MONTICELLO — Sullivan County Manager Josh Potosek said that as of Wednesday evening, the county continues to try to get a handle on HEAP (Home Energy Assistance Program) requests.

In the meantime, Health and Family Services Commissioner Randy Parker has been put on administrative leave over the matter, though further information was not immediately available.

Since November, the county and its contractor, Hudson Valley 211, have been flooded with more than 10,000 calls about HEAP (though not all have been actual applications). A slow, sometimes nonexistent response has led to complaints as a result, pushing county officials to add dozens more staffers to process applications this week.

On Wednesday, out of 216 applications, 118 needed further documents from the applicants, while 92 needed processing and a signature, said Potosek.

Those 92, he added, “will all be complete by the end of normal business hours.”

Only six of the 216 applications were denied, Potosek said.

However, Legislator Kathy LaBuda is calling for an investigation into HEAP and the food stamp program, and residents unhappy or concerned with their applications have a free resource they may not have heard about.

The nonprofit Legal Services of the Hudson Valley (LSHV) is representing people who have had problems with HEAP, including unprocessed applications and vouchers sent to the wrong fuel vendors.

“It's really affecting the most vulnerable, in our experience,” said one of LSHV's attorneys, who wished to remain anonymous. “We're calling every contact we know at DFS [Dept. of Family Services], and we're not getting return phone calls. ... Unfortunately, we're now at a point where we are instructing our clients to ask for fair hearings.”

Fair hearings can be requested through the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA). Instructions are located at otda.ny.gov/hearings/request.

An administrative law judge is assigned to listen to the concerns, which can be articulated by LSHV attorneys at no cost to the complainants. If the judge agrees the social services agency has erred, it is ordered to correct the situation.

Typically, fair hearings are scheduled 1-2 months after the request is made, though “expedited” hearings, if granted, can occur in a week's time.

“If they are without heat and they have a HEAP or emergency HEAP issue, they should request an expedited hearing, noting that they are without heat and disclose whether there are minor children, disabled or elderly persons in the household,” said the attorney.

For more info, contact LSHV at 877-574-8529.

State gains HEAP funds

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced that New York State will receive an additional $33,337,670 in heating assistance funds. The funds were allocated through the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' (HHS) Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

Schumer and Gillibrand said this additional $33 million will bring New York State's total federal assistance for Fiscal Year 2015 to $377,245,102.

The senators have long fought to secure more funding for the LIHEAP program. Annual funding has steadily declined at the federal level since a peak in 2011. Despite rising heating costs and lingering effects of the economic downturn, the federal appropriation declined from $4.7 billion in 2011 to only $3.25 billion in 2013 after sequestration.