Across Spokane, more families and business are behind on their bills amid the pandemic.
City of Spokane Spokesperson Marlene Feist said around one third of their utility customers are more than two months behind on their bills, a statistic that’s doubled since the pandemic began.
“It’s a big concern of ours,” Feist said. “If they’re behind on our bill, they’re probably behind on their heating bill. I mean, so things really will be at a critical situation for a lot of families.”
Feist said the total from overdue utility accounts is close to 5 million dollars. She said paying a little late is one thing, but what’s more concerning is how far behind people are starting to get.
“Obviously, they haven’t had an opportunity to get caught up,” Feist said. The City of Spokane and Avista partnered with SNAP to help raise funds for the U-Help program, which grants funding to families who fall behind on their bills. While this program helps, it only offers a grant for the average one-month utility bill, which amounts to about 132 dollars. Meanwhile, of the 123 customers on the City’s utility bill payment plan, the average balance owed sits just below 800 dollars. “People are further behind than they’ve been before,” Carol Weltz of SNAP said. “So, it’s a little bit of help, right? But, it’s not much help. So, we really need more funding to be able to help people normally.” According to Feist, the last round of Cares Act funding didn’t help. “We were not eligible to get funding to help those citizens with those accounts,” Feist said. “So, we’re hopeful that some of that will change going forward.” Until more funding comes through, the number of families asking for assistance is growing. Right now, Weltz estimates SNAP gets 25-30 calls a day from people asking for help paying their bills through the U-Help program. “If we can’t try and get people whole, just trying to get caught up every day, you know, in a food in your house, clothes, and all that other stuff, too. People are just needing a lot of help right now,” Weltz said. The City of Spokane released a heat map indicated which neighborhoods are struggling the most with keeping up with their utility bills. City Councilman Michael Cathcart represents northeast Spokane, one of the areas hurting the most. “It’s infuriating. It really is,” Cathcart said. “It just breaks your heart to see that there are this many families, individuals, folks who are struggling.” In the short term, Cathcart said this calls for rethinking how COVID restrictions are addressed to ensure that people who are hurting financially can get back to work. “Then, in the long term, I think what we really need to focus on and emphasize is attracting really good living wage jobs to particularly northeast Spokane, but certainly to North Spokane,” he said. For now though, officials are asking that you have hope, and that you help if you can. “We’ve got to help our neighbors,” Weltz said. “This time, maybe it’s not you, maybe it’s your neighbor. Next time, maybe it’s you, so you know, we just try to weather these things together and find our way through and we will get through it.” If you want to donate to the U-Help program to help Spokane residents who need help paying their bills, you can find more information here: https://my.spokanecity.org/covid19/utility-donations/ If you need assistance paying your utility bills, you can contact SNAP at (509) 456-SNAP or (509) 456-7627.
