Uplifting a Community-Informed System to Support Affordability

Across all six communities, participants identified affordability of their LADWP bills as a growing financial burden. While the themes identified during OPA’s Listening Sessions and Solutions Summits are not new, these issues are often considered and addressed in isolation rather than treated as an interdependent system that uplifts affordability as an outcome. 

When asked about affordability, community members voiced needs and concerns that extended into other areas summarized below:

• Predictability: Customers desire reasonable utility bills that they can plan around without making difficult household tradeoffs, cutting back on usage, or sacrificing comfort or safety. When bills are unpredictable and efforts to reduce the bill fail, customers lose confidence in the accuracy of their charges and this dilutes their sense of control over their own costs.

• Clarity and Control: Customers want clear, timely explanations of how LADWP calculates their bills and why their bills change, along with tools that let them track consumption in real time, project future bills, and catch unusual patterns before they escalate. They also value confidence in the accuracy of their meters, and a straightforward way to get answers when they are not.
• Accessibility: Customers are eager to access programs and resources that can help them manage costs, but too often the path to enrollment hinders their efforts. They want clear, consistent guidance and information on what programs are available, whether they qualify, and how to apply — without facing complicated processes, unclear eligibility rules, or support channels that are difficult to reach due to limited hours or inconsistent availability.Renters face an additional layer of exclusion, often locked out of programs designed primarily for homeowners and unable to access opportunities that could meaningfully lower their bills.
• Trust and Engagement: Customers benefit by more than notification of rate increases and policy changes - they want to be meaningfully consulted before decisions that affect their households are made, and to see how their input shapes outcomes. Engagement works best when it happens in person, in trusted community settings like churches and community centers, and through channels that reflect the language, schedule, and comfort level of the customers LADWP most needs to reach.

Based on what we heard, it is clear that although lower rates and bills are essential, affordability cannot be achieved through this pathway alone, particularly in a city as socioeconomically diverse as Los Angeles. Addressing the other needs voiced by participants: clearer bills, actionable information, easier program access, accessible support, and participatory decision making, among others, lends itself to supporting utility affordability goals, and more comprehensively addressing systemic barriers to a more affordable and accessible public utility (see the case study on how Seattle City Light engages communities to achieve outcomes that support affordability).

As supported in the sessions, working towards affordability requires a systems-based approach to develop expansive solutions that cover all aspects of a customer’s experience with LADWP. Understanding the interconnectedness of customer needs - where one area is both dependent upon and supportive of other areas - represents an important takeaway from these community engagements and a framework that OPA intends to uphold in its advocacy work.