Report: Almost half one million US households, principally in cities, lack indoor plumbing
New research shows that nearly half a million households in the United States, mostly and perhaps surprisingly urban, lack proper plumbing, according to The Guardian.
The data, compiled from U.S. Census Bureau statistics by the Plumbing Poverty Project (PPP), a collaboration between the University of Arizona and King's College London, and released Monday, found that renters and people of color even in some parts of the country In the wealthiest cities, people are more likely to live in a home without running water or flush toilets.
According to The Guardian, the problem was particularly severe in San Francisco, where nearly 15,000 families live without a functioning plumbing system. San Francisco also has the third-most billionaires of any city in the world, the outlet noted.
Data also showed that in 2017, black people made up 9 percent of San Francisco's population, but 17 percent of homes without indoor plumbing, The Guardian reported.
“San Francisco's history of plumbing poverty is inextricably linked to unaffordable housing, declining incomes, changes in California's post-recession rental sector, and racial wealth gaps fueled by a type of 'anti-black urbanism' that has either driven black .” “San Franciscans are being relocated to more precarious housing or leaving the Bay entirely,” Katie Meehan, lead researcher on the PPP and professor of environment and society at King's College London, told The Guardian.
San Francisco renters make up less than half of households in the city's metropolitan area, but nearly 90 percent of homes without working plumbing, The Guardian reported.
The research also showed that cities like Milwaukee, San Antonio, Phoenix, Seattle and Cleveland made little to no progress in improving their sanitation problems between 2000 and 2017. According to The Guardian, there are more than 3,000 households in all five cities without proper plumbing.
“It's not just that the gap between water-rich and water-poor in America is widening, but also because it's being driven by a housing sector that lacks any safety net for working families, particularly households of color, that are stretching astronomically “We can’t afford the prices of San Francisco, Seattle or now even Portland,” Meehan said.
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