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Access to Utility Service: 11.4.7 Enforcement of the Provisions Regarding Access by Persons with Disabilities

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 explicitly states that no additional private rights are being created by the provisions of section 255. The Act also gives the FCC exclusive jurisdiction for complaints arising under this section. Consumers can file a formal or informal complaint with the FCC about a manufacturer’s or telecommunications provider’s failure to make devices or services accessible or compatible as required under 47 U.S.C. § 255.

Access to Utility Service: 11.5.4.2 Cramming Enforcement Actions

In 2011, the FCC Enforcement Bureau issued “notices of apparent liability” to four companies for charging consumers a variety of small amounts—ranging from $1.99 to $19.99—every month over varying periods for long-distance calls that the consumers did not make.274 These enforcement actions netted a total of $11.7 million. Beginning in 2013, the FCC began to combat “mobile cramming,” the practice of using cell phone bills as a vehicle for unauthorized third-party charges.

Access to Utility Service: 11.5.7.3 FCC Actions

In December 2012, the FCC began to consider changing the rules relating to interstate inmate calling services.317 This action was taken in response to petitions filed by family members of inmates at prison facilities run by Corrections Corporations of America.

Access to Utility Service: 10.1.2 Types of Housing with Utility Allowances

While many of the basic concepts regarding utility allowances are broadly applicable in several of the housing programs, there are some differences between programs that are important to understand. Therefore, it is useful to be familiar with the basic types of publicly assisted housing programs.

Access to Utility Service: 10.1.4.2 Master-Metered Projects

Master-metered projects have meters which measure consumption for the building as a whole, and the PHA pays the utility company directly from its operating budget. Here the utility costs are included in the tenants’ rents. Tenants are generally subject to a surcharge for the use of certain tenant-supplied appliances.20

Access to Utility Service: 10.1.4.3 Check-Metered Projects

In check-metered projects, the service is supplied by the utility company through the use of a master meter, but each housing unit has individual meters installed by and under the control of the PHA to measure excess consumption by the household. Tenants living in check-metered units are subject to a surcharge for consumption above the “reasonable” allowance (“excess consumption”) established by the PHA.21

Access to Utility Service: 10.1.4.4 Retail-Metered Units

Retail-metered units are those in which the tenants have a direct relationship with the utility provider, and each tenant is responsible for the payment of the utility bill for the apartment. These households receive a reduction in their rent (the utility allowance) to cover the expected cost of consuming a “reasonable” amount of utilities. The tenant, not the PHA, is responsible for payment of the bills. To the extent actual consumption exceeds the utility allowance provided by the PHA, the tenants are responsible for the excess.

Access to Utility Service: 10.2.1 Overview

This section describes the process by which public housing authorities (PHAs) should calculate fair and reasonable utility allowances in public housing. Utility allowances in HUD’s Section 8 Certificate and Housing Choice Voucher programs (hereafter “the Voucher Program”) are discussed at § 10.2.5, infra.

Access to Utility Service: 10.2.3.1 PHAs Have Discretion in Setting Allowances

Long-supplanted regulations42 provided much more guidance and specificity than the current rules about how to establish allowances. The old standard required allowances to cover the consumption of 90% of the tenants living in a check-metered project and actual average consumption for tenants purchasing their own utilities. Utility allowances therefore had to reflect actual consumption.

Access to Utility Service: 10.2.3.2 HUD Guidebook

A revision to HUD’s Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook (“the Guidebook”) released in June 2003 provides the best tools for tenants fighting for adequate utility allowances. For example, the Guidebook notes that “[u]tility allowance amounts will vary by . . . size and type of unit . . .

Access to Utility Service: 10.2.4 Appliances and Uses Covered by and Excluded from Utility Allowances

Utility allowances would appear to cover the consumption of all tenant-paid “utilities” other than telephone,58 including household-related services such as trash disposal and water or sewer charges.59 In public housing, allowances must be established for “major equipment” and for “utility functions furnished by the PHA for all tenants (e.g., heating furnace, hot water heater), for essential equipment whether or not supplied by the PHA (e.g., range and refrigerator), and for minor items of e

Access to Utility Service: 10.2.5.2 Voucher Tenants Face Unique Problems

Voucher Program tenants who pay their own utility bills face some unique problems. Under the Voucher Program’s complex rules, the relationships among “payment standards,” actual rents, and utility allowances can drive tenant burdens well above 30% or even 40% of income. In some cases, a PHA that increases the utility allowances for voucher tenants will not increase the amount of assistance the tenants receive, and it may make it impossible for tenants to rent certain apartments.

Access to Utility Service: 10.2.6.1 Overview

The vast majority of low-income tenants who receive federal housing assistance live in public housing or are voucher tenants. There are, however, a bewildering array of other housing subsidy programs, some of which may require that tenants be granted utility allowances. It is beyond the scope of this section to describe all of these other housing programs in detail or to summarize the utility allowance rules that apply to each program.

Access to Utility Service: 10.2.6.2 Section 236 Housing

Congress adopted the so-called section 236121 housing program in 1968 to replace the prior section 221(d)(3) program.122 Both programs were designed to reduce the interest-driven costs of developing new housing so that the rents would be more affordable to low-income families. Under the section 236 program, HUD provided a subsidy to the developer’s lender so that the developer’s effective interest rate would be 1%.

Access to Utility Service: 10.2.6.3 Project-Based Section 8

As noted in § 10.1.2, supra, there are no longer individual Section 8 certificates that provide subsidies to individual tenants who find their own apartments. All individual certificates have been converted to Housing Choice vouchers. However, there is still “project-based” Section 8 assistance of various types that are tied to the building, not the tenant.

Access to Utility Service: 10.4 Seasonal Utility Allowances and Carryover Credits

In 1996, HUD amended its regulations to provide that utility allowances “may provide for seasonal variations.”178 HUD went on to specifically exclude consumption for air conditioning from the utility allowances for retail-metered public housing tenants and directed public housing authorities (PHAs) to surcharge check-metered tenants for their use of optional air-conditioning equipment.179

Access to Utility Service: 10.5.1 Check-Metering Surcharges

PHAs that have check meters must adopt utility allowances and “establish surcharges for utility consumption in excess of the allowances.”188 The dollar amount of surcharges for check-metered tenants is based on “the PHA’s average utility rate” if the public housing authority (PHA) charge is based on a “straight per unit of purchase basis (e.g., cents per kilowatt hour of electricity) or [on] stated blocks of excess consumption.”189 The regulations do not authorize the PHA to include any addi

Access to Utility Service: 10.5.2 Master-Metering Surcharges

The regulations require PHAs to establish schedules of surcharges for tenant-owned major appliances or for optional functions of PHA-furnished equipment in master-metered units.195 The surcharge schedules must state the equipment or functions for which the surcharges shall be imposed and must list the amount of such charges.