The ability to connect and maintain utility service is essential for a household’s health, safety and wellbeing. Lack of service results in eviction, loss or denial of public housing, chronic health problems, the risk of removal of one’s children from the home, and a host of other equally horrific outcomes. Low-income individuals are particularly at risk of termination, and often choose between utility service and other critical needs like food, health care, medicine, transportation and child care. Unfortunately, for too many Pennsylvanians, essential utility service—electricity, water and a heating source—are simply unaffordable. Across the state, more than 1 million households have total household income of less than 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, which for a family of four, is no more than $36,450 per year. These households pay between 9 and 30 percent of their income toward energy costs. By contrast, energy burdens for median to high-income households are between 3 and 5 percent.
However, unlike some other goods and services, there are no ready substitutes for a lack of affordable electricity and natural gas for home heating, refrigeration and cooling, or water for bathing and drinking. When families cannot pay, they are forced to go without service. In 2015, 153,275 low-income Pennsylvania households had their gas or electric service terminated for some period of time. Many of these households were not able to restore their service before winter. In fact, as of December 2016, more than 20,500 households entered this winter without heat and more than 1,500 households are using an “unsafe” heating source. These households are literally left out in the cold.
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