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Woman's children are taken because she can't pay her water bill
Although Detroit sits on the edge of the Great Lakes, which hold a
fifth of the world’s fresh water, thousands of impoverished Detroiters
are unable to afford that most basic necessity.
When Bobbi Thompson’s water got shut off due to a delinquent bill, the
state took away her children.
In 2000, Thompson fell about $200 behind on the water bill for her
Detroit home. With steady work as a singer and choir director, she
says she was planning to pay in a few weeks.
But before she could pay, the city shut off her water and lights. Soon
after, a worker with Children’s Protective Services came to check on
her four daughters—aged eleven, nine, seven, and four.
“The lady came in and questioned each child on a Friday, and Monday
she came and got them. That’s how fast it was—seventy-two hours,” says
Thompson. “There’s no kind of way to get yourself ready for that.”
Thompson wasn’t able to see her kids for twenty days, and although she
says the utilities were back on soon after, it was two years before
she was able to get custody of her children back.
“It was a horrendous experience,” says Thompson.
“They divided my family into four, five equal pieces. They had two
kids in one home and the other two were in two separate places,” she
says. “One daughter was living in a house with a child abuser. She had
to be moved. I don’t know if she was touched or not. It was really
bad.”
Almost everyone in Detroit knows people who have had their water shut
off. Advocates estimate around 40,000 households in the city are
without water service. “Those are astronomical numbers,” says Maureen
Taylor, chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, which helps
people avoid shutoffs.
In Michigan, an unpaid water bill can also lead to the loss of a home.
The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department eventually hands delinquent
accounts to the city and county treasurers, who can add them as tax
liens against the property. If those don’t get paid, the house can be
foreclosed on.
Taylor says a pattern of water bill-related foreclosures was halted in
2004, when Wayne County’s chief deputy treasurer, Terrance Keith,
refused to take action on those liens. But in December, Keith was
given a judicial appointment, and it’s yet to be seen if his
replacement will take the same position.
“People may own their home outright, after living there for thirty or
forty years, but because they can’t pay a $1,200 water bill, they’re
going to lose their home,” says Lou Novak, treasurer of the Detroit
Green Party.
Water rates have risen almost every year since 1986, and they’ve
nearly quadrupled in that time. Last June, the Detroit City Council
voted to increase water rates again. More rate increases are scheduled
for July.
Access to water isn’t worth much if the water isn’t clean. The Detroit
Water and Sewerage Department has been under federal supervision since
1977 for pollution of the Detroit River that violated the Clean Water
Act. But things haven’t improved much in thirty-four years. According
to a report by the Healing Our Waters—Great Lakes Coalition, Detroit
dumped thirty-four billion gallons of raw sewage and storm water into
local rivers in 2009. The resulting E. coli bacteria forced the
closing of a record 205 beaches in suburban Macomb County.
In 2009, a coalition of environmental groups, labor unions, and social
activists came together to address this problem. The coalition, called
the People’s Water Board, began holding pickets in front of the
monthly water department board meetings and demanded to see the water
contracts the city was awarding.
Taylor calls many of the contracts “theft without a gun.” Her
longstanding cynicism was given credence last December when former
Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, former water department director
Victor Mercado, and three others were indicted for giving out
lucrative water and sewer contracts to private companies in exchange
for kickbacks. All five pleaded not guilty to thirty-eight charges,
including bribery, extortion, and fraud.
Kilpatrick, already in prison for probation violations related to
other corruption charges, allegedly received $424,000 for work he
awarded his friend Bobby Ferguson.
“Sections of the water department actually closed because their work
was contracted out to Ferguson and other companies,” says Derek
Grigsby, who worked for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department for
many years and is now on the People’s Water Board.
Now that the corruption has hit the headlines, there’s renewed
momentum to create a regional authority overseeing the water
department. The Detroit city council is threatening to sue mayor Dave
Bing for a February deal changing the makeup of the Detroit Water and
Sewerage Department board, which gave more power to representatives
from suburban counties.
A bill by state representative Kurt Heise would go even further,
allowing for the hiring of a private company to operate the water and
sewer system.
“Water is a needed commodity and human right and it should not be
privatized,” says Grigsby. He had his own water shut off for non-
payment more than fifteen years ago. At the time, he was working at
the water department.
“It’s just so frustrating and so ironic that the pro-privatization
forces are kind of turning it around and using that corruption against
the city,” says Ann Rall, a local activist. “They use it as an excuse
for privatizing it.”
So far, the People’s Water Board has managed to get the water
department to publish its board meeting agendas and minutes online. As
for their request to have board meetings televised, Detroit Water and
Sewerage Department spokeswoman Mary Sevakis says cost concerns make
that prohibitive.
“The system is broken. And we need to collectively fix it,” says
Charity Hicks, one of nine People’s Water Board commissioners voted in
by the group, which meets a day or two before each of the Detroit
Water and Sewerage Department board meetings. “Or we’re all going to
be shut off, and we’re all going to be toting water from a creek.”
The other demands of the People’s Water Board remain unfulfilled,
including a moratorium on all water shutoffs. This means that more
people in Detroit will experience the hardships that Bobbi Thompson
faced.
Her kids missed a year of school, bouncing from one foster home to
another. And even after reuniting, it took two or three years for her
family to feel whole again.
“Taking my children away from me instead of helping me restore the
water was dumb,” she says. “It cost us all—the kind of cost no one can
ever pay back.”
Andrew Stelzer is a producer at the weekly public affairs radio show
“Making Contact.” His work has aired on NPR, Radio Netherlands, and
many other stations. Find him at andrewstelzer.com. Rachel Zurer is a
freelance writer and radio producer in Oakland, California.
"To hear some of the voices of the Detroit People's Water Board, check
out this radio story by Making Contact".
fifth of the world’s fresh water, thousands of impoverished Detroiters
are unable to afford that most basic necessity.
When Bobbi Thompson’s water got shut off due to a delinquent bill, the
state took away her children.
In 2000, Thompson fell about $200 behind on the water bill for her
Detroit home. With steady work as a singer and choir director, she
says she was planning to pay in a few weeks.
But before she could pay, the city shut off her water and lights. Soon
after, a worker with Children’s Protective Services came to check on
her four daughters—aged eleven, nine, seven, and four.
“The lady came in and questioned each child on a Friday, and Monday
she came and got them. That’s how fast it was—seventy-two hours,” says
Thompson. “There’s no kind of way to get yourself ready for that.”
Thompson wasn’t able to see her kids for twenty days, and although she
says the utilities were back on soon after, it was two years before
she was able to get custody of her children back.
“It was a horrendous experience,” says Thompson.
“They divided my family into four, five equal pieces. They had two
kids in one home and the other two were in two separate places,” she
says. “One daughter was living in a house with a child abuser. She had
to be moved. I don’t know if she was touched or not. It was really
bad.”
Almost everyone in Detroit knows people who have had their water shut
off. Advocates estimate around 40,000 households in the city are
without water service. “Those are astronomical numbers,” says Maureen
Taylor, chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, which helps
people avoid shutoffs.
In Michigan, an unpaid water bill can also lead to the loss of a home.
The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department eventually hands delinquent
accounts to the city and county treasurers, who can add them as tax
liens against the property. If those don’t get paid, the house can be
foreclosed on.
Taylor says a pattern of water bill-related foreclosures was halted in
2004, when Wayne County’s chief deputy treasurer, Terrance Keith,
refused to take action on those liens. But in December, Keith was
given a judicial appointment, and it’s yet to be seen if his
replacement will take the same position.
“People may own their home outright, after living there for thirty or
forty years, but because they can’t pay a $1,200 water bill, they’re
going to lose their home,” says Lou Novak, treasurer of the Detroit
Green Party.
Water rates have risen almost every year since 1986, and they’ve
nearly quadrupled in that time. Last June, the Detroit City Council
voted to increase water rates again. More rate increases are scheduled
for July.
Access to water isn’t worth much if the water isn’t clean. The Detroit
Water and Sewerage Department has been under federal supervision since
1977 for pollution of the Detroit River that violated the Clean Water
Act. But things haven’t improved much in thirty-four years. According
to a report by the Healing Our Waters—Great Lakes Coalition, Detroit
dumped thirty-four billion gallons of raw sewage and storm water into
local rivers in 2009. The resulting E. coli bacteria forced the
closing of a record 205 beaches in suburban Macomb County.
In 2009, a coalition of environmental groups, labor unions, and social
activists came together to address this problem. The coalition, called
the People’s Water Board, began holding pickets in front of the
monthly water department board meetings and demanded to see the water
contracts the city was awarding.
Taylor calls many of the contracts “theft without a gun.” Her
longstanding cynicism was given credence last December when former
Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, former water department director
Victor Mercado, and three others were indicted for giving out
lucrative water and sewer contracts to private companies in exchange
for kickbacks. All five pleaded not guilty to thirty-eight charges,
including bribery, extortion, and fraud.
Kilpatrick, already in prison for probation violations related to
other corruption charges, allegedly received $424,000 for work he
awarded his friend Bobby Ferguson.
“Sections of the water department actually closed because their work
was contracted out to Ferguson and other companies,” says Derek
Grigsby, who worked for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department for
many years and is now on the People’s Water Board.
Now that the corruption has hit the headlines, there’s renewed
momentum to create a regional authority overseeing the water
department. The Detroit city council is threatening to sue mayor Dave
Bing for a February deal changing the makeup of the Detroit Water and
Sewerage Department board, which gave more power to representatives
from suburban counties.
A bill by state representative Kurt Heise would go even further,
allowing for the hiring of a private company to operate the water and
sewer system.
“Water is a needed commodity and human right and it should not be
privatized,” says Grigsby. He had his own water shut off for non-
payment more than fifteen years ago. At the time, he was working at
the water department.
“It’s just so frustrating and so ironic that the pro-privatization
forces are kind of turning it around and using that corruption against
the city,” says Ann Rall, a local activist. “They use it as an excuse
for privatizing it.”
So far, the People’s Water Board has managed to get the water
department to publish its board meeting agendas and minutes online. As
for their request to have board meetings televised, Detroit Water and
Sewerage Department spokeswoman Mary Sevakis says cost concerns make
that prohibitive.
“The system is broken. And we need to collectively fix it,” says
Charity Hicks, one of nine People’s Water Board commissioners voted in
by the group, which meets a day or two before each of the Detroit
Water and Sewerage Department board meetings. “Or we’re all going to
be shut off, and we’re all going to be toting water from a creek.”
The other demands of the People’s Water Board remain unfulfilled,
including a moratorium on all water shutoffs. This means that more
people in Detroit will experience the hardships that Bobbi Thompson
faced.
Her kids missed a year of school, bouncing from one foster home to
another. And even after reuniting, it took two or three years for her
family to feel whole again.
“Taking my children away from me instead of helping me restore the
water was dumb,” she says. “It cost us all—the kind of cost no one can
ever pay back.”
Andrew Stelzer is a producer at the weekly public affairs radio show
“Making Contact.” His work has aired on NPR, Radio Netherlands, and
many other stations. Find him at andrewstelzer.com. Rachel Zurer is a
freelance writer and radio producer in Oakland, California.
"To hear some of the voices of the Detroit People's Water Board, check
out this radio story by Making Contact".
Tags: bill, child, possession, water
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by RENEEGEDE on -
Wow.
They don't take children out of abusive homes in which they end up getting killed, but mothers who are poor or are protecting their children from poisonous medications that dumb them down and turn them into zombies get their children taken with a quickness.
satan is on a rampage. Rev 22:20 - He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
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Permalink Reply by SweeTea on -
Sad...but until black folks band together and lobby their politicians with a vengeance for policies that benefit our communities, inhumane activities such as what's going on in Michigan will continue. Let's not forget how valuable the land in the state of Michigan is...it is the only fresh water peninsula in America, and fresh water can be more valuable than gold in some parts of the world...especially CHINA!
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Permalink Reply by RENEEGEDE on
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I am getting so tired of begging; especially when I know I spent 10 years of my "saved spirit-praying" life paying tithes to various churches that turned me down cold when I needed help from them. They let me know in no uncertain terms that they were not a welfare or social agency; but they didn't mind taking my tithes.
However, I just spent three nights in a hospital because of mitigating health problems that cost me my part-time temp job and landed me in a position of chronic homelessness forever. This is never going to change for me and I have stopped trying. I also cannot get any medical insurance out here because I am a single woman alone with no kids; which is something President Obama was trying to put a stop to. So now the state of Arizona has to pay more than $7,000 for my hospital stay and the ambulance rides rather than helping me with the surgery I needed that cost less than $1,500. And it won't be the last time I will be there.That said: From what I can see, there is no amount of praying or anything else anyone can do that will redeem this situation. It appears to be my lot in life and I am resolved to it; but I keep digging up spare change just to stay afloat as long as possible. There are no proverbial boats coming to pick me up and bring me to shore. A drown is a drown and I understand that I am living in a world that could really care less because everybody's got issues. However...here is mine:Because I did not get out of the hospital until Saturday and today is a holiday, the homeless hotel that I am staying at for the moment is charging me $45 to stay one night. I have a couple of friends in California who sent me money to stay for this week, but I cannot get to the bank to cash the money order for next week's rent until tomorrow. It is Memorial Day and the banks are closed.That said, I am in need of $45 just for the night tonight. I just got out of the hospital Saturday and no, there is no place else for me to stay around here and nowhere else for me to go. At all. The homeless shelters do not accept women without children. I guess no one expects a single woman with family to be sitting in the streets alone and uncared for. They don't see it, so they aren't prepared for it.I am not a drunk, not an alcoholic, I don't smoke or do drugs; never committed a crime in my life, never hurt a flea, let alone a human being; all I ever did was work, go to school, pray, attend church, pay my tithes incessantly for years until I ran completely out of money; tried to raise my children alone until I could not afford to any more - and I live in a country where folks like me are treated about as bad as criminals though I've done nothing wrong to anyone; ever.If anyone wants to help me for the night, or cares to: I am at Intown Suites, 2350 W Obispo Ave Gilbert AZ; 480 539 1237. I may have to pack up and go sleep outside for the night, so I prefer not to if I don't have to.I have done all the praying, job searching and asking around and begging and crying that I know how to do and am at the end of this road either way it goes. I pick up spare change here and there, but apparently it isn't good enough.I do not qualify for food stamps, unemployment since I was fired due to sickness, or anything else. They don't think I'm sick enough to get disability insurance either, even though my illnesses cost me a part-time job. I have the Republican party to thank for all of this, even to this day with a President in office trying to make it right.
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