Times Staff

A cry for help was answered this month as several people in the community donated funds to help needy families pay their natural gas bills this winter, but money is still needed.

Sandi Dill, Upson County director for the Neighborhood Service Center, said many local residents could face the rest of winter with no heat if further funds aren't raised to provide assistance with heating bills.

The Center, part of the Middle Georgia Community Action Agency, had distributed the $53,000 it received in federal funds for the energy assistance program after only two months, leaving more than 250 families out of options and desperate for help.

Dill asked the community's businesses, churches, and civic groups to help her raise the money needed to sustain the program through the remaining winter months.

"If businesses would donate just $10 a month, we could help so many families," Dill said. "The only way to get people heat is to get more money."

Many of the families requesting help from the Center this year were people who lost their jobs when Thomaston Mills closed, said Dill, who took over as director of the center about two months ago.

Dill and volunteer Bobbie McDaniel say they received several calls from people wanting to offer help, and so far have collected several hundred dollars.

One day recently a member of First Presbyterian Church brought in a $120 donation that was spontaneously collected at an Ivylyn Girardeau Circle meeting.

"Several people had read the article in the paper about people with no heat, and we couldn't think of a better project to do this month," said church member Barbara Richards. "We just took up a collection right there."

Dill is happy to see the money come in, but says more is definitely needed in order to help everyone in need of assistance.

One of Dill's main goals as the new director is to raise awareness in the community about the Center's many programs, and the plight of families left with no means of assistance when funds are depleted.

One such program, called Family Resettlement, helps families who are living in substandard conditions find adequate housing. The center will pay a housing deposit, utilities deposit and first month's rent for a new home, as well as provide funds for emergency shelter at local motels if a person's circumstances call for immediate aid.

"We just relocated a woman who was going to have her children taken away because where they were living wasn't clean," Dill said. "We couldn't get her into a new apartment right away, so we put her in a motel for two weeks until we located a place. If the agency hadn't gotten her into something, she and her children would have been on the street."

In a few weeks, Dill will receive funds allotted for this year's Emergency Food and Shelter program, which ensures families have adequate food and shelter and helps pay utility bills. The program runs from March to September, but Dill says there are families who need the extra help year round.

"We always run out of funds before the end of the program," Dill said. "If we could get people to donate year round, I could spread the money out over a year period and help people all the time."

Dill also has waiting lists for two programs that help people with housing needs.

The rural housing program helps low income families with renovations that will improve the safety and sanitation of their home.

People who own homes on less than two acres of land in rural areas of the county are eligible for assistance through this program, which provides funds for repairs of plumbing, electricity, floors, or roofing. The center is only able to work on 10 homes a year with its limited funding, and has a long waiting list for the service.

"Before, a lot of people weren't aware of the program, so we'd have between 10 and 20 families a year sign up for assistance," Dill said. "This year, though, the information is included on our regular application, so we've had a lot more people requesting help."

The same is true for the weatherization program, which makes homes more energy efficient by repairing or replacing leaky windows and doors and providing proper insulation. Unlike the rural housing program, renters and mobile home owners are also eligible for the service, but priority is given to the elderly and those receiving social security disability. Again waiting lists are the norm.

"We have so many people on the lists now that we probably won't be able to get to them for three or four years," Dill says of the programs, which can only aid about 20 families per year.

The Center was so low on resources this December that Dill wasn't able to distribute USDA commodities like canned foods and cheese, which are usually given out four times a year to needy families.

"We ran out this year before the fourth distribution," she said. "The last time we did it, we gave out 678 bags of food, and we still didn't have enough. There were about 40 or 50 families that had to be turned away."

The Center also helps low income residents with no insurance pay for regular prescriptions, "not emergency medications, but those you have to take year round like blood pressure medication," Dill said. A year-round clothes closet is also provided.

Of course, Dill emphasizes, all of the programs offered by the center could be cut at any time, depending on changes in the federal budget.

"That's why we're so desperate for donations," she said.

If you would like to donate to the Neighborhood Service Center, call 647-9985 or send a check to 318 W. Gordon Street.