DETROIT SHUTS OFF WATER TO RESIDENTS BUT NOT TO BUSINESSES WHO OWE MILLIONS

[grahamhgreen]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/26/detroit-shuts-off-water-to-residents-but-not-to-businesses-who-owe-millions.html

DETROIT — In Detroit, even the most basic necessity cannot be taken for granted.

Some 15,000 residential customers have lost water service, and tens of thousands more are in danger of losing it, thanks to past due bills. But businesses owing hundreds of thousands of dollars have not been disconnected, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department records show.


According to a department list, the top 40 commercial and industrial accounts have past-due accounts totaling $9.5 million. That list includes apartment complexes, the Chrysler Group, real estate agencies, a laundromat and even a cemetery.

Meanwhile, stories of residential shutoffs abound. Tangela Harris been doing her best to keep up, but when she was no longer able to work she had trouble stretching her monthly $780 in disability benefits to pay the water bill. So her water service was disconnected. Harris has since come up with $1,100 to have services restored but is having trouble keeping her $180 monthly payment to the water department. On top of that, her home has entered foreclosure because Detroit water bills are rolled into property taxes.

[NaturalHigh]

1. I wish I could even fake some surprise at this.

[Scuba]

2. Well, duh. The only "people" who count are fetuses and corporations.

[deafskeptic]

3. Let's not forget the dead.

The op mentions that the water wasn't cut off to a cemetery. I guess even the dead are more deserving of water than the poor and disabled.

[Scuba]

4. +1,000

[Enthusiast]

8. +1

[Egnever]

6. Yea the people who would lose their jobs from the water being shut of to these businesses dont count

all...

Who needs a job after all.

[cloudbase]

5. When you owe somebody $1000,

it's your problem.

When you owe somebody $1 million, it's their problem.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. When you owe $1 million

and they have to power to do something about it, they should do something about it. Turn off the water.

[mikeysnot]

9. capitalism

at it's best!

[leftieNanner]

10. If you REALLY want to help

go to detroitwaterproject.org. You can sign up to help pay someone's water bill. You enter your email address and the amount you can afford to pay. These guys will then connect you with an account number (not the person's name) and the mailing information to get the payment to the Detroit Water Department. People from Detroit who need help can also sign up on the same website. Cool way to pay it forward, huh?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

11. .

[TheKentuckian]

12. That is great as a bandaid but I think somebody needs to figure out why an old lady would be

facing a $180/month water bill. The scale and ongoing nature of the problem means that likely something other than charity needs to be done here.

[REP]

14. That seems terribly high

Mine runs about $45/mo for two adults in a 2 bath house with a greenhouse in a drought. My house is water cooled and heated, too.

[philip.chinery]

17. Because water bills are regressive

That's why Republicans love them.

[arikara]

19. I know. Something is very wrong there

Our water bill is around $35 for 2 months, for 2 adults and watering a garden.

[JimDandy]

36. The $180 monthly payment only goes toward her past due bill.

She must pay for her current water usage on top if that. (See explanation down thread).

[grahamhgreen]

22. True, but it shouldn't be left up to charity, water is a human right.

[arikara]

37. You're right

but governments fight tooth and nail to avoid that designation. Including Canada to my great frustration, embarassment and anger.

[TRoN33]

13. Just checked the records and...

Some of these aforementioned companies are being subsidized by taxpayers yet they can't afford to pay water bills.


This is the greatest true crime act by Republicans and few in Democrats, conspired to shit the hell out of Detroiters.

[wryter2000]

15. $180 a month?!?! WTF

I live in a small two bedroom house and have a container vegetable garden. I pay about $75 a month. OMG, this sucks.

There was a thread here yesterday about a site where you can go to help people in Detroit pay their water bills. It was covered by the WaPo, so it was on the level. I signed up for a couple of bucks. Does anyone have that link?

These bastards will fry in hell, and their money won't do them a damned bit of good.

See upthread Detroit Water Project dot org[link:http://www.detroitwaterproject.org|

[oldandhappy]

16. Something stinks

A bill for $180 a month for water is not reasonable.

[burrowowl]

20. Yes! Something stinks to high heavens!

[JimDandy]

21. The $180 almost certainly includes payment on

Last edited Sun Jul 27, 2014, 05:57 PM - Edit history (3)

some portion of her past due bill as well as her current usage bill. That is how utilities set up payment plans for renters I've helped in the past. The utility company will work with the customer to come up with a monthly amount for the customer to pay until their past due amount is paid off.

ETA: turns out that the $180 monthly payment is only for her past due bill. She pays for her current water usage in addition to that. See down thread.

[TheKentuckian]

23. No, her past due was like a grand, she was talking about this as a monthly obstacle.

[JimDandy]

24. The $1,100 was the amount to turn the water back on.

That amount usually includes a hefty restart service fee, a deposit, SOME of the amount owed for the back bill, and sometimes an attorney/collections fee. Her house is in foreclosure because she COULDN'T pay what she back owes on her water bill and that back amount got rolled into her property taxes owed. She then couldn't pay her now higher than usual property taxes on the home and it went into foreclosure.

Detroit is going to be an even more substantial land holder if they are doing this scenario with the tens of thousands of home owners who owe water bills.

The reporter should have written this up better, because now I'm thinking that the $180 monthly payment may also be connected to payment of the property taxes. In any case, there is just no way that could be the amount owed for one months water usage for a single family home, even if it has a vegetable garden. I'll eat my words though if someone from Detroit gets on this thread to say the city is robbing them blind with extraordinarily high water usage charges.

[TheKentuckian]

25. Well, I can't come up with an alternative way to process it other than $180/month

Perhaps we are the victims of poor writing but from what is there it seems clear to me and anything else requires reinterpretation or outside assumptions.
Harris has since come up with $1,100 to have services restored but is having trouble keeping her $180 monthly payment to the water department. On top of that, her home has entered foreclosure because Detroit water bills are rolled into property taxes."
"

$180.00 monthly is expressly stated and if true then no wonder folks are falling behind and getting cut off, I'll error on the side of there is a problem.

[JimDandy]

27. Well it's worse then we both thought...She had a $4,000 bill due to a leak

and 6 months of nonpayment. The $180 is in ADDITION to her current monthly water charges. Yikes!

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2014/07/help_on_the_way_for_detroiters.html

Help on the way for Detroiters cut off from water

...Tangela Harris, 38, said her Boston-Edison home had no access to running water for 11 days earlier this year.

She said the cutoff came after a leak and six months of nonpayment caused her bill to balloon to $4,000.

"I wasn't looking at my bill because I couldn't pay it," she said. "When I was ready to look at my bill, it was $4,000."

She said she struggled through 11 days without tap water while caring for an elderly relative, relying on store-bought jugs until a payment plan was arranged.

Harris said she now pays $180 a month in addition to regular usage charges.

[TheKentuckian]

31. Yikes! You know there are TeaPubliKlan shenanigans afoot. Everything is an extraction scam.

[JimDandy]

35. Just for us peons, though, not for the businesses. n/t

[JoeyT]

33. What kind of a leak uses that much water?

I had a line get cut beside a field while I was gone for a week and it made freaking pond and it only cost about $400.

Did she flood the entire city?

[JimDandy]

34. The leak may have been going on

for the entire 6 months time period when she couldn't face opening her bill. That would put her leak costs more in line with yours.

That is some bad luck right there. And the leak had to be in an outside line, otherwise she would have noticed it.

[Trillo]

18. Zero tolerance for humans

Lots of tolerance and leeway for corporate persons.

[randys1]

26. And we do nothing...and when I say we I include myself, but this has to change

[whereisjustice]

28. We treat corporations like Gods. Corporations treat us like farm animals.

[valerief]

29. Can the U.S. Army come to their rescue with these?

http://time.com/75612/atmospheric-water-generator-watergen/

[grahamhgreen]

32. We gave 16+ TRILLION to corrupt banksters. We can forgive this debt.

[EEO]

30. So corporations get treated like people, but people do not. Corporate socialism at its finest.