Federally funded program to help families heat their homes sees an increase in applicants

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)- This coming weekend temperatures are expected to drop dangerously low and many people are concerned about whether or not they'll be able to pay their heat bills.

Luckily, in Colorado, there's a program designed specifically to help in that situation. 

The low-income energy assistance program better known as LEAP is a federally funded program to help families heat their homes throughout the cold. They started helping out families in November and as of Jan. 15, they've seen an increase in applicants compared to last year. 

So far, there's been a 5-percent increase in applications and an 8-percent increase when it comes to applications that have already been approved. This program helps by providing assistance with heating costs and even equipment repair.

Since November LEAP has received 12,000 applications from El Paso County and 7,000 have been approved. Numbers have gone down in Pueblo, they've received 7,380 applications but only 5,545 were approved.

They're encouraging people to apply.     

"Our program is here or we were here to help. We really, really, really want to help people. And we encourage anybody that thinks they might be eligible to go ahead and apply," Theresa Kullen, LEAP Program Manager.

According to Colorado Springs Utilities, last season more than 12,800 customers received LEAP funding.