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Autumn 2026·8 min read·Abloom Senior Living

Getting a parent through a Minnesota winter at home

Most of what makes winter hard at 84 can be arranged in October, while you still have a choice of who does it.

What winter changes

Winter makes a bad day harder to recover from. A fall in July means a sore hip and a ride to urgent care. The same fall on an icy driveway at six in the morning in January, with nobody due to stop by until the weekend, means a much longer wait for help.

Families usually get to this in October, which is early enough for all of it. The reason it feels confusing is that nobody hands you the list. The utility, the state, and the city each handle a different piece, and none of them will tell you about the others. Most of this is an afternoon of phone calls.

How cold the house gets

Older adults lose body heat faster and notice it later. The National Institutes of Health, in its guidance on hypothermia in older adults, says the body's response to cold "can be diminished by underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, some medicines including over-the-counter cold remedies, and aging itself," and that hypothermia in an older person can develop "after even relatively mild exposure to cold weather." On the thermostat, NIH says that "some experts suggest that, for older people, the temperature be set to at least 68 degrees."

Sixty-eight sounds high to a generation raised on turning the heat down at night, and many people in their eighties keep the house cooler out of habit or to hold the bill down.

The Minnesota Department of Health reports that males aged 65 and older had the highest rate of cold-related hospitalizations in the state from 2015 through 2024, and that older men were more likely to have severe illness and need more care. The department does not say why that group stands out.

On your next visit, look at the thermostat yourself instead of asking, and notice what your father is wearing indoors and whether a blanket has appeared on a chair in a room that should not need one.

Paying the heating bill

If money is the reason the thermostat is down, Minnesota has two protections that most families have never heard of.

The first is the Cold Weather Rule, and somebody has to call the utility, set up a payment plan, and then keep to it. Under Minn. Stat. 216B.096, the cold weather period runs October 1 through April 30, and during it a utility may not disconnect residential heating service from a customer who enters into and keeps a payment agreement. For households at or below 50 percent of the state median income, the statute says a utility "may not require a customer to pay more than ten percent of the household income toward current and past utility bills." The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission says a customer has to ask for the protection.

The second is the Energy Assistance Program, run by the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Its income guidelines for federal fiscal year 2027, covering October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, set eligibility at 50 percent of state median income: $38,464 a year for a one-person household, $73,969 for a household of four. A parent living alone on Social Security and a small pension is often under that line and has never applied, usually because he assumes it is meant for someone worse off.

Raising this with a father who has paid his own bills for sixty years is awkward in October and worse after a shutoff notice. Sit down at his kitchen table and fill out the form with him.

Carbon monoxide and the furnace

A furnace that ran twice a day in September runs most of the day in January, which is when a cracked heat exchanger or a blocked vent starts to show up. Minnesota law requires a working carbon monoxide alarm within ten feet of every bedroom, under Minn. Stat. 299F.51.

Check the manufacture date on the back of the alarm. These units expire, generally after seven to ten years depending on the model, and a parent who put one up when she moved in may be relying on a dead detector. Replace it if the date is unreadable.

Heating companies across the East Metro are booked solid by Thanksgiving, so October is the month to have the furnace looked at. Two other things while the technician is out: a space heater belongs on the floor, plugged straight into a wall outlet, with nothing within three feet, and a generator never runs in a garage, even with the door open. Make the furnace call this week; the rest can wait for the weekend.

The driveway, the sidewalk, and the street

City plows do not clear your father's driveway, and they will leave a ridge of snow across the end of it. The City of Woodbury says plowing begins "whenever conditions make driving difficult," and that "during average winter conditions, it takes eight to nine hours to complete snow removal operations." A storm ending at ten at night may not reach his street until morning.

Two Woodbury rules catch families off guard. There is no on-street parking from 2 to 6 a.m. between November 1 and April 1, and none at any time once two or more inches of snow have accumulated, until the street has been completely plowed. If a family member stays over, or a caregiver works an overnight shift, that car belongs in the driveway. If overnight help is part of the plan, our page on 24-hour and overnight care covers how those hours work.

Woodbury also asks residents to "clear the entire width of the road in front of their mailbox after every plowing." A man in his eighties should not be clearing the end of a long driveway in the dark, and he will do it himself if nobody else has been lined up.

Arrange it now. A neighbor's teenager, a lawn service that plows in the winter, or a name off a church list all work. Settle three things: who comes, what it costs, and how many inches brings them out without anyone having to call. Write it on the refrigerator where your father will see it, because he will otherwise be out there at 6 a.m. deciding it is not worth bothering anyone.

Put a bucket of salt or sand inside each door he uses, and make refilling it somebody's job. Our guide to preventing falls at home covers the indoor half of the problem.

Getting out of the house

Four months of short days and bad roads shrink a week down to very little. Friends stop visiting because driving after dark in January is hard for them too, and nobody announces it.

None of this has to be settled this week. Ask the clinic which winter appointments can be done by phone or video, and whether the nonurgent ones can move to March. Set up grocery delivery in October while you are there to show him how it works, rather than over the phone during a storm. Most pharmacies in the East Metro deliver, and most do not mention it unless you ask.

For rides and for help finding a chore service, Minnesota Aging Pathways is free and statewide, a service of the Minnesota Board on Aging working with the state's area agencies on aging, at 800-333-2433, weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging, which covers the seven-county metro including Washington County, funds services that include home-delivered meals, assisted transportation, and "chore and homemaker services." Our guide to what Minnesota Aging Pathways can do has more, and it costs nothing to call before you spend privately.

A plan for the week the power goes out

This takes about ten minutes. Write down who lives nearby and has a key. Put flashlights where he will find them, with batteries already in them. Keep a week of medications on hand instead of two days, and a phone charger that works in a car. Decide where he would go to stay warm and who would drive him.

If your father uses oxygen, a CPAP or BiPAP machine, or anything else that runs on electricity, call the equipment supplier this month and ask what their outage plan is, and ask the utility whether they keep a medical priority list. Some of this may already be in place at his house.

When winter is what forces the decision

For some families, winter is when a problem that was already there becomes visible. A father who was managing fine in August is not managing in January, and it shows up in small things: mail piling up, the same shirt on three visits in a row, the thermostat at 80 or at 58. They are easy to miss one visit at a time.

If that is where you are, the choice is usually between adding hours at home and thinking about a move. Adding hours is the smaller step and is often enough. Most families start with the risky parts of the day: getting up and dressed in the morning, and the evening stretch when a working daughter cannot be there. Our page on what a visit looks like walks through a typical shift, and how families pay for care at home covers the money.

Abloom Senior Living provides in-home care in clients' own homes around Woodbury and the East Metro, and also runs a five-resident home in Woodbury. If care at home stops working in February, the Woodbury house is run by the same company you have already been working with.

Where to start

You do not have to decide any of this in October. Pick two things off this page, usually the furnace and the shoveling, and leave the rest until the first storm shows you what else needs doing.

If you would like another set of eyes on the house before the snow comes, you can request a visit at home. We will look at the entry, the stairs, the bathroom, and the week's schedule, and tell you what we see. If what your family needs is not what we provide, or the way you are paying for care does not line up with what we accept, we will say so and point you toward someone better suited.

This article is general information from a care provider in Woodbury, Minnesota. It is not legal, financial, or medical advice. Program rules, income limits, and city ordinances change, so confirm anything you plan to rely on with the agency or city involved.

Frequently asked questions

How warm should an older adult keep the house in winter?

The National Institutes of Health says that "some experts suggest that, for older people, the temperature be set to at least 68 degrees." NIH also notes that an older person's response to cold can be reduced by conditions such as diabetes, by some medicines including over-the-counter cold remedies, and by aging itself, so an older adult may be too cold without feeling it. If a parent keeps the house cooler than that, ask whether the reason is habit or the heating bill, because the second one has solutions.

Can a utility shut off my parent's heat in the winter in Minnesota?

Under Minn. Stat. 216B.096, the cold weather period runs October 1 through April 30, and during it a utility may not disconnect residential heating service from a customer who enters into and keeps a payment agreement. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission stresses that this protection is not automatic. Your parent, or you on his behalf, has to set up a payment plan with the utility and keep to it. For households at or below 50 percent of state median income, the statute limits the required payment to no more than ten percent of household income toward current and past bills.

Who will shovel for an older parent in Woodbury or Washington County?

There is no city crew that clears private driveways. Most families use a lawn service that plows in winter, a neighbor, or a name from a church or community list, and arrange it in October rather than after a storm. For help finding a chore or snow service in Washington County, Minnesota Aging Pathways at 800-333-2433 keeps referral lists, and the Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging funds chore and homemaker services across the seven-county metro.

Will a home care caregiver shovel the driveway?

Usually not. Home care in Minnesota is licensed under Minn. Stat. ch. 144A and covers services for the person: help with bathing, dressing, meals, medications, and the household support that goes with them. Outdoor snow removal sits outside that and is generally arranged separately, which is why it is worth lining up before December. Ask any agency you are considering exactly where its line falls, because practice varies.

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