{"id":317422,"date":"2016-01-20T01:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T06:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grist.org\/?post_type=grist-50-profiles&p=317422"},"modified":"2016-01-20T01:00:38","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T06:00:38","slug":"tiffani-ashley-bell","status":"publish","type":"grist-50-profiles","link":"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/profile\/tiffani-ashley-bell\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiffani Ashley Bell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Green cred:<\/strong> It\u2019s one thing to be able to code, and another thing to apply that code to a messy, real-world situation. Back in the summer of 2014, Bell, a Howard University computer science grad and a Code for America fellow, read about the Detroit Water Crisis<\/a>. In Detroit, unpaid water bills could be used as justification<\/a> for seizing a building and selling it at auction.<\/p>\n

Bell was horrified at the thought of people living without water — and possibly losing their homes. \u00a0So she\u00a0began thinking about how she could help.\u00a0She poked around Detroit Water and Sewerage (DWSD)\u2019s website<\/a>, and found a 400-page PDF with information about past due accounts — including account numbers, addresses, and how much was owed.<\/p>\n

That was enough information for Bell and a collaborator, Kristi Tillman, to set up a website that could match people who needed help paying a water bill with people willing to help foot the bill.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s since built a direct collaboration with the DWSD, expanded to Baltimore<\/a>, and became one of a handful of nonprofits to go through the prestigious Y-Combinator bootcamp for tech startups<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What to expect in 2016:<\/strong> Using data as a predictive tool. \u201cSome people you can tell if they are having problems six months before they stop paying,\u201d says Bell. \u201cMaybe they use different ways of payment. Or they don\u2019t pay the full amount. Or they\u2019ll pay the full amount but over a period of several days. In the future, we\u2019re going to be able to go to a utility and say, \u2018We can identify people who need help and reach out to them before they even fall behind on their bills.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Music to her ears:<\/strong> The Gravez<\/a> remixes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the leaders shaping green in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54839989,"featured_media":490357,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"coauthors":[1],"class_list":["post-317422","grist-50-profiles","type-grist-50-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","grist-50-2"],"yoast_head":"\nTiffani Ashley Bell - Grist 50<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tiffani Ashley Bell\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the leaders shaping green in 2016.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/profile\/tiffani-ashley-bell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grist 50\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/12\/bell.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta 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