When Bemidji resident Tommy Tiokasin woke up Tuesday morning to get his teenage son off to school, he noted it was 24 degrees outside.

“It’s a little chilly,” Tiokasin said. “It’ll be like a heat wave, 24 on up.”

Tiokasin applied to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program back in September. He’s received assistance for the past seven years. In the past, he received a letter at the start of November from his local community action program that allowed him to plan his budget.

This year, the federal shutdown has meant a delay in that assistance.

“They sent me back a letter saying that they don't know if we're going to get any funding, and if we do, it'll be extremely late,” Tiokasin said.

Tiokasin is among the 80,000 Minnesotans who have applied for energy assistance in Minnesota,

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