Preschool teacher Elizabeth Corwin tries every day, in every way she can, to provide for her family of three.
But between being off work earlier this year due to the COVID-19 crisis, health concerns for her husband and mother-in-law and never-ending expenses, the Port St. John resident is behind on bills, including rent and utilities.She's at work at Able Academics, a private school that’s open following CDC guidelines, before many food banks that could offer assistance open. She is there until after some agencies arranging financial aid are closed.
"We are trying to get assistance from the county but it's difficult with my working hours and how much paperwork they need," Corwin said. "I know so many people need help, but sometimes it seems impossible."
While there is help out there for Brevard-based utility customers seeking help with water and electricity bills they've gotten behind on due to COVID-19, deadlines to avoid disconnection loom and are being reviewed and revised. Meanwhile, aid-related calls to county agencies continue to pour in.
In the coming weeks, customers will deal with a patchwork of policies from public and private utility providers.
For example, in Melbourne, during the May 26 city council meeting, council members directed staff to continue waiving late fees and continue suspending water service disconnections for non-payment, spokeswoman Cheryl Mall said. Those waivers will be revisited at the July 14 city council meeting. Melbourne's service extends beyond the city to customers in Indialantic, Indian Harbour Beach, Melbourne Beach, Melbourne Village, Palm Shores, Satellite Beach and unincorporated Brevard south of Pineda Causeway. West Melbourne is a wholesale customer of Melbourne.
For those with Cocoa water service, shutoffs resumed June 2 after being temporarily suspended. The city reached out to all with past-due bills — a higher number of customers than usual — to set up payment plans, and is "being a little lenient' to help those still behind, said Samantha Singer, assistant to the city manager.
In Palm Bay, service shut-offs and penalties for non-payment were suspended March 20, with customers facing financial trouble due to COVID-19 urged to call customer service to discuss options. Palm Bay Utilities returned to normal billing operations and began assessing penalties as of June 1, but as of July 1, the utilities department had not conducted any related disconnections.
"We will be happy to work with customers on a case-by-case basis to set up a customized payment plan to avoid a service interruption due to non-payment," said Keely Leggett, city spokeswoman.
Then there's FPL, which serves about 5 million customer accounts — about 10 million people — in Florida, including throughout Brevard. The state's largest investor-owned utility has had a moratorium on disconnections for almost four months, but as stated on the FPL website, the company will "carefully and thoughtfully transition back to standard operations in July."
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Where there's hardship, "we’re offering customers additional payment extensions to help them manage past-due FPL balances," said Chris McGrath, spokesperson. "We will continue working closely with customers to do everything we can to avoid turning the lights off for nonpayment, which is and has always been a last resort."
FPL customers can view available resources at FPL.com/Help or call 800-226-3545.
FPL also directs customers toward sources of help such as nonprofit 2-1-1 Brevard, a helpline offering crisis intervention and information and referral services, 24 hours a day.
The helpline is busy: 1,228 calls for utility aid came in between March 12 and June 24, said Belinda Stewart, 2-1-1 communications manager. That's a 160% increase over the same period last year.
2-1-1 refers most calls for utility assistance to the county's Community Action Agency, whose Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is one of Brevard's only programs offered countywide regardless of where someone lives.
As stated on the CAA website, the LIHEAP program "provides energy assistance to eligible low-income households for bills associated with their heating and cooling expenses such as electric, coal, propane and gas. Eligible applicants must have a utility account already established to receive services."
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), the agency in charge of that funding, "has indicated that we will be receiving an additional allocation of approximately $600,000 to support LIHEAP," said Ian Golden, director of the county's Housing and Human Services Department.
On the CAA website, applicants can download an ADA-compliant application that can be completed at home and either mailed to the Housing and Human Services Department office or dropped off, Golden said.
Residents also have the option of completing the application entirely online at brevardflhhs.seamlessdocs.com/f/LIHEAPapp, where they can upload supporting documents and submit the paperwork.
Whichever way someone submits an application for help from LIHEAP or other assistance, they should carefully review all the documents required to determine eligibility, Golden said.
"If documents are missing it will significantly delay the time it takes us to process their application and could result in denial," Golden said.
For Corwin, who recently earned her bachelor's degree, the struggle to keep up is multifacted. The work vehicle she and her husband shared has been repossessed. And on top of all that, she said, she's working to get both her mother-in-law and husband on disability "so they can get medical care that is desperately needed."
"Getting any type of government assistance has been tough," Corwin said. "You wait hours on hold to get no answers. It took weeks to get my first unemployment check. In that time we had to move. We had to borrow money from family who didn't really have it to give ... we still have not caught up."
Britt Kennerly is community issues columnist at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact her at 321-242-3692 or bkennerly@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @bybrittkennerly Facebook: /bybrittkennerly.
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