Disconnecting A Basic Human Right: Detroit Water Shutoffs 

The situation in Detroit, Motor City USA, is distressing to put it lightly; and the latest developments in the cash starved, bankruptcy protected American city are inhumane. The City of Detroit, according to several mainstream media reports and the United Nations, has been systematically shutting off the water supply to households in the city once the account has gone unpaid for just two months.

The current shutoff rate stands at about 3,000 residences per week, and an estimated 30,000 residences could be shutoff from their water services within the next few months. The Detroit Water Department asserts that some of these accounts became delinquent, not due to the inability to pay, but out of habitual non-payment.

However, when you consider the facts around the demographics of Detroit, that claim looks particularly faulty. Detroit residents are dealing with high unemployment coupled with high poverty rates (40% or residents live below the poverty line) and the city government itself is dealing with creditors due to their bankruptcy filing last year.

In fact, ABC News reports that the water department debt represents about 25% of the total debt of the city and it is creating issues with their bankruptcy proceedings. The water department debt is about $6 billion and the total amount Detroit is in debt is listed at $18 billion. The water debt is compounded by another problem: it is not supported by any other revenue streams so the department relies solely on the payment of bills based on usage rates.

This systematic shutoff could affect close to 300,000 residences based on certain estimates. In two reports I found, the number of Detroit residences already currently behind on their water bills is estimated at 150,000. This is a significant problem which needs to be addressed and resolved.

Federal Standards

Some of the community groups and non-profit organizations involved in advocacy for the people of Detroit are in favor of some type of minimum standards regarding the affordability of water to be instituted nationally by the federal government. This idea is certainly viable, though will face criticism from the Tea Party right wing and other conservative anti-big government factions that will not want to spend resources on a federal government measure related to the water supply.

The counter point from the city government and the city water department officials is that assistance is available for those with limited financial resources through government assistance programs and non-profit organizations.

The residents explanation is that many have experienced their services being shut off with no notice or warning in the mail from the water department. Others have complained of getting a huge bill without the charges being explained and then having their services shut off within days. Some residents owed as little as $150.00 and had their services disconnected without prior notice.

This scenario creates several problems because it does not allow for the resident to prepare for a potential shutoff of water and or sewer services. The shutoff of these services can greatly endanger the elderly population, those who are sick or disabled, and especially young children.

The net result in the case of a family with young children being disconnected from service is that social services will enter the situation and remove the children from the home due to inadequate living conditions. In order to head off the involvement of social services, parents are increasingly sending children to live with relatives or close friends, breaking up the nuclear family unit.

A byproduct of this activity during this past school year, was a drop off in school attendance or large numbers of children attending different schools other than their own, which is going to have a negative effect on the government aid to school districts, which is tied completely to attendance records.

Disproportionate Impact

The vast majority of those impacted by these disconnections tend be the African American community. These neighborhoods are already dealing with stubbornly high unemployment, families increasingly living at or below the poverty line, and struggling with increased costs for food, housing, and medical care.

Now, on top of all of that, these African American communities are dealing with the disconnection of water and or sewer services in their homes. The same water rates which the City of Detroit recently passed a 9% increase, and which the cost of water rates have increased 119% over the course of the past 10 years.

The impact of these service interruptions is completely disproportionate, and has certain groups and media outlets making the connection to a veiled form of racism driving these disconnection decisions. That is only going to fuel an already desperate and angry Detroit residential population.

The disproportion of these decisions is magnified when given the context that the city has almost half of their corporate and industrial accounts as well as entities such as the hockey arena and the Ford Field stadium for the NFL’s Detroit Lions who are all also behind on the water bills, according to The Guardian, in the amount of $30 million. The fact that the water department has not taken action against these accounts, yet has terminated services for those in poorer neighborhoods is unbelievably unfair and something needs to be done.

Campaign of Action

The residents did take action, uniting behind interest groups, community organized groups, faith based organizations, and non-profit organizations who banded together and wrote a series of letters. This group included a letter to the United Nations appealing to their Committee on Human Rights.

The United Nations has responded and has criticized both the city, county, and state government in their handling of this issue. The UN called the systematic shutoff a “violation of the human right to water” and called for the government to immediately restore those residents who have been disconnected from service.

The involvement of the UN has brought this issue of the battle over the water supply and Detroit’s incredibly short sided measures to deal with their bankruptcy proceedings to the forefront of the national news cycle. It also brings a question into our national discourse: If water is a basic human right should it be free?

Prognosis

The peak summer months are coming, and with it the potential for scorching heat, which is not conducive to public health to have large amounts of a residential population disconnected from their water service. I take away the humanitarian aspect, because what Detroit has done is completely inhumane, and the amount that is going to be spent on emergency room care for people who will suffer from any number of issues related to dehydration and inadequate living conditions will completely outweigh the cost they are trying to slash by systematically cutting the water supply to these residential areas. It is completely economically unsound thinking and poor governing, to state nothing of the fact that it is going to have dramatic consequences to the nuclear family unit and put people already in desperate poverty into further despair.

I read reports about the notion that these service disconnections are tied to a larger scale effort to make the Detroit Water Department “clean up their books” with the ultimate goal of selling the infrastructure to a private corporation, and thus privatizing the water supply services. The Detroit Water Department denied this assertion when made by another media outlet, but with my business background, that certainly appears to be what is driving these service disconnection decisions.

The prognosis here is unclear but it raises some serious issues from a number of viewpoints. First, it is completely unfair that the city manager has taken these actions and denied the poorest communities access to water.

Next, with the involvement of the UN now in this matter, it is a complete embarrassment to the United States in front of the global community. The federal government needs to get involved here and put a stop to this situation whether they have to provide a loan to Detroit to bridge the gap in their debts, but services need to be restored to the residents effected immediately. It is absolutely inhumane, it leaves vulnerable groups of residents at risk for imminent injury or serious health issues, and it will destroy these communities.

Then, you have to consider the precedent this could set with other American cities looking to get out of debt taking similar pathways to resolve the balance sheets of a municipal water supply to attract private investors. The federal government needs to take legislative action in Detroit to negate this terrible situation from being replicated throughout our nation.

The disproportionate impact on the African American residents of the city is both frustrating and infuriating. These issues are all driven by the bankruptcy of Detroit which was caused by greed, and now the poorest residents are being punished for it. It is completely wrong.

The Independence Day holiday is coming, and while I am still proud to be an American, it is situations like these that I see in the news where I certainly question how we can treat our fellow citizens with such disregard for their livelihood and basic rights. That is not what our country was founded upon, and it is not the type of behavior that should be considered acceptable. We need a solution in Detroit and we need one fast.

(Statistics and some background information courtesy of ABC News, The Guardian, The Detroit Free Press, AP, Yahoo! News, and AFP)