Meter’s Running on Utility Aid for Needy : Crisis intervention: Wet weather and recession force more residents to seek help with gas, electric bills from an already stretched Community Development Council.

The telephones at the Community Development Council ring off the hook with callers frantic to stop the meter man from shutting off their gas and electricity.

Ring . A Santa Ana man needs money to pay his electric bill or else his 7-year-old asthmatic son won’t be able to use an electric inhaler at night.

Ring . A 28-year-old Orange woman, out of work and just out of the hospital after stomach surgery, is calling to say that she doesn’t even have a penny in the house, but her power will be shut off within a few days.

Ring . A 19-year-old mother has to use a microwave to warm water for her newborn son’s bath. She desperately needs help to get her gas supply reconnected.

Demand for the council’s Energy Crisis Intervention Program has recently skyrocketed as the unusually wet winter sent utility bills soaring. Up to 3,000 low-income residents--already reeling from the lingering recession and a shrinking job market--are each month seeking help from the program to pay gas and power bills.

The increased demand has harried program officials, who each day do triage among the 150 or so calls a day, able to help only the neediest of the needy, said Kathy Kifaya, director of the council’s human resources department.

The Community Development Council--a private, nonprofit organization that serves as Orange County’s official anti-poverty agency--has thus become a different sort of 911 for many of the needy.

In 1992, the council used about $800,000 in federal funds to help about 5,000 families keep gas and electricity in their homes and apartments. That year about 15,000 households in Orange County had their power disconnected while another 7,500 had their gas shut off. The majority simply could not pay their bills.

This year the agency must do with less money, but by the end of March--with the cold weather putting a big chill on people’s budgets--already about 1,500 families have had to receive grants.

“There are hundreds and hundreds of people out there who are less than a paycheck away from having the lights being turned off on them,” Kifaya said.

Stacy, a 28-year-old single mother of three, is among that vulnerable group.

She was recently fired from her job as a waitress and had to slash her expenses. She tried to cut her electric bill by washing her clothes at a Cypress self-service laundry instead of the washer and dryer in her all-electric apartment.

But when the days were cold and wet, she had to use the electric heat to keep her apartment warm and comfortable for her three young children, especially her 1-year-old son. Now she cannot pay the $160 electricity bill.

Stacy sat at the council office recently filling out an application form for assistance.

“I know I’ll get another waitress job soon,” Stacy said. “I just need some help to tide us over and then we’ll be OK.”

Near Stacy sat Karen Jacot, a 41-year-old single mother of two, who worked for minimum wage at a fast-food restaurant until she was fired several weeks ago.

Jacot, of Huntington Beach, said she used her meager savings on her two high school children and delayed paying the $117 electric bill until she was served with a three-day shut-off notice.

“I’m so stuck,” she said, chewing nervously on a ballpoint pen. “I hope they can help me. I don’t know what we’ll do if they shut our power off.”

About 88% of the people who apply for utility assistance are families with children. The remainder are mainly elderly and disabled people.

Applicants must verify that they earn less than 130% of the federal poverty guidelines. For example, a household with two people can earn no more than $1,022 a month, or $12,259 a year.

But meeting the income qualification is no guarantee that applicants will secure the needed funds to pay their bills.

On any given day, Kifaya and ECIP workers must pick the 10 most needy people from up to 300 callers a day, most of whom may qualify for the program. Applicants can receive no more than $150 in assistance in a calendar year.

Kifaya said it is painful for council staffers to reject applications--especially from low-income people who have been devastated by illnesses and recent layoffs. But the agency has been forced to limit grants because funding from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program has dwindled each year since 1990 when ECIP received $1.1 million.

Recent funding cuts forced the program to lay off four staff members and has sent it scurrying to find volunteers to field the 3,000 calls each month.

ECIP officials are more concerned about the unmet need, Kifaya said.

“For some poor people, a single prescription would wipe out their entire savings,” Kifaya said. “Then they don’t have money to pay their utility bills, and the meter man is at their door with his wrench.”

ECIP employees tell those who don’t receive assistance how they can keep from having their utilities shut off. Many do not know that the utility companies may not shut off their supplies if consumers explain their dilemma and arrange to make smaller payments, utility officials said.

“As long as there is the intent to pay, we will give an extension,” said Linda Gilleland, a spokeswoman for Southern California Edison.

Both the power and gas companies also have programs that provide special discount rates and free services including weatherization to consumers who live on low or fixed incomes.

Many times, though, people don’t even have $5 to stop the dreaded meter man in his tracks.

About 10 days ago, Eva Martinez, 19, returned to her Orange home from the hospital with her newborn son, Richard; the gas had been shut off.

Martinez had to warm the infant’s bath water in the microwave, which she also used to prepare food for her two other children. The family, she said, could not afford to pay the $110 that the gas company wanted because her husband, Ricardo, was recently laid off from his job at an auto parts delivery service.

Martinez, who heard about the ECIP program from an aunt, called and within a couple days, her supply was restored.

“This is the best gift my little Richard could have” gotten, Martinez said. “Now he won’t be cold any longer. I’m so glad they (ECIP) were there for us when we needed help.”

Lighthouse for the Needy The Community Development Council has helped almost 20,000 low-income Orange County families pay their utility bills during the last five years. By the end of the year, the organization will have spent nearly $4 million during that time. Total Spent: ‘93: $658.6 (Amount available for the year) Families Helped: ‘93: 1,500 (As of March 1)

How to Get Help * Anyone needing help may visit the CDC’s office at 5015-Z W. Edinger Ave., Santa Ana, or call 1 (800) 660-4CDC. * Low-income residents may qualify for free services or discount rates from Southern California Edison. Call the utility at 1 (800) 952-5062. * Southern California Gas Co. offers similar assistance. Call 1 (800) 331-7593. Source: Community Development Council