Poll Girl

The preoccupation right now is soaring fuel prices: cheaper natural gas is unavailable in this region, and wood heat is often impractical or insufficient. But because of limited federal money, average fuel assistance for the 46,000 low-income Maine families expected to apply will probably decline to $579 this year, from $688 last year, said Jo-Ann Choate of the Maine State Housing Agency.

Skip to next paragraph

Enlarge This Image

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Viola Brooks, 81, of Milbridge, says, "I'm broke every month," but enjoys her lovebirds and cats.

Multimedia

Audio & Photos

Maine's Elderly Poor

Many elderly Maine residents live on meager incomes.

"Low-income people aren't even going to be able to fill up a single tank of fuel oil," Ms. Choate said. "They already wrap themselves up in blankets during the winter. This year they'll be colder."

The disabled, and there are many, may have it hardest. Dolly Jordan of Milbridge has a history of two bad marriages, a bone-crushing auto accident and poor health, and looks and feels older than 61. With osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes and obesity, she spends most of the day in a wheelchair and uses a combination of a gripper, a broom and a cane to make her bed or hang her laundry.

Come winter, she hangs a blanket over the front door of her little red wooden house, where she has lived alone the last 10 years and which sits on concrete blocks with no foundation. She turns the heat off at night to save fuel.

Her disability payment is $623 a month, plus she gets just $10 from the state and $74 in food stamps. After paying the housing tax and her utility bills, she said, she must watch every remaining penny. A daughter drives her to the distant town of Ellsworth for cheaper shopping.

Like many, she keeps a police scanner on as a diversion and, unable to afford cable, she watches the same videos over and over -- her favorite is "On Golden Pond."

"I wish for bedtime to come," she said. "The days are so long."

Easing down a ramp to her mailbox is a perilous 15-minute ordeal. Still, she said, "I wait for Fridays."

"That's junk-mail day, and I read all the ads. That's my best day."

...