From Detroit to Palestine, access to reliable and affordable utility services is a human right. Wherever you live in the United States, we are seeing large increases in our basic utilities, including water that has gone up by 400%.

The vast majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and can’t afford skyrocketing rates for essential services. Millions of people have fallen behind on ever-increasing utility bills and face possible shutoffs of their power, water, and gas.

Utility companies treat these life-sustaining needs as commodities, which disproportionately impacts communities of color and low-wealth communities, who spend a greater portion of their income on energy bills.

In Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s district, thousands of Detroiters have had their access to water shut off, whether because of lead contamination or because people can’t afford to pay skyrocketing water bills.

Each year, Michigan’s investor-owned utility monopoly DTE Energy cruelly disconnects life-sustaining services for hundreds of thousands of households who can’t afford rising rates. DTE even sells residential customers’ debt to a predatory debt collection firm.

Across the country, other for-profit utility companies are doing the same. They will always put profits over the people they’re supposed to serve.

This is unacceptable. Basic human needs should not be treated as commodities for profit, and we must call on lawmakers to stop utilities from shutting off these essential public services.