It?s a subject that brings the free market/public assistance debate into sharp relief ? and shows how the two, in concert with volunteerism, can work together for the public good.
“We emerged from the Baltimore Fuel Fund [which started in 1981], and we?ve been consistently helping people for all those years,” said Mary Ellen Vanni, executive director of the Fuel Fund of Maryland, a local nonprofit that helps 6,000 (2,500 in Baltimore County alone) needy, central Maryland families per year afford critical utilities and home heating fuels.
Vanni explained that there are about 280,000 low-income families statewide ? whose plight is aggravated by fluctuating home heating costs and the impending (though already phased-in) deregulation of electricity rates ? that qualify for energy assistance, and that 150,000 of them are in six central Maryland counties.
“They?re very, very good,” said Harry Holtz, a Baltimore City disabled senior citizen on a fixed income who has used the fund several times to cover utility bills. “They help the poor; they?ve helped me on so many occasions. They?re right there if you need them.”
The outreach organization, through a network of local community action agencies, assists families after they have turned to the state Office of Home Energy Assistance Programs and either don?t qualify for state help or need further assistance.
For families meeting its qualifications, the Fuel Fund of Maryland can assume up to two-thirds of a family?s back energy bills once per year and pay them through its affiliated organizations.
Since 1981, the $1.5 million-a-year nonprofit has served more than 100,000 families and disbursed some $16 million in energy assistance to those facing possible eviction, hardship and hazard due to improvised home heating measures. Over 90 percent of the four-employee organization?s revenues, Vanni said, goes to client assistance. Fifty percent of the people it helps are children.
The Fuel Fund of Maryland receives no government subsidies and operates only on foundation, corporate and private donations, which support its assistance programs and energy conservation programs.
In 2006, Baltimore Gas and Electric gave the fund $2 million and matches 50 cents of every dollar that it defrays and that clients pay toward their own bills. BGE also allows the fund to include fundraising flyers in its December and January utility bills.
More information
» Fuel Fund of Maryland
305 W. Chesapeake Ave., Suite 115, Baltimore
410-821-3022
www.fuelfundmaryland.org
» Maryland Home Energy Assistance Program
1-800-352-1446
