ACF Resource Spotlight: Low Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP)

LIHEAP is a Federal program that helps low income households pay for heating and/or cooling their home. In particular, LIHEAP seeks to make home energy more affordable for two groups of low income households that have the highest home energy needs:

• vulnerable households which include frail older individuals, individuals with disabilities, and very young children. These households face serious health risks if they do not have adequate heating or cooling in their homes.
• high energy burden households which include those households with the lowest incomes and highest home energy costs. These households face safety risks in trying to heat or cool their homes if they can not pay their heating or cooling fuel bills.

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.

Indian Tribes or Tribal Organizations

Section 2604(d)(1) of the LIHEAP statute provides for Federally-recognized and state-recognized Indian tribes (including Alaska Native Villages), and tribal organizations applying on behalf of eligible tribes to receive LIHEAP funds directly from HHS, rather than receiving LIHEAP assistance from states.

Tribal Grantees

As of FY 2007, 151 tribes and tribal organizations received LIHEAP funds allowing them to directly operate LIHEAP, and five territories also operated LIHEAP programs.

Click here to view a list of tribal and territorial grantees

Tribal LIHEAP programs operate in 24 states, with the largest number of tribal grantees in Oklahoma (30), California (24) 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.

Tribal Funding

The total amount of the tribal LIHEAP set-aside from FY 2006 regular block grant funds was $20,701,609.  Most tribal LIHEAP allotments are under $100,000; however there are about 45 larger tribes that receive over $100,000. The smallest tribal grant amount is $1,180; the largest $1,498,185. 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. 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. Click here to view FY 2006 LIHEAP allocations for Indian tribes and tribal organizations Find Out more at the following LIHEAP Links LIHEAP Clearinghouse which provides training and technical assistance to LIHEAP grantees and information about the program to the public, including data, newsletters, and other materials:

Contact LIHEAP
1-866-674-6327
energyassistance@ncat.org