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Legislation to Provide Thousands of Low-Income Homeowners with Water and Sewer Rate Relief
MASSCAP's public policy agenda is drawn from its 1997 report, Running in Place: A Report on Poverty in Massachusetts:
Sponsored by Senator StevenTolman (S. 562) and Rep. Christopher Fallon (H. 4012)
Supported by MASSCAP
The water and sewer rate relief program created by the Legislature and the Governor in 1997 was severely under-utilized in FY 1998. Because of the way the law is implemented, of the $2 million made available in FY 1998, less than $700,000 was used and over 24,700 households were denied this important resource.
The Water and Sewer Rate Relief Law is implemented by the state Department of Housing and Community Development. DHCD's implementation approach allows only eligible residents living in cities or towns with water and sewer rates above the statewide average, to use these resources. Low-income homeowner with water and sewer service and receiving fuel assistance (fuel assistance has an income ceiling of 150 percent of poverty) are eligible under the current water and sewer program.
This bar created by DHCD has essentially blocked over 24,700 households -- a majority of the 31,000 households eligible -- from benefiting from the program. In 1998, residents in over 200 communities across the Commonwealth (Springfield, Worcester, Malden, Fall River, Greenfield, Lowell, Lawrence, Brockton, Peabody, just to name a few) were not able to access these desperately needed resources.
The legislation, introduced into the Massachusetts House for the 1999 legislative session by Senator Tolman and Representative Fallon, will:
- clarify the existing law;
- reinforce its original intent;
- expand the program to low-income seniors benefiting from a special fuel assistance program called the One and Two Person Program (making under 175 percent of poverty), adding about 7,000 eligible households;
- restore up to $3 million to the appropriate account;
- ensure that the entire allocation be used by thousands of low-income people to meet their water and sewer service costs;
- cover 25 percent of the cost of a household's water and sewer bill up to $200;
- continue the administration of the program through the fuel assistance network.
The legislation will remove the state rule that only eligible residents in communities with water and sewer rates over the state average can access water and sewer rate relief.
The legislation will ensure that all low-income homeowners, with water and sewer service and receiving federal fuel assistance, are able to benefit from water and sewer rate relief. With its passage, the way will be clear for thousands of low-income households living in communities with high levels of poverty to seek help to pay their water and sewer bills.
Making more low-income people eligible will not break the bank. With an average water and sewer program subsidy between $85 - $90, distribution of the resource to most of the eligible households will fall within the proposed $3 million allocation. While 38,000 homeowners across the state are eligible for federal fuel assistance and the one or two person fuel program, not all of them have municipal water and sewer service.
Based on the information available about water and sewer service across the state, up to 75 percent of the eligible homeowners would qualify to receive the water and sewer subsidy. That is, the cost of the program adjusted by the proposed bills would fall within the amount requested in the Senator's bill; any amount left over could be continued into the next fiscal year as was done in FY 1999.
Here is a partial list of cities and towns by CAA currently denied water and sewer rate relief and the number of eligible low-income homeowners in those towns denied access to the water and sewer rate relief program: Worcester, 682 households; Springfield, 1,459 households; Chicopee, 495 households; West Springfield, 203 households; Holyoke, 168 households; Ludlow, 152 households; Malden, 174 households; Fall River, 498; Greenfield, 154; Orange 149; Northampton, 100; Ware, 109; Lawrence, 800; Lowell, 1383; Brockton, 2,000; Peabody, 217.
MASSCAP is a statewide network of 25 multi-service agencies--known as community action programs (CAPs)--providing basic support and training services to thousands of low-income and elderly residents across the state. We were created over 30 years ago by Congress to combat poverty by helping clients gain skills needed for self-sufficiency.
This Fact Sheet was issued: March, 1999.
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