Rental Assistance should also figure in the cost of internet access.

 The short version of this post:

RantWoman strongly endorses Seattle Council Member Alex Pedersen's proposed amendment about administering federal emergency housing assistance programs. CM Pedersen's amendment explicitly puts into city ordinance the federal recognition that the cost of internet service can be part of emergency housing assistance. The amendment also directs the community based organizations who will be administering emergency housing assistance to include addressing household internet needs and program eligibility as part of their work. This measure will help right away to ensure that many families who need help maintaining their internet connection or qualifying for discount plans will get it.

The longer, rantier version of why this is important.

with special dedication for the voices in RantWoman's tweet stream into hating on Councilmember Pedersen: no, this is not municipal broadband. No this is not instantaneous development of low income and permanent supportive housing or even mixed income affordable housing. It is paying attention to appropriate use of federal funds available in the short term as part of pandemic economic relief. 

It would occur to RantWoman to check whether this program will just get people signed up with providers that have terrible customer service records or on a cycle that subjects them after an initial discount to automatic upselling, but nevertheless, this measure is needed NOW.

Today a grocery clerk told RantWoman "we're in the future now." The clerk needed to assist RantWoman with snazzy new wave your debit card over the Point of sale device to pay for groceries. 

Okay, sure, RantWoman would be happy to spend some of her we're in the future gee-whiz access to tech RantWoman is VERY grateful to have, watching the committee hearing livestream. Instead RantWoman will be having some gee whiz we're in the future medical tests, the kind that require a large apparatus shielding and in-person rather than telehealth.

By way of comment thought, RantWoman can share two perspectives. First, RantWoman spends a lot of her time supporting the STAR of Seattle, when it is open a community technology center by and for people of widely varying abilities and disabilities. The STAR Center is in a Seattle Housing Authority community. None of the computer labs in Seattle Housing Authority communities are open yet per SHA interpretation of public health guidelines. Many residents have difficulty travelling to places like libraries; those also are closed due to the #Pandemic so the only way many many housing authority residents can get internet access right now is their own devices and figuring out their own connectivity. One of RantWoman's neighbors has transitioned to paying all her bills online. Since she doesn't have internet connectivity at home though, she had to figure out a way to get to a UPS store and use the computer there.

RantWoman and the Utility Discount Program

Time to Renew... Notice

Some low tech contact info.

RantWoman's own story involves renewing her enrollment in the utility discount program. Bear in mind, RantWoman would consider it a good problem not to qualify for UDP but RantWoman certainly does.

This adventure began with two postcards, first a pink one and then a slightly larger green one. The cards need to say "Utility Discount Program Renew NOW somewhere in big print. They are the sort of visual experience that RantWoman has very limited patience for in any single day. On the back they say in several languages in tiny, tiny print what they are about and how to get help. RantWoman looked at the tiny print and thought "I really hope some culturally competent community-based organizations are getting paid to help administer this!"

Bear in mind, it's the utility discount program, serving a lot of seniors, many of whom are on fixed incomes and their income is probably never going to exceed the allowable maximums for the program. They are also quite unlikely to have or want internet connectivity. Hence, RantWoman was not surprised that the customer interface required two 15-minute waits on hold, ability to deal with signing a paper application created with RantWoman's information and sent by snail mail, and the need for a smartphone to photograph the document and two needed pieces of verification documentation and then email everything back to the program. 

Okay. There could have been a photocopy and fax alternative, but no matter which drection RantWoman chooses, the whole process as many fewer kinks if one has access to internet, to a printer, or a fax.

 

Renewing one's enrollment in the Utility Discount program is only one small example of basic activities, such as online school, applying for benefits, gathering information because libraries are closed where internet access is critical. CM Pedersen's amendment is a small and important step in supporting #digital equity and addressing needs made even greater because of all the pandemic related disruptions.