More than Metrics: Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's Path for Customer Affordability Programs

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (District) has a long history with affordability programs, demonstrating the commitment of the District's Board to understand its customer base and provide meaningful assistance to those in need. The District continues to adapt and respond to ongoing affordability challenges within its service area. One of the key objectives of its most recent rate study was to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the affordability challenges facing District residents and identify opportunities to expand and enhance its affordability programs. This presentation will feature the combined team of District staff and Stantec, focusing on the analyses conducted to provide information to decision makers, the decisions made based on these analyses, and the successes, challenges, and lessons learned from program implementation. The first step in the study was to characterize the affordability challenges of low-income households within the District. This included evaluating affordability metrics to assess the burden of rising wastewater costs on low-income households. We also analyzed a range of socioeconomic characteristics, including common indicators like income, poverty, and unemployment, as well as the cost of living, housing costs, and assistance received from other programs. This assessment allowed the District to understand the impact of proposed rate increases, identify neighborhoods facing the greatest affordability challenges, quantify the impacts of different forms of assistance, and target outreach and assistance to areas with the greatest need. The information generated in the affordability analysis was used to evaluate the impacts of 1) expanding the District's affordability program to include renters who pay their own wastewater bills, 2) raising the income criterion to 250% of the federal poverty level, and 3) boosting outreach to increase enrollment among formerly and newly eligible residents. The financial and technical analyses included affordability impacts to participants, as well as impacts to non-participating households and District revenues. Revenue impacts were examined under multiple financial modeling scenarios to estimate cost impacts to the system's other customers. Despite the program's growth and success, the cost implications to non-participating customers are negligible. Looking beyond the analyses, the final key point of the presentation will be to discuss the District's progress, including the admirable outcome of 5,353 new enrollments during the first quarter of 2022 and 3,289 in the first half of 2023 out of the Board's target of 10,000 new enrollments over 5 years. We will highlight strategies adopted to increase outreach and enrollment and describe those that have been most effective to date. The most powerful strategies include the addition of a dedicated Customer Service representative, refinement of the District's collaboration with CHN Housing Partners to bring some services in house, and an initiative to assist with enrollment in the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program. We will also discuss the District's recent information sessions on holding a resource fair, expanding outreach, exploring new partnerships, and decreasing the burden of collecting and maintaining data to enhance cost savings.