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Affordability by Design and Bill Predictability: Financial Pressures and Unpredictable Bills Drive Resource Consumption Trade-Offs

Customer Reflections Summary

  1. Rising utility costs compound financial strain and drive difficult household tradeoffs, with ratepayers cutting back on essentials to manage bills.
  2. Customers actively attempt to reduce usage, sometimes at the expense of comfort or safety.
  3. Unpredictable and hard-to-understand bills erode trust and a sense of control
  4. A persistent disconnect between conservation efforts and bill outcomes causes skepticism in bill accuracy.

Rising utility bills combined with broader cost-of-living increases emerged as a central concern across the Listening Sessions and Solutions Summits. Participants consistently described utility bills as a significant and growing source of financial pressure.

Many participants reported actively attempting to reduce their electricity and water use. These efforts included adjusting daily habits, such as shortening showers, reducing appliance use, and relying on natural light, as well as more extreme measures, including limiting air conditioning during heat events or significantly reducing daily usage. In some cases, participants described sacrificed comfort, and at times safety, to manage costs.

Raquel Roman, Executive Director of Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission Church, a non-profit organization dedicated to community building in the Boyle Heights and Pico Aliso neighborhoods, described how these pressures manifest in the lives of the families she works with. She recounted the experience of a local family whose electricity was disconnected, illustrating the severity of these hardships, how such conditions can become normalized, and the difficult dilemma that many families face in choosing between housing, food, and utilities.

Other participants also described how utility expenses shaped broader household decisions. They reported cutting back on groceries and reducing discretionary spending in order to pay utility bills. As Hennessey, a renter on the Westside of Los Angeles, shared in a video interview, “When it comes to my utility bill, I can't really have a say in that, but in my groceries, I can. So I cut down a lot on groceries … I'm planning out my meals ahead of time, so I know I'm not spending more when I go into the grocery store. Because that's something I can really control … but when my utility bill comes in, it feels almost like a surprise.”

"When I open my bill, I see that it is higher. Yet I'm doing everything possible to conserve...That is a concern." -Karen, lifelong Angeleno and homeowner

Residential customers also reported that their bills had not declined as expected, despite reducing water and electricity use. One community member explained that even after upgrading his appliances, altering his consumption habits, and spending most of the day out of the house, his average bill rose to $800 from $400 in prior years. Several other respondents echoed this experience. A policy director at a local housing advocacy nonprofit who attended the Lincoln Heights Summit, noted that residents in all-electric units had seen their bills nearly double after electrification, even while doing everything right and felt unsure about what further steps they could take.

She captured what many participants felt: 

"I could've used my heater if the bill was going to be this high anyway!" 

While affordability pressures represent a significant concern, participants cited comfort and environmental concerns as other considerations impacting their energy and water use choices, signaling that some customers may have several factors that can affect behaviors around energy and water use - not just lower bills.

Customers frequently described opening their bills with uncertainty and concern about how charges were calculated or why they had changed. While many customers may be unaware that LADWP has no say on trash and sewer rates and bills, many identified unexpected fee increases, particularly for trash and sewer services, as a recurring source of shock and frustration (note: although LADWP is the billing agent for the Los Angeles Sanitation & the Environment which provides sewer and trash services, OPA has oversight and advocacy authority over LADWP only). Representatives from Pacoima Beautiful described these increases as arriving without adequate notice. This lack of predictability diminishes customers’ sense of control over their utility expenses causing worry and concern, particularly for people who live in lower or fixed income households. 

The disconnect between conservation actions and billing outcomes emerged as a recurring source of frustration. As Tony, a longtime renter who reported trying to conserve through numerous measures, explained:

“When I open my DWP bill, I usually pass out. Either it's much higher than I expected, which is most of the time, or a few times it was a little lower than I expected.” 

Customers' inability to anticipate their utility bills from one billing cycle to the next also drives skepticism about bill accuracy. When the connection between effort and outcome is not visible or predictable, customers question whether their actions meaningfully influence what they ultimately pay, which can erode trust in LADWP’s service delivery.