Athens nonprofit the Ark is reaching out to the community in an effort to help residents struggling to pay power bills. The Ark is running an Emergency Utility Assistance program from Sunday, September 1st to Monday, September 30th. Lucy Hudgens is Executive Director of the organization. She says the current need for help has increased significantly recently.
“And this is really in response to the overwhelming requests that we have been receiving for utility assistance over the past two months,” according to Hudgens.
She says that increase has come at a particularly difficult time of the year.
“What we found out is in June of 2024, Georgia state regulators approved a 12 percent rate increase for utility customers. So the increased coupled with the summer temperatures June and July have added, what we found to be, almost $200 to the average power bill.”
Some groups are hit harder than others, especially for clients who have also experienced recent rent hikes.
“So this increase has had a huge, disproportionate impact on our disadvantaged groups such as seniors, disable residents, and those neighbors who are living paycheck to paycheck,” Hudgens said.
Visit www.athensark.org for more information or to donate.
