Posted on 07/21/2014 2:29:53 PM PDT by PoloSec
Last week, a bankruptcy judge ordered the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to come up with answers for helping residents pay their overdue water bills, in light of the thousands of shut-off notices the agency has issued across the city. While the water authority must present its alternatives in court today, two resourceful women have already come up with one solution.
Turn on Detroit's Water is a website that matches donors with Detroiters who are struggling to pay their water bills. The site invites residents with overdue bills to submit their information. From there, the site—which is the work of Tiffani Ashley Bell and Kristy Tillman—matches them with donors willing to assume their obligation.
Here's how it works: Detroit account holders who owe $250 or less to DWSD can enter their information through a simple form-based site. Required info includes address, account number, past due and current charges, and account balance. The information is then verified through the Detroit Water and Sewage Department website.
Would-be donors simply submit an email address. Once a donor is matched with an account holder, the donor then receives all the account information required to pay the overdue bill. The donor can't see the Detroit account holder's name, though, unless the account holder asks to reveal it.
As Bell recounts, the project was sparked in a discussion over Twitter.
Bell and Tillman's site indicates that only individual residents are eligible to participate—so a donor won't be asked to pay on one of the city's many delinquent corporate accounts. Some 4,400 homes remained without water in late June, according to reports. The department announced today that it was suspending shut-offs for the next 15 days to give delinquent account holders time to seek help.
Tillman says by email that they began looking for residents in need on Friday and that they had identified several by this morning. Word of mouth has spread faster among donors. "We've got over 100 donors from allover the place who are getting matched up with people in Detroit right now thanks to sharing their email addresses with us," she says.
Representatives at DWSD didn't respond right away about whether they will direct delinquent customers to seek help on Tillman and Bell's website.
Oh HELL No!
Pass.
Wow. Detroit resident’s “gibs-me-dat” knows no bounds.
I wonder if I put up a website that asked people to pay my utility bills, how much money I would make. I bet I’d get at least a little.
Let me guess, the people who can’t pay their water bill still have at lest one 42” HDTV with cable/satellite service, right?
As much as I detest the idea of UN troops in the US, I do agree that Detroit deserves them as they are being called upon to help Detroit get water.
After all, the UN is good at assisting third world hell-holes with ignorant and indigent citizens.
Actually I think its a great idea and I’m going to make sure every liberal I encounter knows about it.
My water bill’s fine but I could use a little help with the bar tab.
Hell, I'll just set up a phishing site.
My wine cellar is almost empty!!!!!!
And we still only manage to see about 57 cents of every dollar I earn once the "gimme dat" crowd takes their cut.
Detroit is bounded by Lakes and Rivers. A song says .....down by the river..
The exercise my do some of these Obama people some good.
The Democrats can afford to pay $32,000 per person to eat a meal with Obama. If the water bills are around $250, then just one Democrat forgoing a meal with Obama could pay 128 water bills in Detroit.
Oh.....but those people in Detroit couldn’t hand out any graft to those Democrat donors.
I’m actually most curious about who is matching the payments. It would be hilarious if it turned out to be a scam to separate liberals from their money.
What a nice website. Mark Ruffalo can use it from hollywood to pay their bills.
Hey, pay my bills. I deserve it more than the welfare scum and criminal thugs in Detroit. I worked hard all my life. I supported my family. I pay taxes.
Pay my bills.
Someone should tell the gibmedats the FedGov is paying $500 a day for each illegal “child” being housed and fed by the US of A.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.