{"id":172041,"date":"2021-05-13T10:45:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T10:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=534231"},"modified":"2021-05-13T10:45:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T10:45:00","slug":"america-is-facing-unprecedented-utility-debt-heres-what-might-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/05\/13\/america-is-facing-unprecedented-utility-debt-heres-what-might-help\/","title":{"rendered":"America is facing unprecedented utility debt. Here\u2019s what might help."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The COVID-19 pandemic has plunged millions of families into poverty<\/a> — and more than ever, Americans are having trouble paying their bills<\/a> and meeting basic needs. A new report from researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles measured the extent of the debt that has accumulated in unpaid bills for families in Los Angeles struggling to keep the lights, gas, and water on through the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report<\/a>, which used public data collected by the California State Water Resources Board about Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers in November 2020, found that one-quarter to one-third of households in Los Angeles have utility debt. These impacts are not equally felt across the city — 64 percent of people severely affected by utility debt are Latino, and Black communities also experience disproportionate levels of debt. Lower-income neighborhoods, renters, and people with limited English proficiency also face higher debt burdens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silvia Gonz\u00e1lez is a part of a research group that has been documenting the impacts of the pandemic on low-income communities and communities of color. Gonz\u00e1lez says that the geographic pattern in the data on utility debt mirrors other work<\/a> that has been done to quantify the impacts of COVID-19, including risk of job displacement and lack of access to unemployment insurance. \u201cThis is just one more data point that shows low-income communities, communities of color, being disproportionately impacted,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angelenos are not alone when it comes to the weight of utility debt, which is not a new problem. According to Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors\u2019 Association, or NEADA, energy affordability has been \u201ca chronic problem for decades\u201d in the U.S. — but it increased dramatically with the arrival of the pandemic. NEADA\u2019s utility debt projection was $19.7 billion nationwide at the end of December 2019; by March 2021, that number had soared to $28 billion, a 42 percent increase, according to Wolfe. In California alone, water utility debt exceeds $1 billion<\/a>. \u201cWe really haven\u2019t had a problem to this extent before,\u201d said Wolfe. Because utilities have the power to shut off heat, electricity, and water when bills go unpaid, families will often prioritize utility bills over other financial needs — thus, utility debt \u201creflects the grinding level of poverty in the United States, and the high percentage of the population that has very limited savings and very low incomes,\u201d said Wolfe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the pandemic, in the absence of a federal utility shutoff moratorium, there\u2019s been a patchwork of utility shutoff moratoriums<\/a> at the state<\/a> and local level. California\u2019s moratorium is in place through the end of June. But even in places where utility companies can\u2019t turn off families\u2019 water and power, people are faced with the problem of how to pay a backlog of bills they can\u2019t afford. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolfe says that help is available from different pots of federal stimulus money<\/a>. Last year\u2019s CARES Act and this year\u2019s American Recovery Plan authorized an extra $5.4 billion to go to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a program administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that helps low-income families pay their energy bills. Utility debt assistance is also available through the Treasury Department\u2019s Emergency Rental Assistance program, which got $45.25 billion in stimulus funds to help families pay rent and utilities; the Treasury Department\u2019s Homeowner Assistance Fund, which got $9.96 billion in stimulus money to homeowners pay mortgages and bills; and the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 Low Income Household Water Assistance Program, which is dedicated to water bills and got $1.1 billion in stimulus dollars. The funds from these programs are distributed by various state agencies, and the process for applying for relief differs from state to state<\/a>. In California specifically, more help may soon be available \u2014 this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed an allocation of $2 billion<\/a> in utility assistance for Californians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolfe says the money is a step in the right direction; the bigger problem is how to get the money into the hands of people who need it. These relief programs are different from the stimulus checks that arrived directly in people\u2019s mailboxes or bank accounts. People who need help paying their bills need to know about these programs and then figure out how to apply for them. Some of the families who need to access the program may have never navigated applications for federal relief programs before, or may not know they are eligible. Wolfe says the word hasn\u2019t really gotten out yet, and local agencies are scrambling to figure out how to get the money to people before their utilities are shut off or the federal evictions moratorium<\/a> is potentially struck down<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Families who need the aid most may also face additional barriers to accessing it. Gonz\u00e1lez says that households with English language barriers or limited broadband, who often face higher utility debt, face additional challenges to applying for and accessing federal aid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agustin Cabrera is the director of RePowerLA<\/a>, a coalition that advocates for environmental and labor issues at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. According to Cabrera, the applications for aid themselves are a barrier to getting funds into the hands of people who need it. \u201cLengthy application processes that require a lot of document uploading really put a barrier on folks who don\u2019t have access to the internet,\u201d they said. \u201cIt really deters people from actually applying, even if they\u2019re income eligible.\u201d Groups in the RePowerLA coalition have helped people apply for funds in the past, but physical distancing due to COVID-19 and limited capacity are a barrier for advocates, as well. \u201cWe\u2019re really calling on leaders to make funds available without lengthy applications,\u201d Cabrera said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolfe agreed that limited awareness and difficult application processes are obstacles to relieving Americans\u2019 utility debt. \u201cMoney is in progress; families will get helped. For many families, we will be able to fully pay off their debt,\u201d said Wolfe, \u201cbut the problem is timing. The problem is getting it to them, and also letting people know they\u2019re eligible.\u201d <\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Grist<\/a> with the headline America is facing unprecedented utility debt. Here\u2019s what might help.<\/a> on May 13, 2021.<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Grist<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unpaid power, gas, and water bills \u201creflect the grinding level of poverty in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267,13813],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172041"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172042,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172041\/revisions\/172042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}