DTE and Children Went through the Whole

DTE: Illegal power hookup resumed hours before fatal fire

By AMBER HUNT AND TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Within hours of DTE Energy cutting off service to the home because it had been hooked up illegally for months, two locks that had been placed by the utility on the electric meter box had been cut off — and power was restored.

The Detroit Fire Department is investigating whether that second illegal hookup led to the Tuesday deaths of three children – Travion Young, 5, Salena, 3, and Fantasia, 4 – after a blaze tore through the two-story home.

Very sad.

What saddened me the most were the comments left on this story.

There were those who blamed the big monster DTE and there were those who blamed the welfare queen.

I blame the tragic deaths of these three children on Michigan Lawmakers.

In Michigan, particularly Detroit, times are economically challenging, to say the least. Social resources are virtually gone. There is very little affordable, decent housing, so many times, a person will take what they can get and make the most of it, particularly when they have children.

Parents tend to do whatever they must to care and provide for their children, even if it means an illegal hook up, because if they do not, those are grounds for removal of the children and have them placed into foster care.

DTE did what it is suppose to do as a business. It did not receive payment of services and, justly, terminated services.

There was a loophole in the law.

Popular belief is that there is law on the books of Michigan that says the energy companies cannot turn off utilities in the winter. That is not the case.

There are two eligibility criteria:

(1) You must be considered an "eligible senior citizen customer";

(2) You must be able to pay 7% of the estimated annual bill within 14 days of shut off.

Children fell through the loophole and through the social safety net to die.

There are more resources, advocacy and protection for senior than children in a family.

Notice, that I make the statement, "children in a family" because that would deem foster care, a welfare program, which is many times more costly to the public than helping with utilities and housing. I read the comments and cringed that people would condemn a person for being poor.

Each child removed costs taxpayers in the range of $10,000 to $150,000 a year, and many times much more depending on the classification of the case. I did not calculate staff, Medicaid services, courts, administration, training, buildings, fraud, waste and abuse. That would triple the numbers.

A monthly gas bill during the winter in Detroit is about $500. You do the math.

The lawmakers of Michigan need to obviate. This means to provide for the future. Michigan is going through a series of policy changes in Medicaid that would do just that. Perhaps the resources this family needed to prevent the deaths of these children.

The people need to redirect their outrage toward Michigan lawmakers and demand investments in resources for a profitable return of its future citizens.

The whole policy system allowed DTE and children to go though, with no consideration of the future.