WESLACO, TX — The State of Texas stopped assisting the poor with their light bill on August 31, 2016. Over 700,000 Texans who relied on assistance were affected, like Francisca who is a 68-year-old retired farmworker living on SSA and SSI benefits. Francisca says in the summer months, “The Texas heat is too much—we have 80 to 90 degree mornings and by noon it is a scorching 105 degrees. To top it off, we are all adults or senior citizens in this housing project and not one of us received any notice that this assistance with the light bill had ended. We as elderly depend on this assistance and it is just not right that we find things out after the fact.”
Texas has one of the highest poverty levels in the country and none of our Democratic lawmakers have tried or stepped forward to resurrect the program. It is so sad that the champions of the poor have stayed silent, supposedly they are the ones that “fight for the working poor and elderly.” This just shows that little by little, we the elderly, part time employed and unemployed, are losing our right to live. Our numbers of poor are increasing daily. We are being put up against the wall.
We as humans have the right to live a comfortable life, since we have worked all of our life harvesting the fruits and vegetables that are consumed day in and day out, throughout this country. So we ask and demand from our state government that the State of Texas take over these utility corporations and run them where it benefits all of society.
