# The Human Utility

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/the-human-utility/  
**Website:** https://www.detroitwaterproject.org/  
**APIs profiled:** 0

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.

## Kin Score — 7.5 / 100 (minimal)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 7.5).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 50.0 |
| Contract Quality | 0.0 |
| Governance | 0.0 |
| Contract Governance | 0.0 |
| Operational Transparency | 2.6 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 4.8 |
| Commercial Clarity | 10.5 |
| Access Clarity | 10.5 |

Regulatory layer — **Energy & Utilities**: 13.5 (matched via tags).

## Agent readiness — 0.0 (human-only)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | no |
| Agentic Access | no |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | no |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | no |
| Rate Limit Signal | no |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Unknown — onboarding: unknown, pricing: unknown, trial: no (confidence: low).

## Security (1)

- **The Human Utility Domain Security** — TLSv1.2

## Tags

Company, Non-Profit, Water, Utilities, Social Impact, Crowdfunding, Civic Tech, Y Combinator

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/the-human-utility/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.