Heat or Rent?

by Lisa Gray-Garcia

It was dark and I was cold. The wind whipped through the holes in my pants. I could barely see the phone in my hand. The chill was starting to get to me. It had been 24 days since the PG&E worker lumbered into the lobby of our apartment building carrying his globe-size Orewellian time clock and asking everyone in a voice that reached up six flights of stairs and out through the fire escape, "Where is apartment 5? I’m here to turn off the utilities for nonpayment."

I considered pretending not to be home, hoping that would delay the inevitable. Instead I chose a direct desperate please. I ran downstairs to the foyer, motioned furtively to the PG&E man, trying not to look at the crowd of neighbors that had gathered.

"So Miss Gray-Garcia, are you prepared to pay your bill or should I proceed with the shut-off?" he asked.

"But we asked for a five day extension- my little sister is sick. We can’t be without heat. Aren’t’ you a public utility?" He stared at me and pronounced very loudly, "We are a business, not a social service."

Thirteen calls to advocacy agencies elicited two refrains: "We have no more funding for utility subsidies" or "You are no longer eligible- you already applied once,"

That was last year. I worked but was still barely able to afford utility bills.

Now I am scared. I am still very low-income. And, as I watch my utility bill skyrocket even higher, I wonder how I and my fellow low-income residents in the Bay Area will be able to pay these rates. Many of us will not be able to afford the luxury of heat and light. Many of us will be forced to decide between food and a warm shower or light to read by.

I have listened to corporate spokesmen try to offer a rationale for this energy situation in California. They intone, "Conserve, conserve, conserve." Poor people have always conserved. We share bath water and limit our showers to 45 seconds. We turn off the heat and warm our hands over the stove. We buy blanket after shabby blanket. That is not the answer.

Consumer groups such as Global Exchange and TURN, the Utility Reform Network, have offered the only light (no pun intended) at the end of the tunnel. One of their possible solutions is to re-regulate. Another is for folks to demand that their cities follow the lead of Palo Alto and Alameda, municipalities that own their utilities and operate independently of PG&E. And finally, consumers might "strike" and pay their utility bills based on old rates.

I’m not sure what I and other poor people should do, faced with this energy crisis. Everything including our daily survival will be difficult. Will we sit shivering in our apartments, dreaming of a home-cooked meal- or maybe just a cold glass of milk?

Lisa Gray-Garcia is the co-editor of POOR Magazine