Water affordability proposal reintroduced to City Council
Ten years ago, Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, was “functionally homeless,” living out of a suitcase and sleeping on a friend’s futon.
Still, “I knew, at least through my friend, that I would have access to water,” he said recently.
“Water is one of the most basic necessities. No one in Chicago should be so poor as to not have access to fresh, clean water,” said La Spata, who Wednesday introduced legislation that would ban water shut-offs and allow participants of a program proposed in the ordinance to pay discounted utility rates.
The first time it was introduced, the ordinance was backed by more than a dozen members of the City Council and dozens of organizations. The previous version, introduced in 2017, failed when it wasn’t passed before the council’s term ended in 2019.
“We’re coming out of a period that really exposed the economic insecurities that a lot of Chicagoans are facing,” La Spata said. “Coming out of this pandemic, as we’re building a stronger, healthier city, that we take care of the basic need that is access to fresh, affordable water.”
Low-income, working Chicagoans have borne the brunt of the pandemic’s hit to the job market, with 73% of the jobs at risk of furloughs and layoffs held by people earning under $40,000 annually, according to a city study released in summer 2020. Large majorities of low-wage workers reported losing their jobs and struggling to afford food and rent.
The proposal’s centerpiece is a “Water-for-All” program that would offer homeowners and tenants income-based credits toward their utility bills, regardless of their citizenship status. On-time payments would count toward outstanding debt.
The provision resembles Chicago’s Utility Billing Relief program, which Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration launched in April. That measure gives participants a flat 50% discount on their utility bills and offers bill forgiveness after a year of on-time payments, but applies only to homeowners.
A spokesperson for the city did not provide a response to requests for comment on the proposal.
It’s also not permanent. The mayor plans to continue the program for at least two years, city Comptroller Reshma Soni told the Tribune in mid-January. That means there’s just one year left guaranteed, since the city hasn’t explicitly committed to continuing the program.
“It can’t be a short-term fix,” said Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th.
“It needs to be something that is actually in the city code, that is enshrined into law, and that folks can count on, year after year after year, to provide them with the access to water that they need and deserve,” said Ramirez-Rosa, who introduced the earlier version of the ordinance and is lead co-sponsor on the new one.
“Our mayors in Chicago, they come and go. And with them, so does a lot of the policy that they make,” said Ab Weeks, organizing director of Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation, one of the organizations backing the proposal.
“It’s important to us that regardless of who’s mayor — Rahm (Emanuel), Lori, or the next person — that people are not going to be dealing with this problem in the future,” said Weeks.
The proposed ordinance would also ban water shutoffs for Chicagoans behind on utility bills, a more permanent version of a temporary ban Lightfoot implemented when she took office in 2019. The blanket ban would apply to all residents, with no income eligibility requirements.
“We were really hyperaware of all the hoops that people have to jump through to sometimes receive assistance from the city or the state or the federal government,” said Zhenya Polozova, regional organizer for Food & Water Watch, another group backing the measure. “We didn’t want to create situations where people would have to fight for water access.”
“We think it’ll be more harmful if someone loses their water than if someone maybe tries to game the system,” Polozova added. “Ultimately, everybody should have access.”
The proposed ordinance would also require the city create a plan for making equitable improvements to the water system, and would order annual reports on water shut-offs alongside an additional study due in the summer, with monthly shut-off data backdated to 2010. It would also prevent the city from selling, leasing or outsourcing operation of the system.
There’s some precedent for the city handing over its infrastructure to private companies. Former Mayor Richard M. Daley leased both the Chicago Skyway and the city’s parking meter system in near-centurylong deals with private companies, while former Mayor Rahm Emanuel took heat for his attempts to privatize Chicago’s 311 call center and its port, among others.
Lawmakers and activists also pointed to water’s increasing cost, in light of new opportunities for investors to trade in water futures, as a risk.
“We want something codified that says no matter how much of a deficit we’re in, no matter what water is trading for, our city will not be one that privatizes (water) at any point,” Weeks said.
Under the proposed ordinance, businesses and manufacturers would be on the hook for any new utility tax hikes, though La Spata said he was working to ensure “minimal impact” on small businesses.
Access to water, he said, is necessary to “function on any basic level.”
“I can barely imagine how much that’s going to mean to those Chicagoans who are really living on the edge,” La Spata said.