This past week, my nonprofit, Elevate, released a study with the Metropolitan Planning Council to assess the growing water affordability challenge in Chicago. We’ve done similar research in the past to look into water affordability challenges, like water bill costs throughout the region. But this study is novel because the City of Chicago took the bold step of sharing its water billing data for our analysis.
If you’ve never heard of a water utility sharing its customers’ water billing data with researchers or the public, it’s because not many do. Chicago’s water utility was uniquely positioned to securely share its data. Today, many water utilities, usually housed within city or county departments, are facing pressure to share water billing data as rising water costs impact more households across the income spectrum. The lack of transparency with data presents a challenge for community organizations, public health experts, and homeowners and water customers who want to understand water costs and come up with solutions for water affordability.
