Knoxville Water and Energy for All is a community-wide effort for affordable water and energy KUB bills. KUB customers living in poverty face the constant and overwhelming challenge of making ends meet, leaving residents with few options to avoid mounting utility debt and disconnection. We cannot afford a two-tier system where wealthier households and neighborhoods get clean water, energy, and sewer while those in poverty face disconnections from these services, endangering their health and homes African-Americans households are 2.5 times more likely to be disconnected from utilities than white households.
A Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP) will ensure that energy and water bills are affordable for all poverty-income households.
An enrolled household with annual incomes at or below the federal poverty level would receive a KUB bill for energy and water based on their income, reducing the bill to a level that the household can afford to pay. The amount the enrolled households would pay would meet the generally nationally accepted thresholds for energy and water affordability. The PIPP program would proactively ensure that the bills of those living in poverty remain affordable into the future, regardless of future KUB rate hikes.
All KUB customers – homeowners and renters – living at or below 100% of the federal poverty level would qualify for this affordability program. The program also would provide a clear legal process for eligible renting households to receive this benefit.
Nearly 59,575 people in Knox County and 40,750 in Knoxville lived below the poverty line in 2018. More than half (53%) of Knox County poverty households live in deep poverty, meaning their household income are less than half of the federal poverty level. In the South, African American households are 2.5 times as likely to receive disconnection notices and experience utility shutoffs.
Unaffordability of KUB Bills
0-50% Poverty (example: $7,000 annual income): 44.1% of household income pays KUB utilities.
50-100% Poverty (example: $13,000 annual income): 23.8% of household income pays KUB utilities
100-150% Poverty (example: $20,000 annual income): 15.4% of household income pays KUB utilities
150% Poverty – $25,862: 11.9% of household income used to pay KUB utilities.
How will it help customer with preexisting past due amounts? KWEA also proposes KUB adopt an Arrearage Management Program. Households enrolled in the program would not have to pay additional amounts for outstanding debt on top of their new affordable monthly KUB bills. For each on-time payment of their KUB bill, KUB would forgive a portion of existing debt, allowing households to dig their way out of KUB debt.
What is the Knoxville Water and Energy for All Campaign? We are a coalition of justice organizations. Punishing households that cannot afford KUB bills by disconnecting them is unjust and a denial of the human rights to water and energy. KWEA works for affordable and nondiscriminatory utility bills for all.
Energy justice seeks equity for poverty households. Inequity and insecurity are central tenets of the present energy landscape in the U.S. Energy justice requires affordable energy and uninterrupted energy service.
A Win-Win: A KUB PIPP affordability policy is a win for low-income communities of color and others in Knoxville and throughout Greater Knoxville, the people who have suffered disproportionately from the burden of unaffordable utility service. It is a win for KUB, which can reduce its costs by no longer having to disconnect customers unable to pay for KUB services.
To learn more and get involved, v contact KWEA at KnoxvilleWEA@gmail.com