The Human Utility

The Human Utility (formerly the Detroit Water Project) is a Y Combinator-backed not-for-profit organization founded in 2014 by Tiffani Ashley Bell whose mission is to preserve human dignity by increasing water affordability for families across the United States. It matches families who are behind on their water bills with donors who want to help, paying utility companies directly on their behalf through crowdfunded donations, community-building, and policy action. Operating in Detroit, Baltimore, and dozens of other cities, it has helped thousands of households avoid water shutoffs. The Human Utility runs a public-facing web application for donors and recipients rather than a developer-facing API product; its source code lives in the humanutility GitHub organization. This profile was surfaced as a Y Combinator portfolio company and enriched with identity and link details; no public API surface was found.

The Human Utility is profiled on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Company, Non-Profit, Water, Utilities, and Social Impact.

The Human Utility’s developer surface includes support and 4 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

10.4/100 minimal ▬ flat Agent 0/100 human only Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

0 APIs

CompanyNon-ProfitWaterUtilitiesSocial ImpactCrowdfundingCivic TechY Combinator

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

Composite quality — 10.4/100 · minimal

Contract Quality 0.0 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 0.9 / 20

Commercial Clarity 2.1 / 20

Operational Transparency 0.7 / 13

Governance 0.0 / 12

Discoverability 6.8 / 10

Agent readiness — 0/100 · human only

Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 15

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/the-human-utility: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Support

Support

Commercial 1

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

TermsOfService

TermsOfService

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Source (apis.yml)

aid: the-human-utility
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/the-human-utility.png
name: The Human Utility
description: The Human Utility (formerly the Detroit Water Project) is a Y Combinator-backed not-for-profit organization founded
  in 2014 by Tiffani Ashley Bell whose mission is to preserve human dignity by increasing water affordability for families
  across the United States. It matches families who are behind on their water bills with donors who want to help, paying utility
  companies directly on their behalf through crowdfunded donations, community-building, and policy action. Operating in Detroit,
  Baltimore, and dozens of other cities, it has helped thousands of households avoid water shutoffs. The Human Utility runs
  a public-facing web application for donors and recipients rather than a developer-facing API product; its source code lives
  in the humanutility GitHub organization. This profile was surfaced as a Y Combinator portfolio company and enriched with
  identity and link details; no public API surface was found.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/the-human-utility/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- y-combinator
x-tier: stub
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-21'
tags:
- Company
- Non-Profit
- Water
- Utilities
- Social Impact
- Crowdfunding
- Civic Tech
- Y Combinator
apis: []
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/the-human-utility-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.detroitwaterproject.org/
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/humanutility
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.detroitwaterproject.org/terms
- type: Support
  url: https://www.detroitwaterproject.org/faqs
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-21'
  status: minimal
  artifacts_added: 1
  pass: local-v1