Utility rates fund the City’s water, sewer, and stormwater services. Affordability of those rates is a key consideration in determining future rate increases and balancing infrastructure needs and priorities.
This measure identifies the impact of the utility bill (water, sewer, stormwater) on the median, or middle, household in the City. The median household income is the mid-point of income in the City of Portland. This is considered by the Environmental Protection Agency as a measure of the community’s ability to pay for water, sewer, and stormwater services.

This shows that the median, or middle, household in our community has paid a similar amount of their income on utilities over the past several years. The percentage has stayed roughly constant, varying between 2.2 to 2.5 percent over the past several years. This shows that the utility bill has increased at the same pace as incomes in our community. 
There is no standard benchmark against which this measure can be compared. The EPA has used 4.5 percent as the threshold to determine high burden and the City is below that. 

The cost of an annual combined utility bill (water, sewer, stormwater) expressed as a percent of the 1-year median household income from Census American Community Survey. 
Median income is a good metric to understand the general community’s ability to pay for these services. However, this is not an accurate metric to determine utility bills on the poorest within our community. Generally, the City uses the 20th percentile of incomes, or the income for a household that makes less than 80 percent of the community, to measure impacts on low-income customers.

Our financial assistance program provides bill discounts and other forms of assistance to income-qualified single-family residential customers. Learn how to apply for financial assistance with your sewer, stormwater, water bill.