“If we don’t think about this carefully, lifting the ban suddenly would be a disaster,” said SPUR Director of Sustainability and Resiliency Policy Laura Feinstein, who authored the report.
“I think everybody’s worst fear is that large numbers of low-income folks that have trouble paying their bills are going to get their water disconnected, because that means that there’s large numbers of people in the community who can’t wash their hands,” Feinstein said. “It also means they can get evicted from their apartments.”
In the long-run, mounting debt could also leave water utilities in dire financial straights without federal assistance, according to the report.