Popular Detroit water program no longer accepting applications

The lack of action from the Michigan House of Representatives has called into question the future of Detroit’s widely used affordable water program.

The legislation would have provided long-term funding for the Lifeline plan, which reduces the water bill for eligible Detroit residents to just $18 a month and forgives debt on overdue bills. Earlier this month, Detroit Water and Sewer Department Director Gary Brown told the Free Press that if affordable water legislation was not passed, the department would be ” obliged to realign the program to adapt it to the dollars available.

The lack of a continued funding source prompted the department last week to stop accepting new applications, DWSD Public Affairs Director Bryan Peckinpaugh said Friday. The program has approximately $11.2 million available and it is unclear how many households this funding will cover until the Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency – which administers the program – verifies the income eligibility of currently enrolled clients . Those who contact the agency are directed to a payment plan intended to help customers with past-due balances.

“We don’t want to create false expectations for enrollment when someone calls to apply and there may not be enough funds at that time to enroll them,” Peckinpaugh said in an email.

More than 25,000 households were enrolled in the Lifeline plan in the fall. The program, launching in 2022, offers residents fixed monthly rates ranging from $18 to $56 and eliminates past water debt based on a household’s income and water usage. A decade ago, Detroit gained international attention for its water-cutting practices, prompting the United Nations to declare that cutting off water to those who are “genuinely unable to pay” constitutes a violation of human rights. ‘man.

“We will make further progress in finding sustainable funding, but we must align the program with the funding available at this time and we will not be able to serve all 26,000 households,” Peckinpaugh said .

The Wayne Metropolitan agency is recertifying applications, or verifying income eligibility, as part of a state funding requirement announced this year. As of Dec. 18, 13,834 households were enrolled in the Lifeline plan and another 10,419 households had pending recertification applications, according to an online dashboard.

Brown previously said households would not be cut off, but rather brought into the EasyPay plan, which allows any customer to pay a past-due balance over 36 months and avoid having their water cut off.

In a statement Friday, he said the legislation “reflected the voices of water providers, advocates, public health officials, community action agencies, Democrats and Republicans.”

The legislation sought to create a statewide residential affordable water program to reduce past due balances and cap water bills at 3% of a household’s income and establish a fund to pay for it, starting with a $2 per month fee on retail water meters or flat rate accounts. .

Earlier this year, city and county leaders across the region touted proposed bills, introduced last fall in the Michigan House and Senate, as a way to ensure access to a fundamental right . But Macomb County leaders opposed the legislation at the time, saying it would impose additional costs and duplicate an existing assistance program.

Brown said the legislation is crucial for Michiganders across the state.

“It is good public policy to ensure that low-income households can pay their water bills and that water suppliers have reliable revenues to cover operation and maintenance costs,” he said. he declared. “These needs will only increase in the future due to rising costs of operating water and sewer systems, replacing lead service lines, and increasing climate resilience. We have had bipartisan support for this legislation and we were close to passing these bills.”

Current funding comes from the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), the Michigan Water Affordability Grant, and the Local Water Utility Affordability Grant.

“We don’t know yet what the future holds,” Peckinpaugh said. “It depends on funding and how the Lifeline program evolves.”

Contact Nushrat Rahman: [email protected]. Follow her on X: @NushratR.