Before a municipality can provide water bill relief or assistance to residents, it must first understand the extent and nature of water affordability issues within the community. A water affordability analysis helps municipalities dive deep into water billing data to understand affordability issues in a highly localized and actionable context.
Ten municipalities in Cook County completed an analysis through the Cook County Water Affordability program. The studies can serve as models for other municipalities and utilities interested in learning more about how affordability impacts their community and potential solutions.
Are you interested in pursuing your own water affordability analysis? We encourage you to explore all ten studies. To help, you might start with this just-released brief, which highlights key findings and takeaways from all ten studies. Readers can expect to learn more about how the studies were designed, the methods used to calculate water bill burden, and the challenges and solutions identified to improve water bill affordability.