By Cassie Owens
Next City
Philadelphia City Council passed legislation last week that would provide water bill collections protections for the city’s low-income residents. It would create income-based payment plans, and establish an assistance program to connect homeowners to housing counselors. The bill passed unanimously.
This measure was drawn with anti-vacancy strategy in mind. The protections are intended to safeguard low-income residents from home foreclosure over unpaid water bills. While the repercussions of the mortgage foreclosure crisis are commonly explored, less researched are the impacts of tax lien foreclosures. It’s commonplace for local governments to file a tax lien for an overdue utility bill, and every state allows its municipalities to sell unredeemed tax liens. (The City of Philadelphia is holding an auction this week on more than 900 tax liens.) This legislation, in this sense, is another step in the city’s tax delinquency cleanup efforts.
Affordability plans for water services can be found in multiple cities, like Chicago, St. Louis and Cleveland. In some states, lawmakers have implemented similar, but not identical, protections, largely in response to news stories on tax lien sales. Since 2007, all taxing authorities in Rhode Island have been required to notify Rhode Island Housing of intended lien sales, after the eviction of an 81-year-old woman, stemming from a $474 sewage bill, not long before Christmas. Last year, D.C. passed a law that precludes the sale of liens under $2,500. Maryland’s legislature restricted Baltimore from pursuing tax lien sales under $750 this past April. The twin purposes behind Philly’s new water bill collections protections reflect how cities are re-approaching these issues, as well as a heightened awareness after Detroit’s mass water shutoffs and foreclosures.
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