Eunice residents area to be notified of Community Action Agency offerings

Eunice residents area to be notified of Community Action Agency offerings
Kirsten Brown-Thomas, St. Landry Parish Community Action Agency executive director

By Harlan Kirgan
Editor
OPELOUSAS — Eunice residents are to be better informed of St. Landry Parish Community Action Agency programs in the future, Bill Fontenot, parish president, said.
The question about how parish residents are notified about assistance for energy assistance to low-income households was raised by Councilwoman Mildred Thierry.
Thierry said has received complaints from people who said they are frustrated by the process the agency uses to selects aid recipients for utility bills.
“They say every time they call it is busy and when they finally get through they are told all the appointments have been taken,” Thierry said at Wednesday’s Parish Council meeting in Opelousas.
Kirsten Brown-Thomas, agency executive director, said there are two lines for utility assistance calls. Her staff talks to one person and the second person is in limbo until the first call is addressed, she said.
Walk-ins at the office near the St. Landry Parish airport in Opelousas are also accepted from the elderly and disabled he said.
“We go to rural parts of the parish ... we’ve been this year to Arnaudville, to Melville. We went to Eunice twice. We went to the Palmetto area. We are trying as much as we can to reach as many clients as we can,” Brown-Thomas said
Fontenot said applications were taken in Eunice twice this with a total of 50 people signed up for assistance.
But Brown-Thomas indicated a the meeting the only mass media notification of the availability of funds is done in Opelousas.
“When funds do come in for that location we post it in the Daily World ...” she said.
Fontenot said Eunice residents were notified by fliers. In the future, The Eunice News will be utilized for public notification, he said.
St. Landry Parish received $811,757 from the Louisiana Housing Corporation for energy assistance and since January, $409,635 has been spent, Brown-Thomas said. Residents are allowed one application every six months, but are not guaranteed assistance, she said.
Fontenot said he will consider adding a second phone line at the agency to receive requests for applications.
Brown-Thomas said St. Landry Parish is the top 10 parishes for the number of impoverished residents.
“We are seeing quite a few clients each day. I’d say anywhere from 30 to 40 clients each day,” she said.
“They money doesn’t allow us to help every single individual that wants to receive help,” she said.
In Eunice, applications are taken the parish health unit, 131 City Ave.