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In: Chicago, community update, Drinking Water, Environmental Justice, utility relief, water access

Jeff Whitelow has been known for his profound ability to walk in the shoes of those in the most vulnerable communities and help bring vital information to those who need it most, in language they best understand. Taking a vow of poverty to personally assess the life of those most vulnerable in Chicago, enabled him to identify that water shutoffs from unaffordable rates and lead exposure are serious problems. 

Through the Chicago Water Council, Jeff has championed the search for residents eligible for the new drinking water Utility Billing Relief (UBR) program in Southside Chicago neighborhoods and assisting them in enrolling into the program that forgives 100% of residents debts after one year of consistent payment. 

The Chicago Water Council has been working diligently to promote the awareness of the UBR program, boots are on the ground identifying residents, qualifying them according to the UBR criteria, and lastly, assisting them in becoming a UBR member of the program. To date the Chicago Water Council  has identified over 50 residents eligible for the program and helped enroll 20 residents while establishing partnerships with food pantries to meet our targeted members in generous volumes. Work is underway to reach out to other nearby neighborhoods, in the Southside of Chicago to further aid those in need and ensure public health for all Chicagoans. 

Freshwater Future honored Jeff Whitelow for his commitment with a Freshwater Hero Award, read more here or listen to Jeff accept his award.

Author: Brandon Tyus, Community Programming & Policy Associate

Original Article

Blog – Freshwater Future

Blog – Freshwater Future

https://freshwaterfuture.org/uncategorized/debt-relief-helps-keep-water-flowing/

Alexis Smith

On:
In: COVID-19, Drinking Water, water access, water affordability
Late last week, like everyone else, we learned that schools were shutting down due to the COVID-19 crisis. As a result, kids would be home, which meant parents would likely need to be home as well and some without access to running water. In order to contain a virus from spreading people need to be able to wash their hands. Freshwater Future staff quickly got to work with partners and started to call and email communities and cities to urge them to restore residential water services and halt future shutoffs until this crisis is over.

 

We quickly learned some cities like Cincinnati were proactive and understand the need to restore residential services. Other cities like Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, Marysville, and Bellefontaine were not so proactive. Freshwater Future worked with the city of Columbus and small municipalities like Marysville, Bellefontaine, and others to put into place moratoriums on future water shut-offs and the restoration of residential water services. In addition, we worked with our partners at Junction Coalition and the Ohio Environmental Council to restore water to residents and halt future shutoffs in Toledo. We knew our partner, the Alliance for the Great Lakes was working with the city of Cleveland to successfully restore residential water services and halt future shutoffs. We also partnered up with the Alliance for the Great Lakes to urge the Governor to call for all utilities across the state to restore residential water services and halt future shutoffs. As a result, the Governor called on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to work with the private water companies to restore residential water services and halt future water shutoffs, which they did on Monday, March 16th. We are now waiting for the Governor’s office to share their legislation they are working on to require all utilities in Ohio to restore residential water services.

Freshwater Future continues to keep its ear to the ground and support communities that are suffering from water issues at this time, from water shutoffs to impacts from partial lead line replacement. We spoke with the Governor’s office and Ohio EPA on Monday about added stress on residents from partial lead line replacements. We urged the Ohio EPA to talk with the utilities to halt all partial lead line replacement at this time. On Monday, March 16th, the Ohio EPA asked all water utilities to halt partial lead line replacement and provide people with filters until this crisis is over. In addition, we reached out to the city of Toledo, who was continuing to move forward with partial lead line replacement and asked them to halt partial lead line replacements.  We encouraged them to work with us and other experts to put together a plan for full lead line replacement. In addition, we asked the city of Toledo to request in the RFP for a report on affordable water rates that full lead line replacement be part of the cost of making the utility financially whole while creating affordable water rates for residents. We were told today they halted the partial lead line replacements and are looking forward to working with us to develop the plan and RFP. It is important to note, Freshwater Future has been supporting the Junction Coalition and other community members in obtaining a seat at the decision-making table to discuss water rates and programs, like emergency assistance and conservation.
Contact Kristy Meyer for more information, kristy at freshwaterfuture.org

Original Article

Blog – Freshwater Future

Blog – Freshwater Future

https://freshwaterfuture.org/drinking-water/restoring-water-access-in-ohio/

Ann Baughman