Tribal LIHEAP Overview

The LIHEAP statute allows Indian tribes and tribal organizations and territories that wish to assist low-income households in meeting the costs of home energy to apply for a LIHEAP block grant.

As of FY 2009, 156 tribes and tribal organizations received LIHEAP funds allowing them to directly operate LIHEAP, and five territories also operated LIHEAP programs. A list of tribal and territorial grantees is available at www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/liheap/grantees/tribes.html. Tribal LIHEAP programs operate in 24 states, with the largest number of tribal grantees in Oklahoma (32), California (23) and Washington (21).

Grants to Indian tribes and tribal organizations are determined either by calculating each tribe's number of eligible households as a percentage of the number of eligible households in the state(s) in which it is located, or by awarding a higher amount agreed to in a state-tribe agreement.

FY 2009 LIHEAP allocations for Indian tribes and tribal organizations can be accessed at www.liheap.ncat.org/Tribes/funding.htm.

The total amount of the tribal LIHEAP set-aside from FY 2009 regular block grant funds was $47,403,391. The territories (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) received a total of $6,070,387. Seventeen tribes received LIHEAP allotments over $1 million for FY 2009. The smallest tribal grant amount is $4,000; the largest is $3,258,327.

As a result, most tribes serve relatively few households, compared to states. For FY 1996, the last year for which complete statistics are available, 123 tribal LIHEAP grantees reported serving 35,684 households with heating assistance; 2,238 with cooling assistance; 6,817 with crisis assistance; and 931 with weatherization. That same year five territorial grantees served 85,060 households with cooling assistance and 4,137 with crisis assistance.

LIHEAP is a block grant; thus, tribal grantees, like their state counterparts, have considerable latitude in the design and operation of their programs. While all tribal grantees operate LIHEAP heating/cooling assistance and crisis assistance programs, only a handful operate weatherization.

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Page Last Updated: October 28, 2008