I live in Rogers park, Chicago, in an apartment building. ComEd
supplies me electricity, and chose to disconnect it after I
accumulated a bill of about 1000 bucks over a period of one year. The
last payment I made was six months ago. My financial condition has
been very bad this year, and I dont have the money to pay the whole
thing. Now that they have disconnected it, they say that they will
reconnect only if I pay the amount due in full. They could have worked
out a payment plan if I contacted them before they disconnected it,
they say. But now, full payment. The problem is that I just dont have
the money to pay them in full. My options seem to be to live without
electricity until I can, get a fresh connection in somebody else's
name (which is weird cause I live in a studio apartment), or get
charities/energy assistance programs to help me pay this bill. What is
the best thing to do to get the electricity back?

The ComEd customer service representative told me about programs like
LIHEAP and CEDA which are government programs to help low-income
people in situations like this. Does anybody have experience on how
they work?

P.S. I am in a bad situation and given a chance, wouldnt be here, but
all I now need to know is how to get out of it. And it is quite
stressful with creditors and no electricity. It is all my mistake, but
what do I do now.

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Clarification of Question by comed-ga on 08 Jun 2004 14:32 PDT

I called up LIHEAP (http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/liheap/) who told
me to contact CEDA, and they told me that they are out of funds, and
when I asked if they knew anywhere else I could ask, they said that
all places they know are out of funds. Apparently they get their money
in September and it is available until it runs out.