Posted on 06/29/2014 4:54:35 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Nicole Hill holds up her past-due water bill at her home in Detroit. Her water has been off for about six weeks.
It has been six weeks since the city turned off Nicole Hill's water.
Dirty dishes are piled in the sink of her crowded kitchen, where the yellow-and-green linoleum floor is soiled and sticky. A small garbage can is filled with water from a neighbor, while a bigger one sits outside in the yard, where she hopes it will collect some rain. She's developed an intricate recycling system of washing the dishes, cleaning the floor and flushing the toilet with the same water.
"It's frightening, because you think this is something that only happens somewhere like Africa," said Hill, a single mother who is studying homeland security at a local college. "But now I know what they're going through — when I get somewhere there's a water faucet, I drink until my stomach hurts."
Hill is one of thousands of residents in Detroit who have had their water and sewer services turned off as part of a crackdown on customers who are behind on their bills. In April, the city set a target of cutting service to 3,000 customers a week who were more than $150 behind on their bills. In May, the water department sent out 46,000 warnings and cut off service to 4,531. The city says that cutting off water is the only way to get people to pay their bills as Detroit tries to emerge from bankruptcy — the utility is currently owed $90 million from customers, and nearly half the city's 300,000 or so accounts are past due.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I’m pretty sure those standing close to her don’t take her for a person that uses much water . . . even in good days.
“Better yet a payment record. Water probably should have been turned off 4 years, 10 months ago. Mine would be shut off after the second bill was not paid.”
Where I now live, I believe that the water will be turned off within 15 days of not paying a bill, after which, your home will be condemned due to unsanitary living conditions. The further south you go in the US, the more harsh, but fair, the rules are. For example, in cities in the north, you have to just about prove that your non-paying renters have murdered numerous people in your apartment to get them thrown out immediately (as opposed to months and hundreds in legal bills) - OTOH, I was people in Atlanta with their “stuff” put in the street by the sheriff within 10 days of not paying rent.
Interesting you should mention reservations...a group of teens and chaperones from our church just got back from a reservation in South Dakota. The conditions for raising a child and providing education were deplorable! Yet the head guy of this group had also traveled to a village in Central America a few years back, where the child were clean, happy, good living conditions, learning, etc. He was deeply saddened by what he saw in SoDak, and exhibited as much while telling us about the experience in front of the congregation!
“How did it escape the health Nazis?”
I would guess the life expectency of a Cornell-educated “social expert” on the streets in Detroit telling people how to live and shutting down illegal soda fountains would be measured in hours. Their government-issued Chevrolet Caprice would be “donked” shortly thereafter.
My well is 730' feet deep. Got all the water I want. Sorry to hear about your troubles...:)
Detroit looks a lot like Venezuela.
What do those two places have in common?
Not to mention the expensive hair do.
Nice! A well would be great :-)
It is high ($70), but strangely enough those of us taking water from the lakes pay quite a lot. Ours is $86/month and we aren’t high consumers. Ours was less prior to hooking up to Monroe. Promises, promises of lowering the bills once the hook-up bill was paid off.
Same thing may have happened in Detroit—bills may have started off affordable and “improvements” jacked up the prices.
Not great for a “water, winter Wonderland.”
Biting my tongue. Hard.
Ouch. Man, that hurts.
Okay, it's past. I'm not gonna say anything. Whew!
The United States of America, one step closer to third world status.”
Third world status is what folks voted for, to transform America into a third world country. Because we had too much, we had dirt money created by capitalists employing lots of people. Clean water, good healthcare, living wage jobs.
It is racist for us to want more than Africa has.
I can’t believe the city left their water on that long. My daughter has city water and they turn it off a day or two after the bill is due if it’s not paid. It is due 10 days after the statement date. It costs $200 to get it turned back on. Our community is really strict about the bills being paid.
Yes, you nailed it there. That is why the Romney "47%" quote made a lot of sponges angry - because it was the Truth.
I also believe that due to the fact that your demographic county is 96% white, you will not see many African-Americans using SNAP simply because of mathmatics. I used to live in a very nice subdivision. I have since moved. The projects a few towns over was torn down and condemned. The state implemented Section 8 Housing in at least 3 apartment complexes in my town. Very soon, crime went ballistic. Car break ins and home invasions skyrocketed. Rapes. Car jackings. The whole nine yards.
The state would not even admit they implemented the Section 8. You would have thought it was a secret akin to the Manhattan Project.
I moved.
The entire town is now a racial fault line. I went shopping at the grocery store I used to frequent. I hardly recognized it, and this is just a few years later.
The crowd was rude, smelled, and pushy - and almost EVERYONE used the EBT card at checkout.
As my Late Mother always said, “you help people who CAN’T help themselves, not people who WON’T help themselves”.
There are also many FReepers that are out of work or living on a Fixed Income, so what’s your point?
For the price of one of her Tattoos, the Woman in the story could have paid her water bill for a Year.
The idea of having priorities seems to be missing from the storyline. I’m sure her Cell Phone works fine and her Cable TV is hooked up, but maybe she cancelled HBO as a shared sacrifice.
“The cost in Detroit is extremely high ($75 per month on average)...”
Thank you - on the other thread I was wondering about that. And it sounds like the people aren’t on a meter - so they can’t ration their water to reduce their bills.
So at what price is it still okay for the government/public utility to charge whatever it wants for water? And if you don’t pay it they turn off your water and take your children? Is it $75 a month? $150 a month? $1000 a month?
I’m tired of people not reading the entire thread and then coming to me as if I defended this woman. Read through all my comments or just don’t write me.
Wht’s insane is that $40 is okay with her but $75 means no water. $35 bucks extra means I go without water? You fix stupid.
The private investors say that they will implement sliding pay scales and metering to bring costs down but they need to eliminate the massive debt first.
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