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With Half Of City Residents Delinquent, Detroit Restarts Water Shut-Offs
"Utility disconnection is always considered a last resort, obviously because of consequences for households," but as Detroit News reports, but water-providers can expect more controversy, as a month-long moratorium against shutting off water for those behind on their bills expired last night. Halting service to people that don't pay generate outrage among not just Detroit residents but a wider audience who proclaim 'water should be a right'. However, as one utility director noted, "We've seen a lot more payments...They need that little kick in the pants to get in here and do it." Water industry experts say cities with high delinquency rates sometimes have few other effective options for getting customers to catch up on their bills. Roughly half of Detroit’s 170,000 customers were delinquent as of last spring.
Water utilities in Detroit can expect more controversy as Detroit News reports,
...a monthlong moratorium against shutting off water for those behind on their bills expires at the end of the day Monday.
Crews are set to resume water shutoffs Tuesday after weeks of promoting how residents behind on their bills can get on a payment plan or get help paying.
Other Metro Detroit cities, facing a financial pinch from unpaid bills, have gotten results by halting service to people who don’t pay.
With some success...
“Last summer, we shut it off for the first time ever,” Square said. Service was stopped to 150 homes, and 350 other customers paid up to avoid being cut off.
The result: Hamtramck’s water fund now has a $1.8 million surplus, Square said.
“We’ve seen a lot more payments,” said Randall Blum, Eastpointe’s finance director. “They need that little kick in the pants to get in here and do it.”
But [shutting off water], which has produced some positive results,
generated outrage among some people in Detroit and beyond, who say
access to water should be a right
But as the companies themselves note, its simply not viable...
“It’s not viable to let paying the water bill come to be seen as an option,” said Tom Curtis, deputy executive director of government affairs for the American Water Works Association, which represents more than 4,800 water systems nationwide.
“The utilities have an obligation to the broader city to make sure the utility is viable and sustainable to serve all the residents and business,” Curtis said. “You can’t let uncollected bills go on and on without a significant consequence.”
Utilities have fixed costs, and someone must help cover those expenses to maintain service, said Bob Raucher, who studies the economics of water for Stratus Consulting of Boulder, Colorado.
“There’s so much neglected infrastructure and so many regulatory requirements that the problems are compounding. If they aren’t selling water and people aren’t paying their bills, they still have these fixed obligations,” said Raucher. “It’s a real conundrum everywhere. Detroit is an extreme case.”
The numbers remain high...
In a release Monday, the department said about 24,400 residents are on payment plans.
Detroit suspended water service to nearly 17,000 residents from March to late July, when officials temporarily halted shut-offs.Many of those whose service was cut brought their accounts up to date quickly, and their water was restored.
Detroit’s average residential delinquency is $540 and the average monthly household bill is about $75.
Roughly half of Detroit’s 170,000 customers were delinquent as of last spring.
...
“We give customers a certain amount of leniency in their bills,” said spokeswoman Sarah Holsapple.
“Of course, if they haven’t paid after a certain amount of time, we’d have to shut off their water. That’s our absolute last resort.”
* * *
Free water is a right? And so are 49ers season tickets... oh wait.
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My neighbor's son tells me over 30% pf people stopped paying their property taxes in east Austin [East Austin is the more diverse area]. But the city and state are afraid to do anything about it b/c they don't want Al and Jesse on their backs. After all, Austin is their state Capital and it might tarnish the image.
but a wider audience who proclaim 'water should be a right'.
FREE ENERGY!! FREE ENERGY!! NO BLOOD FOR OIL!!! NO BLOOD FOR OIL!!!
Ask the local politicians there who have looted so much money to cough up some $$$ to pay for these folks.
I wonder if they're talking about just water, or water+ sewage, or water+sewage+garbage? I live in Minneapolis. My city utility bill is about $85/mo., including water + sewage + garbage/recycling. Water is about $25 for 600ccf, sewer is the same, garbage is about $25, and then there's about $10 in the mysterious fees that add drag to every economic transaction in our sclerotic late-stage finance economy.
The City of Detroit website ia a bit cryptic, but it looks like if an average bill is $75, that would be water + sewer, only. Looks like water is a little cheaper there than in Minneapolis, but they charge about twice as much for sewage as water. I wonder what the deal is with garbage disposal in Detroit?
And it's the property owner who gets the utility bills, not renters (usually). If not paid, it usually goes on the tax bill as a special assessment, at least everywhere I've lived. If you don't pay your city utility bill, eventually the city will take your house away from you.
If half the households in Detroit aren't paying their water bill, that's incredibly fucked up. That isn't renters; that's homeowners and landlords, not paying the bill. And the City has just been letting them not pay, for years? Say what you like about the concept of property taxes, that's beyond fucked up, that's so dysfunctional. I love to complain about the City of Minneapolis, but at least it more or less works. We can argue forever about priorities, values, etc., but at least the city does more or less what it says it does.
Attach the water bill to the cable bill and see how fast it gets paid.
Shut them off
( Water used x 2- Two for Sewer ) + 20% service charge, per month
Service charge and water costs is thanks to K Kilpatrick's city robbery of eight years
RICO finally took him down
Where else can this be used to help the us taxpayer?
How much did obarassment ask for for the border jumping gangbangers?
I bet every one of those 170,000 has an iphone too.
Bullshit, disconnect your phone or don't drink water!!
And lots of tattoos, an EBT card in their wallet, and plenty of money for dope, cigarettes, beer, wine, pot and a five-year-old Cadillac in the driveway with 24" chrome wheels. But no money for water. It'll be riot time. Can't wait.
The water is free. It's the transportation charge from the reservoir to your faucet that's the cost. Long buckets!
And you guys thought Ferguson was bad... just wait.
When the majority want something they just call it a "right".
but, but, I thought the white knight, UN coming to the rescue
Whenever someone says that a Product of Human labor should be a right what they really mean is that they want someone else to pay for it.
This will not sit well with the all-powerful FSA. In Detroit, they run things.
Knew a guy.
Lived in a "utilities-included" apartment.
Always seemed to have the heat on.
Needed the heater on to keep warm (winter) as he liked just wearing shorts and t-shirt.
Me?
In my place, with me paying the utilities, I wore a sweater so not to need the heater so much.
When one gets something free, one often is not responsible in using it.
Free rent?
Asking for the place to be trashed.
Thinking utilities should be free?
The Free Sh*t Army at work.
Civilization's collapse not far away.
There's plenty of free water for everyone in Detroit.
All they have to do is go to the Detroit River and get it.
If you're not contributing to their pensions, your water is being shut off!
Honestly, if they cut costs of water distribution by removing the toxic fluoridation process that costs millions . . . water should be a human right in this day and age.
the 5 or so mega banks get 80+ Billion dollars in Federal Reserve Aid for free essentially a month, but the average American cant even get 50$ worth of water.
Whats wrong with that picture? ^^.... its not like Heating or Electric where the energy actually has to come from somewhere, for the most part it costs trivial amounts to pump the water from point A to B. . . . yet somehow it costs us billions to pump digital ones and zeros into FDIC Member bank accounts each month.
Leave the cities, so that the battle lines are plain and obvious.
Start a riot, the water cannons will come out and you can catch that.