Baltimore’s Water4All program was designed to help low income residents pay the city’s infamously unaffordable water bills. But advocates say a payment clause could inadvertently disqualify enrolled renters from other anti-poverty benefits by classifying their bill assistance as taxable income.
That “obviously goes against the design of the program,” said Amy Hennen, the director of advocacy and financial stabilization at the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service. “We don’t want to make [renters’] lives more expensive or more or more difficult. And the current iteration of the plan would do exactly that.”
The Water Accountability and Equity Act was signed into law by former Mayor Jack Young in January 2020 after a five-year legislative effort heavily touted by progressive activists and politicians; it was originally meant to go into effect in July of that year. Young and current Mayor Brandon Scott twice delayed its implementation, citing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The WAEA created Water4All, which is slated to begin this fall. Supporters of the act, including Mayor Scott, promoted the program as a way to combat rampant water unaffordability throughout the city through tiered water bill discounts to low-income households, starting with those that report income at or below twice the federal poverty level. Water4All will replace the discount program H2O Assists, which offers flat discounts.
Read more — and listen — at WYPR.
