If Kevina Chapolini-Renwrick couldn鈥檛 pay the $15,000 water bill, she鈥檇 lose her home.
The South Philadelphia resident began to panic when she saw the city had tacked a notice on her door threatening her with legal action, back in the summer of 2021. Her husband had inherited the property from his parents in 2007, and with it, their unpaid water bill debt.
Tears traced the retired social worker鈥檚 cheeks as she recalled the memories tied to the simple rowhouse with beige siding, snugly tucked between its neighbors on a peaceful side street in the Newbold neighborhood.
Chapolini-Renwrick had lived in this neighborhood her entire life. It was where she hosted 鈥淔ried Chicken Fridays鈥� for the hungry kids who lived on the block, and where she fell in love with her husband, Yvon Renwrick, who was her first and only boyfriend. And the house was where she said goodbye to him, when he died from cancer in the summer of 2020.
鈥淚 thought, 鈥業鈥檓 going to become homeless and lose the house that my husband and I raised our children in,鈥欌�� she said.
Although water bills for exorbitant sums of money 鈥� the result of years of interest 鈥� had been sent to her home for years, she never paid them, or even opened the envelopes, because they were in the name of the home鈥檚 former residents. She reasoned that she only needed to pay the bills that came in her husband鈥檚 name, which she did. Diligently.
Plus, there was so much going on in Chapolini-Renwrick鈥檚 life. Lengthy hospital visits with her husband, from dawn until dusk. And she was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2021.
Still, Chapolini-Renwrick tried every avenue to stop from losing her home because of the water debt. The city was threatening her with legal action 鈥� potentially including selling her home at a sheriff鈥檚 auction 鈥� if she couldn鈥檛 pay up. She even called her state representative, who told her nothing could be done.
Eventually she found the nonprofit in Philadelphia, where she ended up 鈥渂lowing up鈥� the voicemail of Robert Ballenger鈥檚 phone. Ballenger is part of a team at CLS who work as public advocates on utility issues.
Ballenger told Chapolini-Renwrick about a somewhat new program in Philadelphia that could help her: the
, or TAP.
TAP is unique to Philadelphia; few city-run water utilities in the country offer anything like it. It locks water rates for people with low incomes to 2%-3% of their income, regardless of their water use. Chapolini-Renwrick is one of thousands of people who participate in the program, which came about in 2017.
鈥淲ater debt is really an issue of housing and community stabilization,鈥� Ballenger said. 鈥淎nd the accumulation of water debt is one of the things that can deprive a low-income family of the value of what may be their only real asset: their home.鈥�
In Chapolini-Renwrick鈥檚 case, TAP dropped her monthly bill to $43.30 鈥� which ignores the amount owed on the past water bill debt. It鈥檚 a rate she said she can handle, even with her sole income being a Social Security check.
What鈥檚 an even bigger game changer for her, however, is the program also has a debt forgiveness component. If she makes 24 payments 鈥� once per month over the next two years 鈥� she will have the $15,000 wiped away completely.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge burden lifted off of me,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o now I鈥檝e got time to heal, with my depression and with the breast cancer.鈥�
What can Cleveland learn from Philadelphia?
Susan Crosby, deputy revenue commissioner with the city of Philadelphia, said while the city is still studying TAP鈥檚 overall impact, it has noticed a correlation between decreased water shutoffs and customers鈥� participation in TAP.
In order to pay for the program, there鈥檚 a small rider placed on the bills of non-TAP program participants. Philadelphia attorney Ballenger said it amounts to a 鈥渨hopping鈥� 67.5 cents per-bill on average, or about $8 per-year, per-home.
鈥淢eanwhile, $615 a year,鈥� Ballenger said. 鈥淭hat is how much a low-income water customer on average benefits by participating in TAP, with just over $50 a month on average of bill relief.鈥�
But building out the program was a monumental undertaking, Crosby said, likely placing it out of the budget for some smaller cities. TAP鈥檚 implementation required hiring 22 full-time employees, updates to the billing system and customer service management software, and creating a marketing strategy to tell customers about the program, she said.
鈥淥nce the program is off and running, the numbers kind of bear it out, though,鈥� Crosby said. 鈥淢ost utilities are going to be able to do a cost-recovery mechanism (rider) for some or all of the costs.鈥�
Even before that though, Ballenger said TAP required a 鈥渃hampion鈥� like Councilmember to introduce the legislation, and a city administration willing to work with City Council to create and fund new programming.
The Cleveland Water Department and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District also have that provide relief to low-income water and sewer customers, called the Water and Sewer Affordability Programs.
However, NEORSD spokesperson Jenn Elting said only about 1,600 people were signed up for its Sewer Affordability Program as of November 2021, and records show a similar number signed up for its water counterpart.
NEORSD鈥檚 2019 rate study found that only about 12% of people eligible for the Sewer Affordability Program were signed up for it. Since people are very often signed up for both programs, according to CHN Housing Partners spokesperson Laura Boustani, the Water Affordability Program likely has a similar participation rate.
NEORSD is trying to increase participation in the Affordability Program, and recently announced it was expanding that program. Those efforts have borne fruit; Elting said the program added about 100 people since January 2022.
In Philadelphia, meanwhile, its discount program has hovered at an enrollment rate of around 25%, or 15,000 customers out of 60,000 potentially eligible households.
Cleveland, unlike Philadelphia, does not have a rate board, through which public advocates like Ballenger, the Philadelphia lawyer, can represent citizens鈥� concerns when Philadelphia Water proposes hiking its rates. It was partially through this board that the drive for the TAP program came about, Ballenger said, after the 鈥渇ailures鈥� of the city鈥檚 old discount program became clear through the board. He said the old program typically left residents in more debt than they started with.
Cleveland does have a Water Review Board where people can dispute their bills, but that board seldom grants people a hearing, according to a
Who would benefit in Cleveland?
Things have been challenging for Cleveland Water Department customers like Janet Gill-Cooks, whose bills for her Garfield Heights home were far outpacing her limited income back in November 2021. Gill-Cooks, a 63-year-old with COPD and degenerative arthritis, has been out of work since the beginning of the pandemic. She鈥檚 been getting by on her Social Security disability check, with some help from her children and weekly trips to local food banks.
Gill-Cooks had accrued about $600 owed on her utility bills last November, and struggled to get through to Cleveland nonprofit 鈥� which administers state and federal utility bill assistance programs 鈥� as well as the city鈥檚 water discount program.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a really hard situation when they have these resources available, and then you can鈥檛 get through because there鈥檚 so many other people needing help,鈥� she said.
She eventually did get some help on her sewer bill, but from a different local nonprofit 鈥� . The rest was paid off by a former local resident who read about her story. CHN, for its part, to help people but has limited staffing capacity; high demand for its programs; and struggles to get people to for its programs each year.
Meanwhile, the pandemic has also presented challenges for Cleveland landlords like Thomas Ren. He owns a handful of properties in the Cleveland area, and said last November that some tenants at several of his properties simply stopped paying rent and stopped paying their utilities. It鈥檚 led to water bills as high as $10,000 at a single property for Ren.
For a rental property owner like Ren who has lost significant income during the pandemic, having a bill forgiveness component in Cleveland akin to Philadelphia鈥檚 TAP program could make a huge difference. And for single-home residents like Gill-Cooks, the price reduction based on their income would also make a big difference.
Sarah Johnson, a spokesperson for the city of Cleveland, said in an email that the city is sensitive to these concerns.
鈥淲hile our most recent rate setting didn鈥檛 include expansion of our existing assistance programs, it did include no rate increase for three years (2021-2023) and one year with a minimal increase (2024),鈥� she said. 鈥淭he average (monthly) water bill for a city of Cleveland customer is $24.17. In 2024, it will be $25.58.鈥�
Another concern is that Cleveland鈥檚 Water Affordability program is only available to homeowners, despite roughly 50% of the city鈥檚 population living in rental homes. Philadelphia鈥檚 TAP is available to renters, but with the caveat that those customers must have the bill in their own name. Johnson said the city is monitoring NEORSD鈥檚 progress after it began allowing renters to utilize the Sewer Affordability program, to see if the city should consider a similar shift in eligibility.
Philadelphia鈥檚 TAP program isn鈥檛 without its own flaws, though. You can learn more about the gaps in that program, and what Philadelphia can learn from Cleveland, in the next part of this series.
This is part one of a three-part series looking at the state of water affordability in Cleveland, Philadelphia and beyond, authored by the in partnership with .
This story is a part of the鈥檚 Making Ends Meet project, and a continuing effort to report on the burden of water bills on low-income Clevelanders. NEO SoJo is composed of 18-plus Northeast Ohio news outlets including 91制片厂. Conor Morris is a corps member with . Email him at cmorris40@gmail.com