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Kensington Welfare
Rights Union
P.O. Box 50678 Philadelphia, PA 19132
(215) 203-1945 FAX: (215) 203-1950
www.kwru.org kwru@kwru.org
December 20, 2005
To the City of Philadelphia:
As the holidays approach, we at the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, a multi-racial organization led by poor and homeless families, ask Philadelphia’s elected officials and other members of the city administration to remember that many, many thousands of families in this city are affected by the lack of affordable, safe, accessible housing; lack of heat; and significantly rising utility costs.
There are thousands of Philadelphia families who will spend yet another holiday season without safe, affordable, accessible housing. Because of the end of the moratorium on utility service shut offs during winter months, thousands of families in Philadelphia will face this holiday season and the coming winter months with no means of safely heating their homes. PGW itself estimates that at least 6000 Philadelphia families have no heat this winter because of shut-offs, and this number could rise much higher. And thousands of families will struggle to pay for rising gas, electric and heating oil costs. We are concerned that many families will have to choose this winter between freezing to death and using unsafe means to heat their homes. The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote on November 9, 2005 that 24 people have died so far in 2005 because they had to use portable heaters. We are concerned that that number could rise significantly in 2006.
We at the Kensington Welfare Rights Union believe that the officials of the City of Philadelphia must do something to ensure that our city’s families have safe, affordable, accessible, and heated homes for the holidays. We believe that housing and heat are HUMAN RIGHTS. We believe that it is the obligation of city officials to give priority in the allocation of resources to vulnerable citizens, including those without safe housing and those without heat. Therefore, we are asking you to identify and make public concrete steps that your office will take to end this growing crisis for thousands of Philadelphia families.
We look forward to hearing your response.
Sincerely,
Galen Tyler
Director
KWRU Protests the Rising Cost of Heat
December
1, poor and homeless members of the KWRU, social work students, teachers,
members of the religious community, and New Jerusalem Laura, held a
protest at one of the Philadelphia offices of the Phila Gas Works (PGW).
The protest was to insist that PGW stop the practice of cutting off
families’ gas in the winter time. Traditionally December 1st has
been the official start of the winter season, after which heat cannot
be shut off to families who cannot pay. A law passed last year however
removed this “moratorium” on winter shut offs.
Chanting “Heat is a Human Right, No Winter Shut-offs,” and,
"Heat for Our Children and Heat for our Seniors,” the KWRU
families demanded to speak with the head of PGW. The KWRU insisted that
out of the city’s 100 million surplus, 3 million (the amount PGW
said was needed) could be given to PGW to cover all needy families and
ensure that there are no shut-offs this winter, and that those who are
shut off now have their service reconnected.
After a meeting with Steven Hershey, representing PGW, a letter was
written to City Council and signed by Mr. Hershey, KWRU director Galen
Tyler and KWRU founder and current national coordinator of the PPEHRC
Cheri Honkala. This letter read:
After a meeting between PGW and KWRU, we have jointly agreed that:
1. There are many families in Philadelphia who need heat in winter, but have difficulty in affording the payments to maintain service.
2. Those families include people who are sick as well as children and senior citizens.
3. It is not fair to PGW customers to give gas away for free to some customers and not to others, but PGW needs additional funds to help people restore their gas service without imposing unfair burdens on existing customers.
4. While there are programs such as LIHEAP to assist customers who have difficulty in paying, those programs are not adequate to meet the needs of all who need help to pay to ensure that they have heat.
5. PGW and the City have already made significant progress in improving PGW management and its ability to serve all customers, including the most vulnerable in our society.
6. It is the obligation of all public officials and business leaders to give priority in the allocation of resources to ensure that vulnerable citizens are protected, understanding that use of public funds to pay heating bills competes with other life essential services such as provision of safe housing, homeless shelters, medical care, food service and other programs that KWRU has fought for in the past.
7. We urge official and business leaders to make it a priority to address the current heating crisis to help protect all families in need of heat.
ELECTED OFFICIALS AND PGW:
DON’T LEAVE US OUT IN THE COLD!
December 1st has traditionally been the day that starts the winter season
in which families who are unable to pay for heat cannot be shut off.
However, last year the Responsible Utility Customer Protection Act (Act
201) was signed into law. This law made it legal for PGW and other utility
companies to turn off gas and other sources of heat in the winter, ending
the “moratorium” on winter shut-offs of heat.
As a result of Act 201 last year and this year, families have been,
are and will be without heat in their homes during the frigid winter
months.
Winter shut-offs mean that families face a choice between freezing to
death, and using unsafe means to heat their homes. There are numerous
cases of families dying, either from freezing to death, or from fires
caused by unsafe heating methods.
A recent report by requested by State Representative Dwight Evans’s
office estimates that statewide, 20,000 households could enter the winter
without utility service. According to a Philadelphia Inquirer article
on 9/19/05, that could multiply if the utilities exercise all their
Act 201 rights, such as requiring big deposits to restore service.
PGW’s own estimates in the report mentioned above are that close
to 6,000 households could be without heat as of December 1st, in Philadelphia
alone.
To make matters worse, in October 2005 PGW won permission from the Public
Utility Commission to charge 19.4% more for gas. This means that the
average person will have their bill go up by $335 a year. Philadelphia
Gas Works (PGW) has said that bills could even rise by 27 percent this
winter.
As a result of winter shut-offs, families face a choice between freezing
to death, and using unsafe means to heat their homes. In both cases,
in incidents across the state, including in Philadelphia, families have
died as a result of this situation. As of a November 9, 2005 article,
in 2005, 24 people had died in fires caused by portable heaters in Philadelphia.
The Public Utilities Commission is investigating at least 2 fatal fires
believed to be caused by the new shut-off rules.
The KWRU is here today to say that Heat is a Human Right and no one
should be without heat in the wintertime. We are determined that not
one more person should die as a result of freezing to death or having
to use unsafe means to keep themselves warm this winter.
ELECTED OFFICIALS AND PGW: DON’T LEAVE US OUT IN THE COLD!
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