat runs out, maybe not surprisingly,
most folks, their landlord isn't that helpful in terms of
(08:27):
helping them get that heat back on, so they can
turn to a program like Light Heat Crisis and that
program will repair or even replace their heating system.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Right But what's happening currently right now, what's present in
terms of all that funding right now, we don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And again these lie Heat Crisis is run through the
Department of Health and Human Services, and those folks aren't
actually they're not clear either on what's going to happen.
But what we do know is that right now Congress
is out and when they come back, the appropriations committees
will be designating what programs get, how much and most
(09:09):
likely will be funded. But we just don't know it.
Will it be comparable to what we received last year
or is it going to be significantly cut? Nobody knows
at this moment, right and.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So now is the time to call your elected officials
and advocate for restoration of any of the cuts that
have currently been proposed and hopefully prevent other cuts from
happening now. In addition to all the emergency assistants, you
also invest in long term solutions to the night green
jobs training Center, and Lauren, can you tell us how
(09:39):
ECA is helping to build a diverse, skilled workforce for
Philadelphia's clean energy economy. I'm going to let Steve handle that, Okay,
go ahead, Steve.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
The Night Green Energy Training Center is a beacon of
hope in the city of Philadelphia. Or our agency is
located in West Kensington, the lowest income zip code in
all of Philadelphia. What we do is we provide free training.
All that the funding for that comes from various sources,
from foundations or the Department Labor and it's a blend
(10:13):
of funding. But what we focus on our careers, not
jobs careers. So the folks that we get into our
training learn, for instance, how to install a heat pump
or get into the HVAC trade, or even weatherization as
we talked about earlier. There's not a lot of folks
in that particular trade, not enough in fact, And we
(10:34):
provide that training and certification to folks that right now
are probably without any type of formal education. So we
can facilitate getting a ged as well if that's one
of the barriers that's in place. Our goal is to
create success and create ultimately generational wealth in marginalized and
(10:56):
disadvantaged communities in the city of Philadelphia through our Green
Energy Career Center.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, you're not giving someone a fish, You're teaching them
how to fish so that they can have life sustaining careers,
which is really awesome. ECA is doing some extraordinary work
trying to fill in that gap where there are energy
access deserts and are located with their centers throughout the
city of Philadelphia, particularly and under resource communities. Lorraine, if
(11:24):
people want more information about all the things we talked about,
because you provide so much and so much great access
to help low income individuals meet energy needs and also
perhaps look to the future and increase their potential career future,
how do they find out more about where you are
and all the things that we talked about today.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
You could go on our website at ECA safes Energy
dot or and it tells you about all the programs
and the listing of all the neighborhood energy centers and
our city and all the things that they offer. Now,
we have thirteen agencies at doing the PGW Hardship, which
is something that everybody needs right now. So if you
go to our website, everything will be there. In fact,
(12:08):
November seventh in Germantown it Shelf and we're going to
have a big Energy Community Day at the Germantown Avenue
Crisis Ministry and we hope that everybody will be able
to attend.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
That fantastic while ECA is doing some great work the
Energy Coordinating Agency. Steve Luxton is CEO and Executive director.
Lorraine Horton is Community Programs Director. This is an organization
that has stepped in and operates a resilient citywide network
of sixteen neighborhood energy centers, a one stop shop for
(12:40):
bill payment assistance, energy education, housing and budget counseling, and
federally funded programs like hopefully li heap and also potential
career opportunities. I want to thank you both for joining
us here today. Thank you for all you're doing for
our communities.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
We all know someone who's been in an abusive relationship.
This Domestic Violence Awareness Month, join Women Against Abuse for
I Pledge a free community rally and resource fair to
support safe, healthy relationships and help end relationship violence. It's
happening Wednesday, October first, at twelve noon in the courtyard
(13:25):
of Philadelphia City Hall. Learn more at Women Against Abuse
dot org.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
I'm the threat that's already inside the house. I can't
be scared away or negotiated with. You can't call the
cops on me, you can't even see me. I'm the
threat of family fire, and as long as your guns
aren't stored securely, I'll be there protect your family. Learn
(13:56):
how to make your homes safer at Endfamilyfire dot org.
Brought to you by Brady and the AD Council.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
You're listening to Insight today. We're joined by Mackenzie Libby,
staff attorney in the Health and Independence Unit at Community
Legal Services. Mackenzie has dedicated her career to advocating for
individuals and families facing barriers to public benefits and health access.
With the recent changes to SNAP work requirements that began
(14:26):
on September first, Mackenzie's here to help us understand what
these rules mean for Philadelphians and how people can protect
their benefits. So, first of all, Mackenzie, can you start
by explaining what SNAP is and why it's such a
critical source for individuals and families in Philadelphia.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
SNAP is the Supplemental nutrition Assistance program. It's commonly known
as food stamps. And it is precisely what it sounds like.
It is a supplement that's provided to families throughout the
Commonwealth and throughout the country to be able to purchase
food and keep up with rising grocery prices, whether they're working,
(15:06):
or they can't work, or some combination of those things.
SNAP serves nearly two million recipients in Pennsylvania. That's one
in seven Pennsylvanians, and nearly half a million of those
recipients live in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
What exactly changed on September first with the new SNAP
work requirements and who is most affected by these changes.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
So, beginning on September first, adults between the ages of
eighteen and fifty five who do not have children under
eighteen are now subject to SNAP work requirements throughout the Commonwealth.
Starting November first, that group will expand to include adults
between fifty five and sixty five and adults who do
(15:50):
not have children under fourteen, So it will be a
larger group of people who are subject to these work requirements.
That's a change based on changes at the federal level.
This is not a rule that existed before. It's an
expansion of the original rule. So the work requirements as
they existed prior to September first, are in effect now.
(16:10):
This expanded group will be affected beginning November first again,
with new applicants affected immediately and then current recipients affected
whenever they have their next annual renewal. This change happened
because at the federal level, they essentially made it more
difficult to get what's called a geographic waiver. Snap work
(16:32):
requirements have existed for a long time, but Philadelphia has
never been subject to those work requirements because we had
a geographic waiver. One of the changes that took place
at the federal level was making it more difficult to
meet the requirements to receive a geographic waiver. And what
is it doing now?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
What is a geographic waiver?
Speaker 4 (16:51):
A geographic waiver is basically an exemption from the work
requirements rules. So if you have an area that has
a high rate of unemployment, you can submit for a
geographic waiver and say if your waiver is approved, they
say that you don't need to subject recipients in your
area to work requirements. Since these work requirements have existed,
(17:15):
Philadelphia and many other areas throughout the Commonwealth have had
a geographic waiver and now it is much more challenging
to qualify for a geographic waiver, and so many of
those waivers ended at the end of August. Philadelphia and
other areas throughout the Commonwealth are expecting not to get
any other waivers going forward, so they've begun implementing these
(17:37):
work requirements for adults in that category as of September
first and.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
McKenzie, what do those work requirements mean? Give us an example.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
So, work requirements, it's a little bit of a misnomer
because you don't only have to be working for a
wage in order to comply with work requirements. You can
be in an employment in training, you can be volunteering
in your community baseline. You have to be doing one
of those things for the required number of hours for
(18:08):
work and training that's twenty hours per week on average,
and you need to let your local County Assistant's office
know that you are complying by doing one of those
things unless you are exempt. And here at CLS, we
are really trying to spread the word about exemptions. We
think that is the most important thing for folks to know.
We believe many people will be exempt from these rules.
(18:31):
That is one thing to check before you start worrying
about complying check if you might be exempt.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
You mentioned that many people may qualify for exemptions. What
are some of the most common exemptions and how can
individuals make sure that they're protected.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
There are many exemptions. One of the or two, I
should say, of the most common exemptions we think that
we'll see among our clients at CLS at least, would
be the exemption for working at least thirty hours a
week or earning two hundred and seve seventeen dollars and
fifty cents per week. It's a very specific number, that's
the minimum wage times Threly, those folks, while they're technically
(19:09):
complying with the work requirement, they're also exempt. You know,
they have like a steady enough income and amount of
work that the decision has been made, okay, those people
are exempt. They don't need to continuously prove that they're
complying with the work requirement. So folks in that category
we are really encouraging to claim an exemption rather than
(19:29):
reporting that they're complying with the work requirement. Another common exemption,
or one that we think will and should be widely
claimed is the medical exemption. So that's having a physical
or mental health condition that reduces your ability to work,
and you do need to prove that by getting a
form signed by your doctor. So we're encouraging folks to
(19:52):
get that form signed as soon as possible and get
it into their county assistant's office.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
JUSTFYI, when will people start receiving the notifications or have
they already?
Speaker 4 (20:02):
If DHS thinks that they are going to be subject
to work requirements, folks should have received a notice or
a screening form where they can essentially raise their hand
in check a box and say, one of these exemptions
applies to me, whether it's one of the two we
talked about today or one of the many other exemptions,
information about which can be found on cls's website. They
should get those notices soon if they haven't already checked
(20:24):
the box and return it asap. They should also get
another notice in the near future on letting them know
that these work requirements apply to them. If an exemption
was not processed or there's some issue with their exemption,
that should be another heads up that hey, these work
requirements apply to you and you need to do something
(20:45):
about it or expect your snap to end as soon
as December.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
First, Mackenzie, there are often many misconceptions about the nature
of poverty and the nature of people receiving benefits. So
there's going to be some people out there who are
going to say work requirement, and so of course they
should work, and we should all work, we should all
do whatever it is to have gainful employment. What do
you say to those individuals, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Would say that it is a common misconception that people
who are receiving benefits like SNAP are not working. I
am you know, the vast majority of SNAP recipients who
can work are working already. They might be working low
wage jobs, they might be working jobs with irregular schedules
(21:30):
where sometimes you know, their wages make it a little
easier to get by, and then other times they greatly
decrease or have seasonal jobs. And then other folks who
are getting SNAP who are not working generally cannot work
due to a disability due to you know, many of
our clients here at CLS and the Health and Independence
Unit are older adults who have worked their whole lives
(21:50):
and are not working anymore because you know, they're seventy
seventy five. I would say to those people that work
requirements in our view, having seen how county assistants offices
deal with all of the paperwork that already exists throughout
these processes and these systems. You know, even with the
best intentions and people who are dedicated to trying to
(22:12):
make these programs work for folks, work requirements are paperwork requirements,
and they are going to result in cuts to people SNAP.
They're going to result in people losing SNAP. And this
idea that they might increase work participation or people finding
gainful employment, I think is based on that misconception that
people are not already working, for the most part, to
(22:34):
the best of their ability. Right.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Thank you for clarifying that. How do these changes impact immigrants,
especially those with green cards, and what should they do
to safeguard their benefits.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
That's another change at the federal level that will impact
SNAP recipients in addition to work requirements, So immigrants who
are receiving SNAP benefits are going to be subject to
these restrictions on eligibility that will be implemented I believe
beginning in November of this year. They'll apply to new
(23:09):
applicants right away, and they will apply to current recipients
whenever their renewal comes up their annual renewal post November first.
Folks with green cards, if they've passed that five year
mark of having a green card, citizens and some Cuban
Haitian people immigrants in the United States should continue to
(23:31):
qualify for food stamps. If someone has a green card,
they want to make sure that the County Assistants Office
has a copy of that green card on file, especially
if something has changed or they've gotten their green card recently.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
So, if someone receives a notice that their snap benefits
are ending, what should they do right away? And how
can Community Legal Services support them through the process.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
So, if someone receives and notice that their benefits are
ending due to, for example, not complying with the work requirement,
I would suggest that they contact Community Legal Services and
ideally appeal the termination right away. We have intake here
at our North Philly office at fourteen ten West Erie Avenue,
(24:16):
Mondays and Wednesdays nine am to twelve pm, or they
can call our intake line two five nine eighty one
three seven zero zero on Thursdays from nine to twelve
But especially if they think the decision doesn't make sense
or they did what they were supposed to do, appeal
it and contact us for help.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
McKenzie the final word, what do you think the overall
impact of these cuts or these new requirements to SNAP benefits?
What impact do you think is going to have on
those who previously receive them? What is that going to
mean for those individuals.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
These work requirements will impact current recipients of SNAP, future
recipients applicants who want to receive SNAP by creating additional
barriers to getting the support that they need and they
qualify for it to be able to put food on
the table for their families. There's already a huge amount
of paperwork and compliance and reporting that goes into maintaining benefits.
(25:14):
This will just add another level of work for folks
who already you are working and have a lot going
on in their lives, or maybe are not working for
very good reason, or maybe you know, English is not
their first language. There are so many reasons that filling
out these forms, even if you are technically complying with
work requirements, could lead to losing your benefits. As I mentioned,
(25:38):
I mean these work requirements are essentially cuts to SNAP.
They're going to result in people losing their benefits being
on and off benefits, having more instability, less ability to
feed their families right.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
And we know that the impact of food insecurity has
a ripple effect that it impacts families, impacts children's sense
of being, their ability to be in school and to
be able to concentrate. It has such a tremendous impact
on people's self worth and their ability to their mental wellness.
(26:11):
So it's not only a physical challenge to be food insecure,
but it's also an emotional one. And so we thank
a CLS for doing what you can to make sure
that those who are in danger of losing their SNAP
benefits know exactly what their rights are and what they
need to do in order to maintain their SNAP benefits.
Once again, can you repeat the office hours, also the
(26:33):
phone number, and also your website.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Our website has the most up to date information about
these changes, about how clients can and non clients can
take exemptions and comply with the rules. That is clsphila
dot org slash snap changes. If someone is having an
issue claiming an exemption or complying with work requirements, or
get to notice that their SNAP is being cut off,
(26:57):
they should come to Community Legal Services for in person intake.
That's at fourteen ten West Erie Avenue on Mondays or
Wednesdays from nine to twelve, or they can call us
at two one five nine eight one three seven zero
zero on Thursday between nine and twelve as well. I
do want to add that there's some doom and gloom
(27:18):
inherent to this conversation, but as I said, I do
think many many people should qualify for exemptions. They should
check if they qualify for exemptions and make sure they
let the County Assistant's office know. This doesn't have to
be the end of your benefits and there are ways
to deal with it.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Well. Thanks again for all that you are doing. Mackenzie Libby,
staff attorney in the Health and Independence Unit at Community
Legal Services. She has dedicated her career to advocating for
individuals and families facing barriers to public benefits and health access.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Thank you, Thank you so much, Laurene, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
You can listen to all of today's interviews by going
to our station website and typing in keyword Community. You
can also listen on the IEA Heart radio app yy
Words Philadelphia Community Podcast. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram
at Lorraine Ballard. I'm Lorraine Ballard Morel and I stand
for service to our community and media that empowers. What
will you stand for? You've been listening to insight and
(28:15):
thank you
Good morning. You're listening to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Ballardmorrow. We're going to be talking
with Mackenzie Libby from Community Legal Services, who breaks down
the new snap changees starting September first and what they
mean and how you can protect your benefits. But first,
we're going to be talking about an organization that tackles
energy poverty in Philadelphia and prepares the next generation for
(00:22):
clean energy jobs. Certainly all of us want to save
money and we want to help the environment and save energy. Well,
we're going to be talking to a couple of folks
who are going to tell us more about how we
can do that. Steve Luxton is CEO and Executive director
of the Energy Coordinating Agency. Lorraine Horton is Community Programs
director for the organization. Founded in nineteen eighty four by
(00:44):
public and private sector leaders, ECA was created to address
the energy poverty crisis facing Philadelphia's low income families. At
the time, thousands of households were losing service due to
high utility costs. Federal assistance programs were underutilized. There's little
core nation between utilities and government resources. ECA stepped in
to change that. And today operates a resilient citywide network
(01:07):
of sixteen neighborhood energy centers. So I'd like to thank
you both for joining us here today and Steve for
listeners who may not be familiar, can you give us
an overview of ECA's mission, it's history, and how your
work has evolved to meet the energy needs of low
income families in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yes, ECA is a very unique organization. We're a big
nonprofit born in bred in Philadelphia, and our mission is
to help people conserve energy and to promote a sustainable
and socially equitable energy future for all. Essentially, ECA is
this multifaceted nonprofit that provides energy assistance to folks that
(01:48):
would come into our neighborhood energy centers, which we can
talk about. We run the City of Philadelphia's Heater Hotline program,
which is a critical program obviously when folks don't have
heat and they don't have the financial means during the
heating season to have the heating system fixed. We have
run a program for decades called the Heater Hotline. It's
(02:10):
a free service for folks that are income eligible to
call us up and give us their information. We qualify
them and if they are eligible, then we will come
out to their house to assess and hopefully repair and
get that heating system running, and all of that done
is at no cost to our client. We also have
(02:31):
a weatherization program where we go into homes and identify
opportunities in the home to make it more energy efficient
but also make it more comfortable for folks to live
in as well. Unfortunately, when energy prices go up, folks
tend to turn the thermosts down and maybe conserve energy,
(02:51):
which is great. Part of going on an energy diet
is conservation, but not to the point where you're not
enjoying your home home. So whetherise in a home allows
us to make it more warmer, comfortable, and use less
energy at the same time, and that's a critical service
that we provide because Philadelphia unfortunately has the distinction of
(03:13):
being the poorest big city in the country ten largest cities.
And energy burden is also one of the biggest problems
that low income folks face, and essentially, energy burden is
the amount of their total household annual income that goes
towards paying energy bills that could be gas, electric, and
(03:35):
it's not uncommon in a low income household to find
that the energy burden, which is expressed as a percentage,
to be as high as twenty maybe even twenty five
percent more often not ten percent. So that, yeah, that
sounds high. But here's how I put that into perspective.
For middle income Let's say their average energy burden for
(03:56):
most of us is about three four maybe five percent,
So you can see that a disproportionate amount of income
goes towards keeping their homes heeded.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Well, Lorraine, you are a community programs director for ECA,
and EC's Neighborhood Energy Centers are often the first point
of contact for families in crisis. I wonder if you
can talk about the critical role these sixteen centers play
and how they helped connect residents to programs like light Heap,
housing counseling, and energy education.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Number one, the Neighborhood Energy Centers was designed to help
income eligible families apply for lot heap because for years,
a lot of people didn't know how they even fill
out the applications. They were getting a lot of rejections
because of the documents that they didn't have or the
language that they didn't understand. So this was put together
(04:47):
to encourage communities to apply for the lot heat crisis
to keep them from being terminated, or for those that
were already terminated, we help them to get their services
back on. One of the programs that we we use
to do this outside of the Hockey Bos crisis is
that we just started helping PGW with the Hardship program.
That hardship program is for anyone that fits the income
(05:09):
eligibility of one seventy five percent or lets. They can
go into thirteen of the neighborhood energy centers right now
are offering services to be able to help them as
long as as long as they haven't used to programming
in a couple of years, so they can come in
and get up to fifteen hundred dollars to help them
either restore their services or to keep their services from
(05:31):
being terminated. They also help with getting on the CRP program.
They help with getting on people's cat program. We help
with the water program and other tier programs that they
have throughout the city for people to be able to
get on a budget type thing so that they can
keep their utilities on. And we also do a budget
(05:52):
counseling one on one with these clients so that they
can see how money is going out and how money
is coming in and actually have them choose between some
things that they can do to cut back on so
that they can keep up with their bills because a
lot of times people don't know really they don't realize
how much when it gets spending until you actually lay
it out in your face.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
So we do that.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
We also do one on one energy counseling and this
is also helpful to help them keep their services on.
So inside of most of our neighborhood energy centers are
located inside of other social service buildings that also offers
first time home buyers or helping people to find resources
that provide pampers for their babybits or other grants that
(06:37):
are out there. Free oil once a lot heaping crisis
is over, they can use grandom oil, they could be
other they can go PCA and get oil. We're also
starting with our we're going to be rolling out at
NBC which is a mobile energy center which will connect
in areas where we have that gap and especially with
scept them being cut roots that they are know that
(07:00):
they want to need to be able to get to
an agency. What don't having to find out what buzzes wanted.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, that's fantastic, so you're actually meeting people where they are. Steve,
There's been certainly a lot of movement on the federal level,
and I know that President Trump has cut drastically, if
not completely, light heat program and there are other energy
assistance programs which I have no doubt either are on
the chopping block or already been eliminated. Can you talk
(07:29):
about the impact of these cuts on the kinds of
programs that you talk about. There are lots of different
grant programs and support programs, but we're starting to see
a lot of that money drying up.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, we truly are concerned at this point in time
that we just seem to never really know either what
is possibly going to be cut. But in terms of
the critical assistance programs that are mission critical to ECAs
well li HEAP, as you mentioned heat Crisis, that program
complements the heater hotline that I mentioned, so it allows
(08:05):
us to treat low income folks both tenants, and there
are more folks in the city of Philadelphia that are
low income that do not own a home, that are
tenants than are homeowners. So there's a very large population
of folks that when their heat runs out, maybe not surprisingly,
most folks, their landlord isn't that helpful in terms of
(08:27):
helping them get that heat back on, so they can
turn to a program like Light Heat Crisis and that
program will repair or even replace their heating system.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Right But what's happening currently right now, what's present in
terms of all that funding right now, we don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And again these lie Heat Crisis is run through the
Department of Health and Human Services, and those folks aren't
actually they're not clear either on what's going to happen.
But what we do know is that right now Congress
is out and when they come back, the appropriations committees
will be designating what programs get, how much and most
(09:09):
likely will be funded. But we just don't know it.
Will it be comparable to what we received last year
or is it going to be significantly cut? Nobody knows
at this moment, right and.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So now is the time to call your elected officials
and advocate for restoration of any of the cuts that
have currently been proposed and hopefully prevent other cuts from
happening now. In addition to all the emergency assistants, you
also invest in long term solutions to the night green
jobs training Center, and Lauren, can you tell us how
(09:39):
ECA is helping to build a diverse, skilled workforce for
Philadelphia's clean energy economy. I'm going to let Steve handle that, Okay,
go ahead, Steve.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
The Night Green Energy Training Center is a beacon of
hope in the city of Philadelphia. Or our agency is
located in West Kensington, the lowest income zip code in
all of Philadelphia. What we do is we provide free training.
All that the funding for that comes from various sources,
from foundations or the Department Labor and it's a blend
(10:13):
of funding. But what we focus on our careers, not
jobs careers. So the folks that we get into our
training learn, for instance, how to install a heat pump
or get into the HVAC trade, or even weatherization as
we talked about earlier. There's not a lot of folks
in that particular trade, not enough in fact, And we
(10:34):
provide that training and certification to folks that right now
are probably without any type of formal education. So we
can facilitate getting a ged as well if that's one
of the barriers that's in place. Our goal is to
create success and create ultimately generational wealth in marginalized and
(10:56):
disadvantaged communities in the city of Philadelphia through our Green
Energy Career Center.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, you're not giving someone a fish, You're teaching them
how to fish so that they can have life sustaining careers,
which is really awesome. ECA is doing some extraordinary work
trying to fill in that gap where there are energy
access deserts and are located with their centers throughout the
city of Philadelphia, particularly and under resource communities. Lorraine, if
(11:24):
people want more information about all the things we talked about,
because you provide so much and so much great access
to help low income individuals meet energy needs and also
perhaps look to the future and increase their potential career future,
how do they find out more about where you are
and all the things that we talked about today.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
You could go on our website at ECA safes Energy
dot or and it tells you about all the programs
and the listing of all the neighborhood energy centers and
our city and all the things that they offer. Now,
we have thirteen agencies at doing the PGW Hardship, which
is something that everybody needs right now. So if you
go to our website, everything will be there. In fact,
(12:08):
November seventh in Germantown it Shelf and we're going to
have a big Energy Community Day at the Germantown Avenue
Crisis Ministry and we hope that everybody will be able
to attend.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
That fantastic while ECA is doing some great work the
Energy Coordinating Agency. Steve Luxton is CEO and Executive director.
Lorraine Horton is Community Programs Director. This is an organization
that has stepped in and operates a resilient citywide network
of sixteen neighborhood energy centers, a one stop shop for
(12:40):
bill payment assistance, energy education, housing and budget counseling, and
federally funded programs like hopefully li heap and also potential
career opportunities. I want to thank you both for joining
us here today. Thank you for all you're doing for
our communities.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
We all know someone who's been in an abusive relationship.
This Domestic Violence Awareness Month, join Women Against Abuse for
I Pledge a free community rally and resource fair to
support safe, healthy relationships and help end relationship violence. It's
happening Wednesday, October first, at twelve noon in the courtyard
(13:25):
of Philadelphia City Hall. Learn more at Women Against Abuse
dot org.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
I'm the threat that's already inside the house. I can't
be scared away or negotiated with. You can't call the
cops on me, you can't even see me. I'm the
threat of family fire, and as long as your guns
aren't stored securely, I'll be there protect your family. Learn
(13:56):
how to make your homes safer at Endfamilyfire dot org.
Brought to you by Brady and the AD Council.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
You're listening to Insight today. We're joined by Mackenzie Libby,
staff attorney in the Health and Independence Unit at Community
Legal Services. Mackenzie has dedicated her career to advocating for
individuals and families facing barriers to public benefits and health access.
With the recent changes to SNAP work requirements that began
(14:26):
on September first, Mackenzie's here to help us understand what
these rules mean for Philadelphians and how people can protect
their benefits. So, first of all, Mackenzie, can you start
by explaining what SNAP is and why it's such a
critical source for individuals and families in Philadelphia.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
SNAP is the Supplemental nutrition Assistance program. It's commonly known
as food stamps. And it is precisely what it sounds like.
It is a supplement that's provided to families throughout the
Commonwealth and throughout the country to be able to purchase
food and keep up with rising grocery prices, whether they're working,
(15:06):
or they can't work, or some combination of those things.
SNAP serves nearly two million recipients in Pennsylvania. That's one
in seven Pennsylvanians, and nearly half a million of those
recipients live in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
What exactly changed on September first with the new SNAP
work requirements and who is most affected by these changes.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
So, beginning on September first, adults between the ages of
eighteen and fifty five who do not have children under
eighteen are now subject to SNAP work requirements throughout the Commonwealth.
Starting November first, that group will expand to include adults
between fifty five and sixty five and adults who do
(15:50):
not have children under fourteen, So it will be a
larger group of people who are subject to these work requirements.
That's a change based on changes at the federal level.
This is not a rule that existed before. It's an
expansion of the original rule. So the work requirements as
they existed prior to September first, are in effect now.
(16:10):
This expanded group will be affected beginning November first again,
with new applicants affected immediately and then current recipients affected
whenever they have their next annual renewal. This change happened
because at the federal level, they essentially made it more
difficult to get what's called a geographic waiver. Snap work
(16:32):
requirements have existed for a long time, but Philadelphia has
never been subject to those work requirements because we had
a geographic waiver. One of the changes that took place
at the federal level was making it more difficult to
meet the requirements to receive a geographic waiver. And what
is it doing now?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
What is a geographic waiver?
Speaker 4 (16:51):
A geographic waiver is basically an exemption from the work
requirements rules. So if you have an area that has
a high rate of unemployment, you can submit for a
geographic waiver and say if your waiver is approved, they
say that you don't need to subject recipients in your
area to work requirements. Since these work requirements have existed,
(17:15):
Philadelphia and many other areas throughout the Commonwealth have had
a geographic waiver and now it is much more challenging
to qualify for a geographic waiver, and so many of
those waivers ended at the end of August. Philadelphia and
other areas throughout the Commonwealth are expecting not to get
any other waivers going forward, so they've begun implementing these
(17:37):
work requirements for adults in that category as of September
first and.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
McKenzie, what do those work requirements mean? Give us an example.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
So, work requirements, it's a little bit of a misnomer
because you don't only have to be working for a
wage in order to comply with work requirements. You can
be in an employment in training, you can be volunteering
in your community baseline. You have to be doing one
of those things for the required number of hours for
(18:08):
work and training that's twenty hours per week on average,
and you need to let your local County Assistant's office
know that you are complying by doing one of those
things unless you are exempt. And here at CLS, we
are really trying to spread the word about exemptions. We
think that is the most important thing for folks to know.
We believe many people will be exempt from these rules.
(18:31):
That is one thing to check before you start worrying
about complying check if you might be exempt.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
You mentioned that many people may qualify for exemptions. What
are some of the most common exemptions and how can
individuals make sure that they're protected.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
There are many exemptions. One of the or two, I
should say, of the most common exemptions we think that
we'll see among our clients at CLS at least, would
be the exemption for working at least thirty hours a
week or earning two hundred and seve seventeen dollars and
fifty cents per week. It's a very specific number, that's
the minimum wage times Threly, those folks, while they're technically
(19:09):
complying with the work requirement, they're also exempt. You know,
they have like a steady enough income and amount of
work that the decision has been made, okay, those people
are exempt. They don't need to continuously prove that they're
complying with the work requirement. So folks in that category
we are really encouraging to claim an exemption rather than
(19:29):
reporting that they're complying with the work requirement. Another common exemption,
or one that we think will and should be widely
claimed is the medical exemption. So that's having a physical
or mental health condition that reduces your ability to work,
and you do need to prove that by getting a
form signed by your doctor. So we're encouraging folks to
(19:52):
get that form signed as soon as possible and get
it into their county assistant's office.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
JUSTFYI, when will people start receiving the notifications or have
they already?
Speaker 4 (20:02):
If DHS thinks that they are going to be subject
to work requirements, folks should have received a notice or
a screening form where they can essentially raise their hand
in check a box and say, one of these exemptions
applies to me, whether it's one of the two we
talked about today or one of the many other exemptions,
information about which can be found on cls's website. They
should get those notices soon if they haven't already checked
(20:24):
the box and return it asap. They should also get
another notice in the near future on letting them know
that these work requirements apply to them. If an exemption
was not processed or there's some issue with their exemption,
that should be another heads up that hey, these work
requirements apply to you and you need to do something
(20:45):
about it or expect your snap to end as soon
as December.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
First, Mackenzie, there are often many misconceptions about the nature
of poverty and the nature of people receiving benefits. So
there's going to be some people out there who are
going to say work requirement, and so of course they
should work, and we should all work, we should all
do whatever it is to have gainful employment. What do
you say to those individuals, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Would say that it is a common misconception that people
who are receiving benefits like SNAP are not working. I
am you know, the vast majority of SNAP recipients who
can work are working already. They might be working low
wage jobs, they might be working jobs with irregular schedules
(21:30):
where sometimes you know, their wages make it a little
easier to get by, and then other times they greatly
decrease or have seasonal jobs. And then other folks who
are getting SNAP who are not working generally cannot work
due to a disability due to you know, many of
our clients here at CLS and the Health and Independence
Unit are older adults who have worked their whole lives
(21:50):
and are not working anymore because you know, they're seventy
seventy five. I would say to those people that work
requirements in our view, having seen how county assistants offices
deal with all of the paperwork that already exists throughout
these processes and these systems. You know, even with the
best intentions and people who are dedicated to trying to
(22:12):
make these programs work for folks, work requirements are paperwork requirements,
and they are going to result in cuts to people SNAP.
They're going to result in people losing SNAP. And this
idea that they might increase work participation or people finding
gainful employment, I think is based on that misconception that
people are not already working, for the most part, to
(22:34):
the best of their ability. Right.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Thank you for clarifying that. How do these changes impact immigrants,
especially those with green cards, and what should they do
to safeguard their benefits.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
That's another change at the federal level that will impact
SNAP recipients in addition to work requirements, So immigrants who
are receiving SNAP benefits are going to be subject to
these restrictions on eligibility that will be implemented I believe
beginning in November of this year. They'll apply to new
(23:09):
applicants right away, and they will apply to current recipients
whenever their renewal comes up their annual renewal post November first.
Folks with green cards, if they've passed that five year
mark of having a green card, citizens and some Cuban
Haitian people immigrants in the United States should continue to
(23:31):
qualify for food stamps. If someone has a green card,
they want to make sure that the County Assistants Office
has a copy of that green card on file, especially
if something has changed or they've gotten their green card recently.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
So, if someone receives a notice that their snap benefits
are ending, what should they do right away? And how
can Community Legal Services support them through the process.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
So, if someone receives and notice that their benefits are
ending due to, for example, not complying with the work requirement,
I would suggest that they contact Community Legal Services and
ideally appeal the termination right away. We have intake here
at our North Philly office at fourteen ten West Erie Avenue,
(24:16):
Mondays and Wednesdays nine am to twelve pm, or they
can call our intake line two five nine eighty one
three seven zero zero on Thursdays from nine to twelve
But especially if they think the decision doesn't make sense
or they did what they were supposed to do, appeal
it and contact us for help.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
McKenzie the final word, what do you think the overall
impact of these cuts or these new requirements to SNAP benefits?
What impact do you think is going to have on
those who previously receive them? What is that going to
mean for those individuals.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
These work requirements will impact current recipients of SNAP, future
recipients applicants who want to receive SNAP by creating additional
barriers to getting the support that they need and they
qualify for it to be able to put food on
the table for their families. There's already a huge amount
of paperwork and compliance and reporting that goes into maintaining benefits.
(25:14):
This will just add another level of work for folks
who already you are working and have a lot going
on in their lives, or maybe are not working for
very good reason, or maybe you know, English is not
their first language. There are so many reasons that filling
out these forms, even if you are technically complying with
work requirements, could lead to losing your benefits. As I mentioned,
(25:38):
I mean these work requirements are essentially cuts to SNAP.
They're going to result in people losing their benefits being
on and off benefits, having more instability, less ability to
feed their families right.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
And we know that the impact of food insecurity has
a ripple effect that it impacts families, impacts children's sense
of being, their ability to be in school and to
be able to concentrate. It has such a tremendous impact
on people's self worth and their ability to their mental wellness.
(26:11):
So it's not only a physical challenge to be food insecure,
but it's also an emotional one. And so we thank
a CLS for doing what you can to make sure
that those who are in danger of losing their SNAP
benefits know exactly what their rights are and what they
need to do in order to maintain their SNAP benefits.
Once again, can you repeat the office hours, also the
(26:33):
phone number, and also your website.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Our website has the most up to date information about
these changes, about how clients can and non clients can
take exemptions and comply with the rules. That is clsphila
dot org slash snap changes. If someone is having an
issue claiming an exemption or complying with work requirements, or
get to notice that their SNAP is being cut off,
(26:57):
they should come to Community Legal Services for in person intake.
That's at fourteen ten West Erie Avenue on Mondays or
Wednesdays from nine to twelve, or they can call us
at two one five nine eight one three seven zero
zero on Thursday between nine and twelve as well. I
do want to add that there's some doom and gloom
(27:18):
inherent to this conversation, but as I said, I do
think many many people should qualify for exemptions. They should
check if they qualify for exemptions and make sure they
let the County Assistant's office know. This doesn't have to
be the end of your benefits and there are ways
to deal with it.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Well. Thanks again for all that you are doing. Mackenzie Libby,
staff attorney in the Health and Independence Unit at Community
Legal Services. She has dedicated her career to advocating for
individuals and families facing barriers to public benefits and health access.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Thank you, Thank you so much, Laurene, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
You can listen to all of today's interviews by going
to our station website and typing in keyword Community. You
can also listen on the IEA Heart radio app yy
Words Philadelphia Community Podcast. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram
at Lorraine Ballard. I'm Lorraine Ballard Morel and I stand
for service to our community and media that empowers. What
will you stand for? You've been listening to insight and
(28:15):
thank you
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