What our Utility Assistance Program is telling us about seniors and the cost of staying warm.

There is something about asking for help that becomes harder when you’ve spent a lifetime managing on your own.

You’ve worked. You’ve paid your bills. You’ve stretched a dollar when you needed to. You’ve learned to make things last.

And then one day, the furnace oil tank is getting low, or the woodpile isn’t going to make it through the winter.

And the money simply isn’t there.

At United Way Bruce Grey, we’re seeing more older residents turn to our Utility Assistance Program for help heating their homes.

Between September 1 and October 26 this year, 22 households made up entirely of seniors applied for heating assistance. During the same period in 2025, there were eight.

These aren’t necessarily people who have never struggled financially. But they’re people who have reached the point where keeping their homes warm requires help from somewhere else.

The problem with buying heat

For many households in Bruce and Grey, heating isn’t a monthly natural gas or electricity bill.

It’s furnace oil, propane or firewood.

And those fuels come with a particular financial challenge: you often have to buy a significant amount all at once.

Some suppliers require a minimum delivery of 500 litres. At recent furnace oil prices, that can mean a bill of more than $1,000.

United Way’s maximum heating fuel grant is $700.

That grant can make an enormous difference. But sometimes it isn’t enough to meet the minimum delivery requirement, leaving the household to find hundreds of additional dollars before the truck can roll.

For someone living on a fixed income, that’s a difficult gap to close.

And you cannot budget your way around a fuel delivery minimum.

What the numbers are telling us

Across all households, applications for wood, propane and furnace oil assistance increased from 50 last fall to 73 this fall, a 46% increase.

But the change among seniors-only households is particularly concerning.

Last fall, eight seniors-only households came to us for heating assistance.

This fall, 22 did.

Twenty-one of those households reported just one senior living in the home.

We don’t know every circumstance that brought them to our door. We do know that their need for assistance is real.

And we know that the cost of heating a home doesn’t necessarily get smaller when the household income does.

Keeping people safely housed

We talk a great deal about homelessness prevention, and rightly so.

But keeping people housed isn’t only about paying the rent or mortgage.

A home without adequate heat is not a safe home.

For an older person, especially someone living alone, maintaining a warm home is part of maintaining health, independence and dignity.

Sometimes preventing a housing crisis means making sure a fuel delivery can happen before the tank runs empty.

The resources are changing, too

There’s another challenge behind the scenes.

In 2025, United Way Bruce Grey was able to draw on several additional granting sources to help households struggling with utility costs.

This year, approximately $24,700 less from those other granting sources has been avaliable.

That doesn’t mean every dollar has disappeared permanently. But it does mean United Way has been relying more heavily on the dollars we raise locally.

Those are the donations that allow us to respond when someone calls.

And increasingly, those calls are coming from older residents who simply need to keep their homes warm.

A community that cares

Growing older should not mean growing colder.

We cannot control the price of furnace oil, propane or firewood.

We cannot change the fact that rural households often have fewer heating options.

But as a community, we can help ensure that an older neighbour doesn’t have to face winter alone.

And sometimes that starts with something as ordinary, and as essential, as a warm home.