Service groups get break on winter heating oil bills

Human service providers, including many not eligible for the federal fuel assistance programs, are reaping the benefits of the discounted heating oil that Venezuela is sending to Massachusetts this winter.

Most of the 12 million gallons of low-cost oil promised to Massachusetts in a deal brokered by US Representative William Delahunt is going to individuals. But 3 million gallons are being distributed by the Massachusetts Energy Consumers Alliance to nonprofit organizations that serve the area's most vulnerable residents.

The Venezuelan oil is being provided via CITGO, a US subsidiary of the Venezuelan petroleum company, and is available at a 40 percent discount off the wholesale price, about 75 cents off a gallon.

The deal is a bonanza for people who live in residential programs ineligible for the government fuel assistance program -- such as group homes for the mentally ill and the homeless.

''We know there are organizations that everyone in the community is trying to raise money for -- Head Start, homeless shelters -- and they're getting whacked by oil bills," said Larry Chretien, executive director of the alliance, a consumer advocacy agency. ''Those groups are not eligible for fuel assistance."

But they are eligible for the discounted Venezuela oil. As of last week, Mass Energy had approved 89 applications for the oil out of 125 received from organizations that have documented nonprofit status. The agency has also received many more applications from organizations that lack nonprofit status or have not yet documented it.

To qualify, said Chretien, the nonprofit organization must be primarily serving low-income people with a critical service such as health, nutrition, or housing.

''We don't have to be Solomonic yet," Chretien said of the process of deciding who receives how much oil, ''but I think we're going to get there."

Low-priced oil will help keep the fires burning this winter for the 21 residents of Caritas Communities' rooming house on Holbrook Avenue in Braintree. Among them is Rachel Williams, who suffers from a lung ailment. She says it is ''awesome" that low-priced oil from Venezuela will help keep her rent down by reducing the building's heating costs.

Williams, 51 and currently unemployed, pays $115 a week to live at the Caritas-owned house in Braintree and be near her children and nine grandchildren. ''They're my world," she says.

Caritas owns 540 single-occupancy rooms to provide affordable housing in Boston and eight suburban communities for low-income singles. While the nonprofit housing agency benefits from state funding to buy and fix up properties, the houses pay their own operating costs through the rent collected from tenants. Heat is figured into each resident's rent. Higher heating costs mean higher rents.

''We're trying to keep our rents down," said Tom Nee, director of property management for Caritas. ''We're the beneficiary of those deliveries. It helps us keep the cost and rent down for all the residents."

With low-cost oil through Mass Energy, Caritas Communities will spend about as much or slightly less on heating oil than it did last year, Nee said. Last year, heating the Holbrook Avenue house cost $8,550. Based on price quotes from dealers, Nee said he was expecting to pay $14,150 this year.

Agency-wide, Nee bought 36,000 gallons of oil last year and spent $48,924. The market price projection would have had him spending up to $72,720 this winter.

With the low-priced Venezuelan oil, he's now projecting a payment of $43,630.

One town over, another agency, Neighborhood Housing Services, runs a house in Quincy for eight formerly homeless veterans. ''These are people who really need this help," said director Normand Grenier.

The house provides staff and pays for heat. With rising energy costs, insurance, and taxes, ''it's hard to make these houses work now," Grenier said.

For an estimated seasonal fuel load of 2,500 gallons, the house was looking at a bill of $5,500. Low-cost Venezuelan oil will help his house for veterans stay within budget, Grenier said.

Mass Energy has also received applications from multiservice providers like Quincy Community Action Programs, which counts a food center program and a Head Start among its services.

Though these programs are not eligible for federal household heating assistance, the people they serve depend on assistance in paying home heating bills.

Group homes may not meet federal program guidelines either, Chretien said. Some services as large as the Long Island Shelter, a homeless shelter run by the City of Boston, have also applied for low-cost oil.

''It's a challenge" to make the low-cost oil serve both large and small agencies, Chretien said. The amount of fuel provided to some of the larger applicants may have to be capped, he said.