How Sensitive Is Household Affordability to Changes in Water Bills?

Patterson, Lauren A.; Doyle, Martin W.

doi:10.1002/awwa.2105

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 17 publications

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“…For example, within $1 of the median monthly bill, the pervasiveness of unaffordability ranges from 6.5% to 36% of households (Fig 3B). Affordability is affected not just by the cost of water services but also by the income distribution of the community [32]. (A) IDWS provides a continuum of the financial burden of households (from 1% to 10% of annual income) for each of the 787 communities (x-axis) with the percent of the population spending more on water services (y-axis).…”

Section: Costs and Affordability Of Water Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Affordability of household water services across the United States

2023

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Households that cannot be able to afford their water bills may lose access to drinking water and wastewater services. This study seeks to quantify how many households may struggle to pay for water services across 787 of the largest drinking water providers located within each state of the United States. Household water affordability is the ability for a household to pay for basic water services without undue hardship. Here, we select 6,000 gallons per month (22.7 m3/mo) as sufficient to meet basic needs and define undue hardship as spending more than 4.6% of household income (one day of labor each month) to pay for water services. Monthly bills are combined with census income data based on service area boundaries to determine how many households are spending more than 4.6% of their income on water services. We find that basic water services are unaffordable for 17% of the households (28.3 million persons) in this study. The median, or representative community, has one in seven households spending more than 4.6% of their income paying for water services. We developed a data visualization tool to allow users to explore how affordability challenges change across different volumes of water usage and levels of financial hardship (https://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/water-affordability/water-affordability-united-states). This research shows that household water unaffordability is not a localized problem but rather is a challenge experienced by households in communities across the nation.

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Section: Costs and Affordability Of Water Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Affordability of household water services across the United States

2023

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Water and Sewer Price and Affordability Trends in the United States, 2017–2023

Teodoro,

Thiele

2024

Journal AWWA

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Key TakeawaysBiennial data from 2017 to 2023 show that water and sewer prices increased substantially, from an average combined monthly price of $79.39 in 2017 to $95.02 in 2023 at 6,200 gallons per month for single‐family residential customers.Water rate structures became more regressive during that time, with utilities collecting an increasing share of revenue through fixed charges and less revenue through volumetric charges.Average low‐income affordability in the United States has worsened over the past six years, mainly driven by extreme unaffordability in a small minority of utilities.

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How Sensitive Is Household Affordability to Changes in Water Bills?

Cited by 2 publications

References 17 publications

Affordability of household water services across the United States

Affordability of household water services across the United States

Water and Sewer Price and Affordability Trends in the United States, 2017–2023

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