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MANAGING EDITOR

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4

Thursday, May 7, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION

FROM THE DAILY

Too little too late

Impending shut-offs highlight inadequacies in aid programs 
O

n Monday, during a Detroit City Council meeting, offi-
cials and activists convened to form a workgroup to 
evaluate the effectiveness of the city’s current water 

bill assistance programs, and to begin proposing an affordability 
program. These assistance programs arose in response to an out-
pouring of public outrage and critique after the city implemented 
extensive water shut-offs throughout its residential areas last 
year. These programs were created to alleviate the financial bur-
den of unpaid water bills and prevent future infringements upon 
residents’ basic human rights. However, concerns about contin-
ually delinquent accounts and another set of impending water 
shut-offs set for later in the month demonstrate that Detroit’s 
efforts to remedy the situation — while well-intentioned — are 
precariously delayed.

Initiated by an announce-

ment from the Detroit Water 
and Sewerage Department in 
March 2014, 46,000 shut-off 
notices were issued to resi-
dents with delinquent water 
payments and water service 
ceased for roughly 4,531 cus-
tomers in May of last year. 
A similar scenario of water 
shut-offs is expected to occur 
later this month. Even with 
the creation of these assis-
tance programs last year, 
20,000 
to 
25,000 
house-

holds in Detroit have been 
declared delinquent on their 
water bills, which means 
their payments are at least 
60 days overdue or residents 
are in debt by $150 or more. 
Residents are then given a 
mere 10 days to respond by 
seeking assistance or mak-
ing a payment before losing 

service. The re-emergence 
of shut-offs and of citizens’ 
continued inability to afford 
their water bills highlights 
the city’s failure to find a way 
to address this long-standing 
problem in a timely manner. 
Concerns about this year’s 
delinquent accounts should 
have 
been 
addressed 
far 

sooner than just a few weeks, 
or even a few months, before 
 

the shut-offs.

Yet, measures from existing 

assistance programs — as sug-
gested by Detroit’s Chief Oper-
ations Officer Gary Brown 
— seek to ensure financially 
struggling 
residents 
won’t 

have their water shut off sim-
ply because they are unable to 
pay. Financially strained cus-
tomers can avoid losing service 
and begin decreasing their 
debt by enrolling in a payment 

plan. Since last year’s shut-
offs, assistance programs have 
provided some aid to residents 
beneath the poverty line who 
are struggling to pay. Accord-
ing to DWSD Deputy Director 
Darryl Latimer, approximately 
31,000 citizens are enrolled 
in payment plans, touting an 
increase of 11,700 individuals 
since last year. The current 
program, which underwent 
revisions 
in 
April, 
assists 

financially burdened custom-
ers by paying 50 percent of 
overdue charges and covers 25 
percent of future bills. A more 
comprehensive assistance pro-
gram is expected to be enacted 
in July.

However, due to the fact 

that 30 percent of more than 
1,800 individuals who were 
enrolled 
since 
September 

were incapable of maintain-

D

emonstrations and protests 
ensued in Baltimore as a result 
of the death of Freddie Gray 

due 
to 
alleged 

police 
brutality. 

Gray, a 25-year-old 
African American 
man, 
suffered 
a 

spinal cord injury 
while 
in 
police 

custody on April 
12, and died as a 
result of the injury 
seven days later. 
Although 
much 

is still unknown 
about the incidents that caused the 
injury, Baltimore Police Commissioner 
Anthony W. Batts revealed that the 
“police employees failed to get him 
medical attention in a timely man-
ner.” He also commented “We know 
he was not buckled in the transporta-
tion wagon as he should have been. No 
excuses for that. Period.” 

On Tuesday April 28, Mayor Stepha-

nie Rawlings-Blake enacted a city-wide 
curfew, and Governor Larry Hogan 
declared a state of emergency, deploy-
ing the National Guard. Johns Hop-
kins University went through several 
precautions due to safety concerns and 
encouraged its students to stay in their 
dorms by closing some of the school. 

Curious as to how members of 

Hopkins were affected by these inci-
dents, I interviewed Kidist Ketema, 
an African American senior at Johns 
Hopkins University studying pub-
lic health and economics, and Sharif 
Braxton, an African American Johns 
Hopkins alumni and an employee at 
the John Hopkins Bloomberg School 
of Public Health.

In the midst of peaceful demonstra-

tion, some individuals in Baltimore 
began rioting, burning cars and, as 
headlined in the media, looting a CVS 
drugstore. News sources circulated 

the words “Baltimore Burning” and 
“Baltimore Erupts,” disregarding the 
many peaceful protesters and the rea-
soning behind their frustrations. This 
created a skewed idea of the real issues 
the majority of the protesters were 
coming together for—a stand against 
police brutality across America.

Both Ketema and Braxton stressed 

that the demonstrations that they 
attended were mostly peaceful, con-
trary to the media portrayal.

Braxton attended some of the pro-

tests and commenting on the demon-
stration on Tuesday, he stated, “There 
was a very peaceful protesting and in 
terms of trying to preach the impor-
tance of community and the impor-
tance of togetherness and everything 
in between that were there. It was 
about being concerned for black 
rights, but human rights as well, 
which you haven’t seen that as much 
in the media. Especially since the peo-
ple who were doing the looting and 
the rioting weren’t really concerned 
with the initiative as a whole.”

Social media created a direct source 

to highlight some of these incon-
sistencies and gradually, the public 
began criticizing the media for not 
paying attention to the protests before 
the riots began and their general cov-
erage of the events. Ketema said she 
found social media “helpful (in kind 
of) breaking down the situation and 
understanding what’s actually going 
on.” Social media has been a way to 
bring awareness and support of other 
movements, such as the protesting in 
Ferguson allowing for a national con-
versation. Both the protestors and the 
police department attempted to rally 
support on Twitter, in realization 
of the importance of social media in 
swaying public opinion.

Ketema explained how when she 

opened her Yik Yak on Monday, what 
she found were racist comments from 

Never again

RABAB 
JAFRI

ing their payments and dropped out 
of the program, a more sustainable 
method of assisting Detroit’s low-
income populations needs to be imple-
mented. As discussed by the work 
group committee Monday, efforts 
to address the delinquent water 
accounts must shift in focus to the 
systematic issues surrounding overall 
water affordability rather than solely 
 

providing assistance.

Avoiding discussing affordability 

will only allow the issue to stagnate, 
and will worsen some of Detroit’s 
other existing problems. Water pric-
es in Detroit have continued to rise 
with an 8.7-percent increase last 
year and an expected increase of 

3.4-percent this coming July, aggra-
vating the current situation. Many 
delinquent accounts are expected to 
belong to vacant residences once the 
shut-offs commence later this month. 
However, rising water prices — in 
combination with residents’ strained 
economic situations — may lead to 
an increase in abandoned proper-
ties as residents negotiate between 
expenses and choose to vacate prop-
erties with no water. While the city’s 
response has been delayed so far, it 
must act promptly from this point 
to address the issue of affordabil-
ity and make necessary changes in 
order to prevent the exacerbation of 
 

this problem.

