Why Half Of Detroit Water Shutoffs Are Still Off - Gerrymandering

There is no need for investigation because I already did it.

https://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=water+shutoff

The proper term for this is gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering is just another residual of the peculiar institution.

SCOTUS ruled on Michigan gerrymandering.

It said the congressional districts were not unconstitutional gerrymandered.

So, what is the definition of constitutional gerrymandering?

 Stealin' the children, land & vote.

About half of Detroit water shutoffs are still off

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department wants us to understand that the city's water crisis is not as dire as it may appear to those reviewing its latest shutoff data. 

Water department officials caution that the October 2019 update it made public this November is only a snapshot in time.

Some of the shutoffs, they say, were likely in vacant structures.

And some of customers whose water has been turned off may have had service restored under a different resident's name.

But . . .

As of Oct. 31, according to its own internal report, the water department had turned off water to more than 25,000 accounts in 2019, and subsequently restored service to 13,721 of those customers.

That means 11,297 accounts still lack water service. And 10,145 of those accounts serve properties the department believes are occupied.

Department spokesman Bryan Peckinpaugh is surely right when he says that not every one of those shutoffs means a family is living without water, but it seems clear that these numbers indicate that thousands of Detroiters are in this predicament.

I'm getting tired of writing it, but: This is nuts. 

This is year seven of Detroit's water crisis, and I think it's actually getting worse. After decades of lax enforcement, the department got serious about shutting off delinquent accounts in 2014, during the city's historic municipal bankruptcy. Then-emergency manager Kevyn Orr noted that 90,000 customers owed about $90 million in delinquent bills, a condition Orr correctly noted was unsustainable.

But the department's crackdown was poorly handled, providing water customers in a city with a 40% poverty rate too little time to prepare after decades in which the department tolerated unpaid bills.

Department officials finally recognized this, launching two programs to help delinquent customers pay their bills.

The WRAP program, administered by Wayne County Metro (Water Residential Assistance Program) is for the department's poorest customers. Another program for residents whose incomes are too high to qualify for WRAP, called 10-30-50, requires customers to pay percentages of their balance at set times.

A third program announced in August, aiming to provide wraparound service for impoverished water customers, hasn't launched yet, Peckinpaugh wrote in an email.

As of this fall, about one in 10 water department customers were in payment plans. Peckinpaugh says there's funding currently available to help Detroiters struggling with water bills

The department didn't provide information in response a request for the cumulative total of accounts whose service has been suspended.Bridge Magazine, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press have all profiled Detroiters who have lived for months or years without water.

Peckinpaugh said this week thathe is not aware of any customers with long-term service interruptions. 

None of this is new.

The remains of the Roman Empire, sprawled across Europe, are aqueducts and roads, the hallmarks of civilization. Access to water and sewerage service isn't just a personal amenity; it's a public good, a necessity critical to limiting the genesis and spread of disease. Shutting down water service en masse makes no sense, and it's unbelievable that after seven years of shutoffs, no one has figured out a solution to what the United Nations has called a humanitarian crisis in Michigan's largest city. 

More comprehensive assistance programs are required. But the best solution would be to re-think the way we distribute water.Charging low-income customers less based on household income would increase access to water. (Why is it fair for some people to pay less for water? Because it's better for all of us when all of us are healthy.) Skeptics say establishing tiered rates for a tax-supported service would be illegal, pointing to a 1998 Michigan Supreme Court decision.

But others, including some water department officials, don't think so. Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation to that effect, so far to no avail.

Meanwhile, 10,000 Detroit households have no running water. This is something we've absolutely got to figure out.

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