As Heat Waves Worsen, Many Say Utilities Shouldn’t Be Shut Off For Those Who Can’t Pay For Them

A coalition of Angelenos is calling for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to permanently end water and power shut-offs for nonpayment.

More than two dozen people, many from South L.A. and the San Fernando Valley who are currently struggling to pay their bills, gathered outside the agency’s headquarters downtown on Tuesday.

“Fight, fight, fight, power is a human right!” they chanted before heading inside to voice their concerns at the agency’s board meeting.

Amid historic rising temperatures and skyrocketing living costs, they demand that affordable utilities are guaranteed for everyone.

“We’re not talking about a luxury, we're talking about a human right,” said Gloria Medina, executive director of South L.A.-based social justice group Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education, or SCOPE. “Being able to power your home, take care of your children, take care of the seniors in your home, being able to keep medication refrigerated.”

The Status On Moratoriums

Like many cities and states across the nation, L.A. put a moratorium on utility shut-offs during the pandemic. That moratorium ended this past March.

Earlier this year, the city forgave utility debt for some 280,000 Angelenos. According to LADWP data, Angelenos in central and south L.A. and the San Fernando Valley face the highest utility debt, a pattern that has remained even with significant state and federal funding to help.

Efforts To Help

Between 2017 and 2020, more than 77,000 Angelenos had their power shut off at least once, according to LADWP. Since the pandemic moratorium ended this year, the agency said it hasn’t shut off anyone’s power or water for nonpayment.

There are some other efforts to help. Recently, the agency launched its “Cool LA” program for income-qualified and medically-vulnerable Angelenos. Among other things, the program offers rebates of $225 to purchase air conditioning units and allows customers to opt in to a program to spread their utility bills out evenly over a yearlong period, to avoid spikes in costs during extreme weather.

The agency also has payment assistance programs through energy efficiency programs and rate assistance programs.

Who Is Struggling

But Medina said many in her community are still struggling to pay the bills and that the message on the available assistance isn’t reaching the people who have been hardest hit by the pandemic and extreme heat.

“It's very connected to this climate crisis that we're going through right now, that we're starting to see the deadly consequences are really connected to the ability of folks to be able to have access to affordable water and power,” Medina said.

She said some families in her community have as much as $20,000 in utility debt. Low-income households are more likely to pay a far higher percentage of their total income to energy bills—what’s called the “energy burden.” And because lower-income families often live in housing that can’t keep out the heat or cold—in other words, those homes aren’t “energy efficient”—those bills can be even higher.

"All the expenses that we have with our children and the rent, all these minimum costs, it is really difficult to afford [utilities]," said Guadalupe Rivas, speaking in Spanish at Tuesday's meeting.

According to LADWP, households making less than $50,000 are more than twice as likely to experience shutoffs for nonpayment than households making more than that. Black and Latino communities are also more than twice as likely to face power shutoffs.

Next Steps

At Tuesday’s board meeting, LADWP officials said they’re considering a variety of ways to address the shutoffs issue, including pausing shut-offs during extreme weather events.

The pandemic and worsening extreme heat has brought the conversation around utility shutoffs to the forefront in ways it hasn’t been before. Arizona, for example, revised its shutoff rules last year after a woman died in 2018 in her home as a result of extreme heat after her power was cut for lack of payment.