I’ve looked forward to Tuesdays for the past eight weeks. I leave my desk a little early and head downtown to learn about the city I love and the challenges it’s up against. The seminars have been exciting, enlightening and sometimes completely heartbreaking. This was especially true of our most recent seminar, which hosted Sister Mary Ellen (thanks Demario for your help! :)) and Food and Water Watch Senior Organizer Lynna Kaucheck.
I didn’t miss the sharp irony of calmly sipping delicious cool water while watching a video about Detroit’s water shutoffs. The video and discussion left me astounded and breathless with rage and disbelief. I was overcome with a “screw corporate America” feeling. I had to confront what I take for granted every single day: the ability to take showers, flush toilets, cook and keep myself hydrated. I drink such a ridiculous amount of water that I have no idea what I would do if it became a scarce or even completely unavailable resource.
Yet this is the brutal reality for about 41,000 Detroiters. It’s so unbelievable to me that this could happen here in Michigan when we’re surrounded by the Great Lakes, which provide 21% of the world’s supply of surface fresh water. Like many of the issues non-profits tackle, the water shutoffs are complicated (as I understand them). While watching Lynna’s video, I realized I really need the situation to be broken down for me on an elementary-school level. There are so many parts to this very evident problem that I don’t know where to start. To begin to understand how and why it’s come to this, I outlined a brief synopsis and timeline using Food and Water Watch’s May 2015 brief:
–2006: Detroit City Council approved Water Affordability Plan; DWSD makes their own program instead, the Detroit Residential Water Assistance Program (in my mind, assistance should be in air quotes…this post is clearly not without its biases)
–> DRWAP only applies to customers whose water is already shut off “or faces pending shutoffs”
–March 2013: Governor Rick Snyder appoints Kevyn Orr as Detroit’s emergency manager
–July 2013: Detroit declares bankruptcy
–> Orr proposes leasing water systems to regional authority; it would take over DWSD
–March 2014: Orr announces plans to privatize DWSD; counties rejected request for information; confidential mediation begins; DWSD announces its water shutoff campaign
–> Regionalization proposal passes
–> Plans to “disconnect service for 1,500-3,000 city customers every week for nonpayment”
–July 2014: “DWSD raised residential water and sewage rates by 8.7%”
-August 2014: Mayor Duggan and DWSD create 10/30/50 payment plan; available exclusively to those who are “already behind on their water bills” (I’m wondering who decides which residents are eligible for program enrollment? Although the payment plan doesn’t seem all that helpful anyhow…)
–> Amount owed is not actually reduced (a fundamental problem as I see it)
–September 2014: Great Lakes Regional Authority created; will lease Detroit’s water systems
–> Unelected, appointed officials now in control of water and sewer services (!!! – So they’re doling out this fundamentally necessary resource as if it’s a commodity?)
(-February-May 2015: Ongoing confidential talks about lease arrangement) (The privacy level makes me suspicious)
–February 2015: Detroit’s unemployment rate reportedly 12.5% (this is twice the national rate)
–March 2015: DWSD’s Board of Water Commissioners vote to increase rates by combined 12.8%
–April 2015: “Of the 24,743 residential customers enrolled in the 10-point plan, only about 300 were able to keep up with their payments”
–> This leaves 24,450 households to default
–May 2015: Another round of shutoffs announced for “28,000 commercial and residential customers”; 10-point plan adjusted “to pay up to 50 percent of a customer’s bill” (increased from original 25%)
–July 2015: Additional 12.8% rate increase begins
There are so many incredibly complicated layers to this overwhelming issue that I don’t know where to begin. When I laid out the course of events above, a confounding pattern emerged: DWSD would raise the rates and then disconnect people unable to pay those steep prices. This makes no sense.
I was especially touched by Sister Mary Ellen’s anecdotes. I’m amazed that some people have been living without water for two years (!). Even a week without water would be depressing and challenging to say the least. Sister Ellen said that at an elementary school, teachers told their students not to mention it if their water had been shut off, because they would be obligated to report it to Child Services and that child would likely be removed from their home and placed in foster care. Lynna pointed out that the shutoffs have both public health and social consequences – imagine going to school and being labeled a smelly kid because you’re unable to bathe. Sister Ellen put together hygiene packages for the students, but they were unable to use them – what’s the point of soap when there’s no water to activate it?
It seems to me that Detroit is bearing the brunt of this mess. Detroit foots the bill, leaving residents with huge bills to repay. What appears to be an entirely arbitrary decision left Detroit to pay for 83% of the water bill, while suburbs pay only 17%.
Still, the problem has bled into Flint and Highland Park (emphasizing the importance of Detroit’s well-being – it is the nexus of everything, the epicenter from which ripple effects radiate). Highland Park didn’t issue water bills for 3 ½ years, but I think Detroit is threatening to shut off its water this August. Meanwhile, Flint’s emergency manager decided to draw their water from the Flint River, but it’s highly contaminated. As a result, it requires a tremendous amount of chlorine to treat it, which makes the pipes leach, causing lead poisoning and creating a general public health emergency. The water is actually so corrosive that GM won’t even use it to make its cars. There is a plan to build a new pipeline, but this doesn’t mean that Flint residents will get pure lake water.
There is a great deal of misunderstanding which deepens this giant cluster of problems. To make matters worse, local media paints the victims as perpetrators. Detroiters aren’t looking for free water. They want to pay their bills but are simply unable to (the charge, as we saw, is unreasonably high). A basic human right – something that should be readily available to everyone – is being parceled, commercialized and withheld. The need for water will never go away, but it seems like this problem goes on and on – I hope that’s not the case. According to a United Way study, 67% of Detroit households and 74% of Highland Park households don’t have enough to meet basic needs.
During this seminar, I found the following patterns:
-Whenever a viable solution presented itself, something would prevent that solution from being actualized (often bureaucratic red tape)
-Media attention and coverage are dangerously skewed. Now that middle-class folks are being affected (as in Flint), the issue is afforded more attention. If it’s true that only now the issue might be sufficiently addressed, it illustrates the giant power and privilege disparity between middle-class white people (like myself!) and low-income people of color.
–> This makes me reflect on my own undeniable privilege and ask myself what I can do. Race is sometimes considered a “delicate” topic, but it’s an unavoidable and extremely important one.
-I don’t think it’s a coincidence that low-income POC are the ones being disenfranchised by the government. I find it hard to believe that this water rights issue isn’t part of (or at least feeding into) some systematic oppression.
-People are being made to squat, moving from vacant house to vacant house to keep themselves alive. This is happening as affordable housing disappears, leaving only “yuppie apartments”
-Corporate America wants to get a hold of DWSD because that would afford them (extremely valuable) access to the Great Lakes
-Alternatively or perhaps concurrently, this could be a strategy to get people out of the city to build a “new Detroit” – but at what cost would this be built? Would that city even be recognizable? (This ties into gentrification, but that’s entirely Dom’s specialty)
I also had some more general conclusions/realizations:
-In life and on Earth, it seems that no action is free of consequences; things are intricately interrelated
-The Flint River’s contamination is a perfect and horrible example of how human public health suffers when we pollute the environment
-In elementary school, we learned about the definitions of and differences between a want and a need. Water is a need, but it’s certainly not being treated that way
–> This leads me to believe that, at least from what I’ve seen in capitalist America, most things hinge on money and making a profit
Working for a non-profit (the REO) and attending these seminars is inspiring, but hearing about what we’re up against is sometimes discouraging. It’s hard for me not to fall into the trap of constant cynicism. Still, speakers like Lynna and Sister Ellen can point us in the right direction. They recommended that we become politically involved, speak up when things are wrong – when an injustice has been committed – and to get outside, meet and talk to people. The prospect of fighting such blatant oppression and disenfranchisement is both frustrating and exciting. This seminar helped me find another deep interest and passion, especially considering the fact that it impacts people that live a short drive away.
I was amazed to hear that Flint students were discouraged from drinking water on their campus. Ashley raised a fantastic point: we don’t hear about that much (if at all) back in Ann Arbor. I think we live in a privileged, safe bubble. But why are we sheltered, by whom and how? This makes self-education seem even more important. I want to challenge and disband my assumptions, learn about and even experience the world beyond that bubble. The DCBRP and non-profit world are constantly expanding my mind and exercising my hope.
