Posted on 06/29/2014 1:53:37 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Residents of Detroit, Michigan who are $150 or two months past-due on their water bills are having their water shut off by the bankrupt city. Now, even the United Nations has stepped in, saying Detroit is in violation of the human right to water.
The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) is facing $5 billion in bad debt, and is scrambling to recoup its losses. The city, which filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in history last year, argues that the financial burden of paying water bills has been put on the back burner by many families who didnt believe services would be shut off. Those bills have gone up 120 percent in the past decade, well beyond the national average.
We sent out a little over 46,000 shutoff notices in May. Of those 46,000 shutoff notices, about 4,500 were actually shut off, Greg Eno, a DWSD public affairs specialist, told RT.
Within 24 hours, 60 percent of the affected customers paid their accounts in full and had their service immediately restored. Forty percent of the remaining customers had their service restored within 48 hours, DWSD said in a statement.
Many of the properties that we shut off are actually vacant structures, not occupied homes, DWSD Director Sue McCormick said.
The public utility has threatened to cut off water to 150,000 Detroit residents so far, and the shutoffs could affect up to 300,000 of the citys poor African-American community, according to the Root. Since March, water service for up to 3,000 customers per week has been cut off...
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
I wouldn’t be surprised if the lawyers turn this into something big.
I will be generous and allow the UN to pay their water bills.
We are the single biggest funding source of the United Nations, so you’d be paying it, if the UN ever did such a thing.
Not to worry, our governor, with relentlessly progressive action, will move forward to take more taxpayer money from across the state to make sure that those Detoileteers get free water no matter what the reason it was cut off. His sycophants in the Michigan NOT Taxed Enough Already Party (NTEA Party) will applaud his actions.
The UN and the other loudmouths should pay the water bills.
This poppycosh story is making the rounds again????
The UN can suck rope...the sisal kind.
Well then ... put on your pretty blue hemets, jump in your white humvees, come in blazin’ an’ turn the taps back on ... go ‘head .... DARE anyone to stop you.
that’s great Vince but we, the American taxpayer foots the U.N.’s bills.
Did someone say something about FREE WATER?
Water Bills are inflated due to pension and health benefits. Sewer bills are larger than water bills. So much padding - big city water needs to be privatized.
I thought of that, but in the modern world water is not just a canteen of hydration to prevent dying that day.
How I would handle it:
1) I don’t pay my water bill
2) They shut off my water
3) I have to go get water
How others handle it:
1) I don’t pay my water bill
2) They shut off my water
3) SOMEONE HAS TO BRING ME WATER!
Next they’ll be a “right” to electricity or other forms of power. A right to food, housing, transportation, clothing. A right to everything. Many of these people do seem to think they have a certain right....a right to the contents of the wallets of the nation’s taxpayers. Pay your bills, and your water won’t get shut off.
And a liberal friend of mine is upset because the city of Detroit is breaking up a valued public art collection because it needs the money from the sale. But he knows nothing about people going without water. Libs are nuts!
when water bills are higher than rent or taxes, because of ridiculous bond issues and debt incurred by city governments to upgrade water and sewer (and pad pockets)
and when the business owners and taxpayers who were expected to those inflated taxes fled - or cannot pay - this is what will happen to more and more people
Our water and sewer bills now equal a 13th month mortgage payment, luckily we can still pay it
imagine the sanitation issues
how long would it take Detroit to become another Haiti or India (crapping and bathing in the Detroit River?)
Well, this is the problem. Can’t wait until pix of Americans getting their water from rain puddles flashes around the world.
If they have cell phones, EBT, cable, do drugs or alcohol they are not “poor.” They make poor decisions. And, we enable those lifestyle decisions by taking care of life’s necessities. My brother-in-law’s church will help anybody, but they have to give up cell phones, eating out, etc. Then the help is really substantial. But almost nobody avails themselves of the help, which often included hiring them with benefits to do a job. They won’t give up anything to climb out of poverty. So, the church says, come back when you need us.
expect it sooner rather than later when our new immigrants bring their “American” culture to our cities
Heard about a small townhouse-condo community here inundated with immigrants living several families (or a lot of men and women) to a room .. with no utilities
the woods behind are strewn with garbage and God.Knows.What.Else
city “inspectors” look the other way.
Property values for the residents are trashed, too
expect us to become a country with a lot more peasants- in the cities and suburbs
but not Bill Gates’ or Warren Buffet’s neighborhoods
It’s a terrifying thought. This country has collapsed so quickly. Sadly, we sort of deserve what we get - we allowed our freedom to be trashed by con men, scam artists and President Mugabe...er, I mean Obama.
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