PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Water Department will again start cutting off service for customers who don’t pay, beginning on May 31. However, there are protections in place for some.
The department started to notify customers of potential shutoffs in April.
“Once you get that notice, it’s because your accounts have been delinquent over $1,000 for more than two billing cycles. At that point, we start trying to figure out what’s going on,” said spokesperson Brian Rademaekers.
The department has been aggressive about reaching out to people who qualify for assistance programs. Those individuals are protected from shutoffs.
“We’ve also been doing a lot of other things to identify people that would qualify for assistance, such as families that have applied for homeless services and automatically identifying them as protected from shutoff,” Rademaekers said.
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Homes with seniors, children and disabled people are also protected.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, residential customers were protected from shutoffs for nonpayment from March 2020 through July 2022.
“In Philadelphia, clean water is funded by water bills. So if you can pay, it’s really important that you do,” he added. “That’s how we are able to deliver extremely high-quality water for less than a penny a gallon to our customers.”
The average residential water bill is about $70 a month, and Rademaekers said shutting off service is the last thing they want to do.
“We want to help people out,” he said. “But we need to adequately fund the department. And we’ve really done a lot of work to tailor our policy to only reach the people who can afford to pay but they’re not paying.”
People who don’t qualify for assistance but have a true hardship can contact the city’s Raise Your Hand initiative to state their case, and they could be protected through the end of this year. More information can be found at water.phila.gov/care.
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