Department of Social Services starts statewide Crisis Intervention Program

On Monday, the Department of Social Services started its statewide Crisis Intervention Program, which gives out money to help with heating bills. The program has been up and running for the past few days and some people have been waiting in line for over eight hours.

“I am getting gas to go in my heater at home too, because I’m cold. I am waiting out here,” said Donnil Lewis of Tabor City.

Caroline Jones of Whiteville said, “I’ve been standing here five hours, my hands are freezer burnt.”

The temperatures are severe enough for Department of Social Services to begin their Crisis Intervention Program. The goal is to help people stay warm, by giving out money to go toward heating their homes.

The money that will be eventually dispersed comes from the federal government. It is given to every state in the country, and then equally dispersed to each county.

“This amount of money would have taken as long as two months to disperse, and we are doing to be able to do it in about three weeks,” said Linda Fry of the Columbus County Social Services.

They will hand out a total of $250,000. After individuals qualify, based on income and crisis level, they can receive up to $600 each.

Standing in line for hours in the cold may be worth it for some. Monique Peters said, “Actually, I think this is a good thing, with the economy the way it is, it’s good to get something for free. It’s a free will thing, of course the line is long, when you have something free of course there’s a line, because it’s free.”

For others, they think something should have been done to prevent the long wait time.

“It was long line, it was cold, and these people were not trying to help us out in any way shape form or fashion,” said Lewis.

Department of Social Services said they can only accommodate 100 people inside the building at a time due to fire codes. They said they were working as quickly as they could to filter people in and out.

The program will be going on for at least a few more weeks, or until the money runs out.