Tulsa Church Offers Help To Community Members Struggling With Utility Bills

A Tulsa church is helping some community members who are struggling to pay their utility bills. The program leaders say right now many families have to decide between buying food or paying a utility bill and that is something they want to cut down.

St. Andrew Baptist Church and Woodlake Church have partnered together to bring this assistance to the community. Every Monday the two locations switch off hosting that day’s bill assistance interviews. On Monday, Jan. 18, St. Andrew Baptist Church is taking their turn to open their doors to the first 35 people in line. The interviews begin at 12:30 p.m. but people are encouraged to get there earlier to secure their spot.

The first 35 people will be given a number and their interview will only take about ten minutes at most. St. Andrew Senior Pastor Judge Bailey said they do require to see some form of identification and a copy of the month’s utility bill. Up to $250 dollars is available for each of the 35 people’s bills.

Bailey said this initiative started in October and they will keep paying these bills until their $360,000 dollar fund runs out.

“To answer why, it’s so needed,” Bailey said. “So many people that are still hurting, so many people still trying to figure it out, so many people that are still struggling, and you have people that have lost jobs and so many people’s unemployment is getting ready to run out, some people that picked up new jobs but they don’t pay enough to cover all their bills they are underemployed.”

St. Andrew will host other days of interviews at their church on Feb. 1 and 15. Woodlake Church will host the line and interviews at the same time on Jan. 25 and Feb. 8. That cycle continues by switching off locations every week.