Households where every member is age 65 or older or completely unable to leave the home due to health reasons may apply for home heating assistance beginning Nov. 1.

The Georgia Department of Human Services will help pay heating costs for gas, electricity, coal or kerosene, if federal funds are available. One-time payments will be made via checks to home energy suppliers on behalf of eligible households.

Eligibility is based on the income of everyone living in the home. All eligible households must be responsible for their heating bill.

To apply for assistance, residents will need to provide verification of citizenship and age for everyone in the home, verification of all household income in the past 30 days (check stubs, public assistance checks, unemployment checks, etc.), verification of Social Security numbers and the most recent home heating bill.

Depending on the availability of funds, the program will open to the general public on Dec. 2.

Applicants are asked to contact Ninth District Opportunity Inc. after 8:30 a.m. by telephone at 770-534-8826 on the day of the program for which they qualify. Ninth District Opportunity requests no-walk-ins. More information is available at www.ndo.org.