Local organizations that offer utility and rental assistance suggested reforms that could help people who are struggling to pay their electric bills at a meeting held by the Public Utilities Commission on Monday.
The meeting was part of an ongoing investigation by the PUC into a recent spike in utility disconnections. More than 10,000 Hawaiian Electric customers had their power disconnected between January and August due to missed payments. That’s twice as high as the total number of disconnections in all of 2019.
HECO, which provides electricity to about 95% of customers in the state, sends out its disconnection notices by mail and may follow up with an automated phone call.
But in the age of paperless billing and autopay, many customers are unaccustomed to opening their mail.
Missed correspondence
Jillian Okamoto, division administrator for housing assistance and referral programs at Catholic Charities Hawaiʻi, said her organization has worked with several customers who missed important correspondence from HECO about utility disconnections.
She and other providers at the meeting suggested that the utility could send notices by email, phone, or even text — and make sure that they were in a language spoken by the customer.
Okamoto also noted that customers often face a lose-lose choice between paying for housing or paying for power.
"If you rent, and you need the rent assistance and the utilities, your rent is going to get paid first, versus the utilities," she said.
Okamoto said that assistance providers need more money to support residents who can’t pay their rent or electric bills — especially since many programs have run out of COVID-era emergency funding.
"The utility assistance programs that we have, unfortunately, sometimes are limited in funding," she said. "You can apply, but we may not have the funding for it."
Possible intervention
Robin Fakaosi with the Honolulu Community Action Program said the main intervention available to customers falling behind on their bills is a payment plan. While that can help some customers get back on track, Fakaosi said it doesn’t address the root causes of why people are financially struggling.
"Some of the families that we see are households who are struggling with their loss of employment, welfare benefits, family health issues, death in the families, a high cost of everything."
These customers are often not able to pay their bills even with the payment plans, but they enter arrangements with HECO to avoid having their power shut off, she said.
Fakaosi also observed that high housing costs are prompting more people to live together under one roof, which increases a household’s overall energy burden. She encouraged HECO to give customers more "grace" when it comes to their repayment schedules and offer them additional time to catch up when needed.
Deann Aiu, the director of the Salvation Army Community Assistance Center, echoed calls to give customers more leeway, noting that people often fall behind on their bills after a traumatic event.
"If you can imagine a single mother, who is maybe a victim of domestic violence, who's raising her children, is dealing with that trauma, is also now trying to navigate her electricity that's about to be turned off," Aiu said.
"She's calling 211, who gives us HCAP, Salvation Army, and Catholic Charities. Sometimes we answer the phone and sometimes we don't, because the demand is so high. That leads to more crisis and more panic."
