Title
Approval of Amendments to City of Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s Lifeline Plan for Water Affordability.
Body
Agenda of October 16, 2024
Item No.: 2024-205
Amount: N/A
TO: The Honorable
Board of Water Commissioners
City of Detroit, Michigan
FROM: Gary A Brown, Director, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department
RE: Approval of Amendments to Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s Lifeline Plan for Water Affordability
MOTION
Upon recommendation of Director, Gary A Brown, Chief Financial Officer, Istakur Rahman, and Chief of Staff/Chief Customer Service Officer, Matthew Phillips, the Board of Water Commissioners for the City of Detroit Water and Sewerage Department hereby approves amendments to the Lifeline Plan for Water Affordability; and authorizes the Director to take all such other action as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
DWSD must update the Lifeline Policy to make corrections and clarifications regarding recertification and how household occupant water payment assistance will be applied to the account holder’s account. Certain amendments are substantive changes to the policy and merit Board approval-indicated in bold font. The specific changes are as follows:
Section 2.2: Amended to remove the reference to LIHWAP, which is no longer available.
Section 3. Definitions: Added the definition of Payment Plan to refer to EasyPay or its equivalent.
Section 6.1.1.: Corrected grammatical redundancy.
Section 6.5.1.: Clarified to state that arrearages upon first enrollment, only, are forgiven.
Section 6.5.2.: Corrected language to comport with the intended use of water payment assistance resources; and removed Section 6.5.2.1, which is unnecessary.
Section 6.5.3.: Corrected grammar.
Section 6.8.: This new section allows household occupants eligible for water payment assistance to apply their benefits to a customer/account holder’s gap payment and/or arrearages so the customer/account holder may remain in good standing with the Lifeline Plan. Occupants are not eligible to enroll in Lifeline Plan on behalf of the customer/account holder.
Section 6.9.4.: This section now states after unenrollment from the Lifeline Plan, the customer may enter into a payment plan for program arrearages to avoid collection efforts and penalties, but the customer cannot be re-enrolled into Lifeline until program arrearages are paid in full.
Section 6.11.: This section has been amended with more details about recertification. The Lifeline Plan enrollment period is based on the funding source. Recertification occurs at the beginning of the enrollment period. Generally, resources from the state have an enrollment period of October 1 to September 30th. DWSD Management may set a 30-day grace period for recertification, which protects enrolled applicants from service interruption while the Third-Party Administrator processes applications. A customer will be unenrolled from Lifeline if he or she fails to apply for recertification. Also, a customer may not be recertified for the Lifeline Plan until any program arrearages are paid in full.
Section 7.1.6.: This is an additional procedure to comport with section 6.11.
Section 7.2.5.: This section has been removed. DWSD does not follow this procedure. Customers may reapply for Lifeline after unenrollment once program arrearages have been paid in full.
BUDGET IMPACT
These revisions are intended to maximize the funding sources available and to serve as many Lifeline applicants in good standing as possible.
COMMITTEE REVIEW
This matter went before the Detroit Board of Water Commissioners Finance Committee.