Baltimore, MD — Today, the Office of Water Advocacy and Customer Appeals (WACA) unveiled a proposal to boost enrollment and re-enrollment in the City’s Water4All program. At a hearing held by the Baltimore City Committee on Legislative Investigations, WACA’s Chief R. Anthony Mills unveiled a proposal to expand the reach of the Water4All program — a prevailing issue in the program’s three years of operation. 

Signed into law in 2020, the Water Accountability and Equity Act established the Water4All program, which began in 2022, and WACA to address widespread concerns about unaffordable and inaccurate water bills. TheWater4All program is an income-based water affordability program intended to make water more accessible for low-income residents. So far, the program has helped nearly 15,000 Baltimore households — approximately 45 percent of the legislative enrollment goal — while the annual re-enrollment rate lingers at only 11 percent. 

Ahead of the Committee’s first oversight hearing in September, the Baltimore Right to Water Coalition outlined recommendations to improve the program, including urging improvements to the enrollment and re-enrollment processes, as well as debt forgiveness. 

“We applaud Chief Mills for advancing a plan to auto-enroll households in the Water4All program. This visionary framework will remove barriers to assistance for thousands of families,” said Food & Water Watch’s Public Water for All Program Director Mary Grant. “We look forward to working together on the successful implementation of this plan, and next, we need the city to address the ongoing crisis of household water debt. By auto-enrolling families in Water4All and providing water debt forgiveness, Baltimore City will protect the human right to water for all Baltimoreans.” 

“We are excited that the Baltimore Customer Advocate’s Office has begun the process of auto-enrollment for the Water4All program,” said David Wheaton, assistant policy counsel at NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. “This extremely important step will ensure that low-income Baltimore residents will have access to affordable water and sewer services. Black Baltimore residents disproportionately struggle with water affordability and the Water4All program is a critical tool to ensure that more Black Baltimore residents are able to have affordable water.” 

“The Water Advocate is offering a real solution to help more people pay their bills and to maximize Baltimore’s innovative Water4All program,” said Jaime Lee, a law professor at the University of Baltimore. “Creative solutions like this are exactly why the Advocate’s Office exists.”

As established by the Water Accountability and Equity Act, the Water4All program is also required to provide water billing debt relief to enrolled households. As written, arrears should be deferred for all households enrolled in the program, and each on-time payment of the Water4All-adjusted bill should count toward repayment of those outstanding balances. The City has not implemented this provision of the law.