{"id":103740,"date":"2020-11-06T10:59:47","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T15:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=103740"},"modified":"2021-02-17T15:42:43","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T20:42:43","slug":"assistance-available-for-utility-shut-offs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=103740","title":{"rendered":"Assistance Available for Utility Shut-offs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Pennsylvania\u2019s Public Utility Commission will lift the moratorium on utility shut-offs on November 9<sup>th<\/sup>. The moratorium was imposed in mid-March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Northampton County\u2019s Department of Community and Economic Development and the Department of Human Services offer assistance for residents struggling with utility payments. Tenant Navigators can handle calls about electric, sewer, water, natural gas bills, etc. They also provide the Cares Rent Relief program as well as rental assistance.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Contact information:<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>For residents in Bethlehem, Bethlehem Township, Hellertown or Lower Saucon Township contact New Bethany Ministries at 610-691-5602 extension 213.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>For Easton residents contact either:<\/div>\n<div>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Easton Area Neighborhood Center at 610-253-4253 or email Ross Marcus at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:rmarcus@eastonanc.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rmarcus@eastonanc.org<\/a><\/div>\n<div>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ProJeCt of Easton at 610-258-1100 or email Michael Banas at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:mbanas@projecteaston.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mbanas@projecteaston.org<\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>For all other municipalities, contact Third Street Alliance at 610-438-1763 or email Ziana Keith at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:zkeith@thirdstreetalliance.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">zkeith@thirdstreetalliance.org<\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Residential households hit hardest by the economic downturn \u2013 customers with incomes at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Income Guidelines\u2014are protected from termination until March 31, 2021. These \u201cprotected customers\u201d must apply for all available assistance programs and must request a payment arrangement from the utility, if appropriate.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Gross household income to qualify \u201cas at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Income Guidelines.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a01 resident\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0$38,280<\/div>\n<div>\u00a02 residents &#8211; $51,720<\/div>\n<div>3 residents &#8211; $65,160<\/div>\n<div>4 residents &#8211; $78,600<\/div>\n<div>5 residents &#8211; $92,040<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nBecky Bartlett<br \/>\nDeputy Director of Administration<br \/>\nNorthampton County Government Center<br \/>\n669 Washington Street<br \/>\nEaston, PA 18042<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.northamptoncounty.org\/\">https:\/\/www.northamptoncounty.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Pennsylvania\u2019s Public Utility Commission will lift the moratorium on utility shut-offs on November 9th. The moratorium was imposed in mid-March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. &nbsp; Northampton County\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=103740\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Assistance Available for Utility Shut-offs<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,5738,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-northampton-county","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/NC.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/90635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}