Water utility assistance programs in California struggle to reach and assist many customers affected by rising rates, particularly renters and those who don’t pay water bills directly to utilities.

“Water affordability challenges are a large and increasing issue for folks, especially low-income populations. And that’s being exacerbated by aging infrastructure, climate change, and changing funding structures to programs,” said Khalid Osman, a Stanford assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and leader of the Osman Lab.

He and Sarah Fletcher, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and a Center Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, are collaborating with the City of Santa Cruz Water Department on a research project supported in part by Stanford’s Office of Community Engagement.

Osman brings experience from his study in East Palo Alto and Detroit that assessed residents’ perceptions of tap water quality and advocated for equitable infrastructure reform. Fletcher leads the Fletcher Lab and has collaborated with the City of Santa Cruz on water affordability since 2020. Greta Markey, a Knight-Hennessy Scholar pursuing a PhD in civil and environmental engineering and a research student at the Fletcher Lab, is leading the study.

A California-centric issue

A key factor in water affordability for California residents is the state’s Proposition 218, which requires water utilities to charge customers based on the actual cost to service them. This limits options for subsidizing lower rates for some customers through assistance programs.

“About 31% of Californians live in households with incomes considered at risk for water poverty, and in the state, about 155,000 households owed more than $1,000 in water bills as of the latest data we have,” said Osman.

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Researchers say climate adaptation and water affordability are on a “collision course,” with resilience costs falling hardest on those who can least afford them.

Almost a quarter of the U.S. population doesn’t pay water bills directly to utilities, according to the Water Research Foundation. Rather, they pay through rent or split within multi-unit housing. Groups paying water bills through indirect methods are considered hard-to-reach populations.

“There’s a lack of data on how these hard-to-reach populations experience water affordability challenges, and what the impact of indirect billing is,” said Markey.

The collaboration between Stanford and Santa Cruz was born out of this research gap. “If we don’t understand how renters experience water affordability,” Markey said, “we may be missing how to design customer assistance programs or effective rate structures that reach folks who need this help most.”

Customer assistance program extension

Water utilities’ customer assistance programs (CAPs) have emerged in California over the past five years as infrastructure upgrades for climate resiliency and state requirements have caused prices to increase substantially.

The Santa Cruz Municipal Utilities Customer Assistance Program has a single-family CAP accessible for residents who either own their home or are renters with the water bill in their name. Recently, a CAP extension was launched that expands the program for multi-family customers.

Multi-family CAPs are difficult to implement due to a lack of available research and population accessibility challenges; hence, only a few exist nationwide. But those working to address the challenge are hopeful.

“We are venturing into uncharted territory,” said Megan Bunch, a program analyst at the Santa Cruz Water Department and a coordinator of the Santa Cruz Municipal Utilities CAP. “Analyzing data from this project will give us a better ability to evaluate success.”

A thirst for knowledge

After conducting focus groups with landlords, property managers, and tenants to gather their perspectives on water affordability and bill routing, researchers designed surveys based on the results. Long term, the results will help both Stanford and Santa Cruz better understand what water affordability looks like for hard-to-reach populations.

“I care deeply about bridging community science with engineering and infrastructure design,” Markey said. “So, being able to do this qualitative community-engaged work that supports technical modeling is exactly what I want to be doing with my research: showing that engineering is primarily people-focused.”

The CAP extension could also set an important precedent, Bunch said. “If we can get this off the ground and show success, then it could be a template for other utilities to move forward with developing this kind of program and expanding the reach of support beyond those who are account holders to multi-family tenants.”