With snow falling in the Catskills, CAHP offered our first homeowner support program this past winter: the Warm Neighbors Fund, which provided small micro-grants to local residents who needed help paying their heat bills.

According to the Ulster County Executive’s office, there are roughly 14,700 Ulster County households enrolled in the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP), a program that helps residents struggling to pay for heat in the cold months. Although HEAP benefits go a long way, there remains an affordability gap for many households, especially in the face of rising electricity and fuel costs. With federal budget cuts impacting so many income-based programs, CAHP believes it’s more important than ever for us to work together to support one another and strengthen our resilience as a community.

The Warm Neighbors Fund was a huge success!

Thanks to the generous support of 92 neighbors, we raised almost $20,000 and were able to provide micro-grants to 38 income-qualified families in Shandaken (21 households) and Olive (16 households) who needed a little extra support paying their heat bills this past season. This included 24 homes where someone over the age of 60 was residing.

THANK YOU to all of you who donated!

We’d also like to thank our community partners who helped us reach some of our most vulnerable neighbors: the Phoenicia Library, the Phoenicia Food Pantry, the Phoenicia Farmer’s Market, the Pine Hill Community Center, the Pine Hill Library, the West Shokan and Shokan branches of the Olive Free Library, Catskill Neighbors, Wellness RX and the Olive Town Hall.