2 HEATING ASSISTANCE

Eligibility, 2605(b)(2) - Assurance 2 2.1 Designate the income eligibility threshold used for the heating component: Add Household size Eligibility Guideline Eligibility Threshold 1 All Household Sizes State Median Income 60.00% 2.2 Do you have additional eligibility requirements for Heating Assistance? Yes No 2.3 Check the appropriate boxes below and describe the policies for each. Do you require an Assets test? Yes No If yes, describe: Do you have additional/differing eligibility policies for: Renters? Yes No If yes, describe: Renters Living in subsidized housing? Yes No If yes, describe: When heat is not included in rent, they receive a flat benefit if their rent is within certain amount. If their rent is greater than a certain amount, then the heating benefit is issued based on LIHEAP heating matrix. Renters with utilities included in the rent? Yes No If yes, describe: If heat is in rent and the household pays the entire rent amount, the fuel type for the benefit is determined to be electric. Do you give priority in eligibility to: Older Adults (60 years or older)? Yes No If yes, describe: Individuals with a disability? Yes No If yes, describe: Young children? Yes No If yes, describe: Households with high energy burdens? Yes No If yes, describe: Other? Yes No If yes, describe: Explanations of policies for each "yes" checked above: Renters living in subsidized housing: The policy for renters living in subsidized housing when heat is not included in the rent is that State specifies the flat payment and the ceiling amount for the rent per month. If rent in subsidized housing is greater than the ceiling amount specified by the State, then the LIHEAP benefit is issued according to the LIHEAP DEAP Benefit Matrix. Elders, Disabled or Young Children: Once the LIHEAP applicant has been certified it receives a score. Household members are associated with a specific LIHEAP application for the fiscal year. This data is stored in household table. On each save of an application a procedure called UpdateLiheapApplication_S1 executes. Within this procedure all household members are evaluated. Household members are stored in a table by application number and client identification. The household table references the LIHEAP client table to obtain date of birth and disability status of each member. Once the LIHEAP applicant has been certified it is assigned a score. According to the data received, the points are assigned in the following manner. One point is added for each member of the household that is disabled. One point is added for each member of the household that is under 6 years at the date of the application. One point is added for each member of the household that is 60 years of age or older at the date of the application. The date of birth is evaluated against the LIHEAP application date using a procedure named CalculateAge_F1 to determine age. This procedure returns the age of the member on the date that the application was created. If the age is “60 or over” or is “less than 6” one point is assigned to the application. If the household member has a disability, another point is added. There is no upper limit to the score. Examples: A) If a household has 10 members and 2 members are 60 or older the application is scored with 2 points. If one of the members is also disabled, then additional point is added bringing the total to 3 points. B) If a household has a child under the age of 6 years, one point is assigned to this application. If another member of the household is older than 5 and less than 60 but is disabled, an addition point is added bringing the total to 2 points. C) If a household has a child under the age of 6 years and is disabled, 2 points assigned to this application. When these applications are processed for funding the applications with the highest score that are certified are processed first in the order that they were entered into the system, the rest in descending order. Other applications that had a score of zero and are certified are funded last as long as they met the constraints of household size and poverty level. This is a batch process that only funds applications to the extent of the available funding. If at any time during this process there are insufficient funds to fund the current application, it will look at the next application to see if it can fully fund that application. It will repeat this process until the available balance is zero or it runs out of applications. Example: There are 10 households that scored three, 20 households that scored two, 5 households that scored one and 65 households that scored zero. The available funding is 50,000. The process will first process and fund the 10 households that scored three in the order that they were received. It would next do the same with the 20 households that scored two and so on until it runs out of funds. Determination of Benefits 2605(b)(5) - Assurance 5, 2605(c)(1)(B) 2.4 Describe how you prioritize the provision of heating assistance to vulnerable populations, e.g., benefit amounts, early application periods, etc. LIHEAP program is priority coded for Elderly, Disabled, and Families with Young Children. In addition, elderly and disabled have the opportunity for early application processing. For additional explanation please see also Section 2.3 2.5 Check the variables you use to determine your benefit levels. (Check all that apply): Income Family (household) size Home energy cost or need: Fuel type Climate/region Individual bill Dwelling type Energy burden (% of income spent on home energy) Energy need Other - Describe: The calculation of the heating benefit amount is dependent on the Delaware home energy burden data used for the federal erformance measures report. For the federal fiscal year (FFY) 2026 benefit matrix the 2025 report data was used. The benefits are also weighted according to the fuel type. The weights are dependent on the average expenditures for heating fuels that are calculated according to the estimated quantities from the "Short Term Energy Outlook" that is published by United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the estimated residential prices from the EIA published monthly and weekly pricing reports for Delaware. For the FFY 2026 benefit matrix, the EIA information published in March 2025 was used. The subsidized housing flat benefit and rent ceiling are calculated by using "HUD 50th Percentile Rent Estimates" and "HUD Program Section 8 Income Limits" published by Office of Policy Development and Research, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. For the FFY 2026 benefit matrix the 2025 50th Percentile Rents and FFY 2025 Income Limits were used. Benefit Levels, 2605(b)(5) - Assurance 5, 2605(c)(1)(B) 2.6 Describe estimated benefit levels for the fiscal year for which this plan applies. Please note: the maximum and minimum benefits must be shown in the payment matrix. Minimum Benefit $100 Maximum Benefit $2,464 2.7 Do you provide in-kind (e.g., blankets, space heaters) and/or other forms of benefits?2 Yes No If yes, describe. We are planning to provide blankets. Blankets are distributed to the clients during the heating or crisis intake process(after the non-profit agency has purchased them). We also provide blankets to clients who receive energy education under Assurance 16 to decrease households' energy bills. If any of the above questions require further explanation or clarification that could not be made in the fields provided, attach a document with said explanation here.