The shutdown is over, but Tennesseans are still waiting for funds to help pay utility bills

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history impacted or cut off many federal programs that help Americans. And while the government is technically back up and running, some of those aid programs are not.

That reality is having an impact on Tennesseans like Denise Simpson.

One recent morning, the mother of two and Belmont University nursing student stood outside the Metro Action Commission in South Nashville. She’s a SNAP recipient, and without federal food aid, costs were mounting.

“It’s been tough, especially being a mother of two boys, and one of them being special needs — he requires so much,” Simpson said. “It’s hard to be able to take care of your family as needed.”

Simpson was visiting the Metro Action Commission to apply for the “Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program,” otherwise known as LIHEAP. It’s a federal program that provides one-time payments to people who need help with their gas or electric bills and becomes especially important as temperatures drop during the winter.

The program has been around since 1981 and has received bipartisan support for decades. President Trump proposed no funding for the program for the program this year — but, the Associated Press reports that Congress was expected to fund LIHEAP for the budget year that began Oct. 1.

But during the shutdown, utility assistance faced disruptions. For someone like Simpson, lacking access to these programs — which also included SNAP and some Headstart programs, among others — makes providing for her family tough.

“You really can’t find the words to explain how you feel when you’re going through things like this because you wake up the next day not knowing what’s going to change,” Simpson said. “So, it’s scary.”

Simpson says she looks to government assistance to allow her to be the best parent she can be.

“I don’t care what nobody says,” Simpson said. “You have to be Super Mom with assistance. It takes a village.”

Two weeks after applying for LIHEAP, Simpson still hasn’t heard back.

That’s because, during the shutdown, none of the funds from LIHEAP were disbursed to Tennessee.

The Tennessee Housing Development Agency typically receives an annual allotment of federal dollars based on a formula that considers state weather patterns, energy costs and low-income population data. Post-COVID, Tennessee has received approximately $72 million each year. THDA then disburses this money to various local agencies — like the Metro Action Commission in Nashville, where Simpson was seeking assistance.

“As the [LIHEAP] program was delayed, the more families found themselves in crisis,” Lisa McCrady Beverly, a spokesperson for Metro Action said. “During all of this, we also had the disruption as it relates to SNAP … So when you have all of those different scenarios with families or individuals whose incomes are already very, very limited, it exacerbates the situations that they’re already having to deal with.”

Late last week, Metro Action said the agency had not received any formal communication from its funders as to when funding will resume. And, as of Monday, THDA still hasn’t received notice of what funds — if any — the agency will be receiving.

But the need is there: in November alone, the state has received over 12,000 applications for LIHEAP, and the majority are being held until the state receives notification of how much money it will receive from the federal government.