Title: 34.5 million households losing utility shutoff protections by Sept. 30
Headings: Nearly 35 million households will lose their utility shutoff protections over the next month
Nearly 35 million households will lose their utility shutoff protections over the next month
Effects not felt equally
How to get help with utility bills
Status of state utility moratoriums
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Content: At that point, only a dozen states and Washington, D.C. will still have moratoriums still in place. Only seven states — California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, New York and Wyoming — and Washington, D.C. do not have expiration dates set on their moratorium orders, according to Carbon Switch. About 9.5 million people are currently unemployed in states that are set to have their shutoff protections expire on or before October 1, according to the report’s analysis of the latest monthly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Another 10 million of the households in those states are currently below the federal poverty line, Carbon Switch finds. Effects not felt equally
Prior to the pandemic, low-income Americans and Black and Hispanic households were disproportionately affected by utility shutoffs. Black households earning less than 150% times the federal poverty level were twice as likely to have their electricity shut off as white families with comparable income levels, National Consumer Law Center analyst John Howat estimates . A 2018 California study found that while Latino utility customers make up roughly a third of people living in PG&E’s service territory, 62%, live in ZIP codes with the highest shut off rates. The pandemic will likely exacerbate these issues, Thomas says. A recent survey by researchers at Indiana University found that Black respondents were twice as likely as White respondents to report they were unable to pay their utility bills in April or May.
Struggling to pay for utilities can have an impact on Americans’ health. Nearly a fourth, 22%, of the Indiana University respondents said they reduced or cut down on food and medicine in order to pay their utility bills.