This project sought to identify the social, technological, and legal factors that contribute to water unaffordability and water shutoffs for residents in 12 US cities. Our work illustrated how a city’s organizational capacity (fiscal and economic resources, formal policies, physical infrastructure, information system resources, and the skill and professional training of city employees), affects the design and implementation of city policies aimed at making water affordable for everyone, especially the breadth and scope of Customer Assistance Plans (CAPs) that help people pay their water bills.  The project also illustrated the extent to which certain types of policies and practices could help elderly, disabled, low-income, and non-white Americans to maintain their health and remain in their homes.

Intellectual Merit. 

Our work is (to our knowledge) the first comparative case study of water unaffordability in US cities.  Through our research design, we have focused attention on how organizational learning and organizational capacity affect policy development in cities of varying size--an important contribution, as most research to date on water shutoffs has focused exclusively on very large cities.  First, our findings illustrate how high-poverty cities have pursued innovative solutions in financing their CAP programs (despite limited financial resources).  Second, we proposed a conceptual framework delineating pathways that link unaffordable water to multiple adverse health and social outcomes.  We piloted a study using qualitative data in two Boston-area communities illustrating the utility of this pathway, and hope that other epidemiologists and public health researchers will continue to pursue this line of research in quantitative data sets and with national samples.  Third, we analyzed newspaper coverage of water shutoffs from 2015-2020 to understand the way water unaffordability is framed in the media.  Our findings show that many parties quoted in the media connect water unaffordability and water shutoffs to historical practices of urban disinvestment and residential segregation.  Finally, in two law review articles, we argued that access to basic household water and sewer services—a human right recognized by the United Nations—should also be a constitutional right in the US, and that in certain circumstances, the exclusion of renters from Customer Assistance Programs may be a violation of the federal Fair Housing Act. 

Broader Impacts. 

Many cities that want to make water affordable are hampered by the lack of available data, because utilities rarely analyze or retain data on customer arrears and other payment information.  We worked with members of the Massachusetts state legislature to introduce legislation in Massachusetts that would require publicly owned water utilities to collect and report data on water shutoffs, water liens, and details about the administration of their Customer Assistance Plans, quarterly and by ZIP code.  The pending legislation, which is supported by a broad coalition of local and national groups concerned about racism, civil rights, consumer rights, and environmental justice, will make it possible to determine which groups and communities are affected by unaffordable water and water shutoffs.  It will also make it possible to evaluate water policies and Customer Assistance Plans to determine if they are being developed and administered equitably.  We have disseminated our study’s findings in peer-reviewed journal articles, law review articles, technical reports, and at scholarly and practitioner conferences.  We also presented findings to community organizations, such as the United Nations Association of Greater Boston and at a community conference attended by high school students and adults in Chelsea, Massachusetts (one of the cities in our sample). 

Opportunities for Training and Professional Development. 

During the three years of the grant, we supported six law students, who prepared Freedom of Information Law requests, performed desk research, drafted reports, and coded interview transcripts.  We also mentored three postdoctoral research associates (two supported on this grant and one supported on an NIH T32 training grant), who interviewed participants, reviewed literature, analyzed data, drafted manuscripts and reports, and supervised our undergraduate research assistants. We hired three undergraduate research assistants who helped analyze coded transcripts and drafted paragraphs for inclusion in the results sections of journal articles.  A separate team of three undergraduate research assistants gathered articles from major newspapers from 2015-2020, coded and analyzed them to identify discourses circulating in the media about water unaffordability.  Finally, we hired an undergraduate student with experience in graphic design to create a poster for presentation at a conference in one of the communities in our study. 

Last Modified: 09/05/2023
Modified by: Laura Senier