Michigan’s water crises have attracted national attention as residents in a state practically surrounded by water struggle to access it.
From lead-poisoned drinking water in Flint to the massive water utility shut-offs in Detroit, impoverished communities of color are bearing the brunt of discriminatory policies that effectively deny them their most basic of human needs.
What’s happening in Flint and Detroit could be cause for alarm across the nation. The installation of governor-appointed emergency managers, who supersede control of elected officials, exacerbates problems caused by austerity measures put in place, predominantly in African-American neighborhoods, following Detroit’s bankruptcy filing in 2013.
Detroit has the highest poverty rate among the 20 largest U.S. cities, at 35.7 percent. The national rate is 14 percent. Low incomes in combination with high water prices mean tens of thousands of households have their water shut off each year.
In the wake of problems facing African-American communities in Detroit, resident and lifelong activist Monica Lewis-Patrick has become a prominent voice. In 2008, Lewis-Patrick and four other African-American women co-founded We the People of Detroit, a nonprofit that informs and empowers residents on issues related to land, water, civil rights, education and the democratic process. It also delivers water to the doorsteps of those who cannot otherwise access it.
Lewis-Patrick will be in Portland on May 4 to sit on a panel with Cat Goughnour of the Right 2 Root campaign.
Organized by Portland-based nonprofit Recode, the panel will highlight the relationship between planning decisions, gentrification and displacement and how Portland can reduce wealth and infrastructure disparities. State and local-level elected officials and other interested parties, including members of the public, are expected to attend the free event from 6 to 8 p.m. at Humboldt Gardens.
Recode promotes sustainable and equitable water systems across Oregon, Washington and California. Its program manager, Maria Cahill, said the visit from Detroit’s “water warrior” is timely because planned upgrades to Portland’s water system will likely increase costs to ratepayers and therefore exacerbate displacement of marginalized communities in Portland.
Mayor Ted Wheeler’s proposed budget for Portland Water Bureau includes a rate hike of 8.9 percent toward the water portion of Portlanders’ water bill, which also includes sewer and storm water charges. While the water bureau has proposed an expansion of its assistance program, Cahill said that given the increased costs to Portlanders, she believes Portland should consider a tiered system of billing instead.
What Portland’s proposed water assistance expansion would do
In this system, households that use more than their allocated monthly amount of water pay higher rates to subsidize low-income ratepayers. Allocations are typically based on the number of people in the household and other factors.
In advance of her visit, Lewis-Patrick spoke to Street Roots about the situation in Detroit and why Portland should be paying attention.
Emily Green: First I wanted to give our readers a sense of the situation in Detroit, and I was hoping you could begin by talking about something Detroit residents refer to as “the blue line of shame.” Can you explain what that is?
Monica Lewis-Patrick: The blue line of shame in Detroit is where the water department, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, goes out to the homes that are in jeopardy of losing their water service and mark a very bold and large blue line in front of the house. Sometimes it’s just a singular line. Sometimes it’s an arrow pointing to the water shut off connection. What it does is it alerts the whole community that you’re in jeopardy of having your water shut off.
E.G.: We the People of Detroit, the nonprofit you are a CEO, president and co-founder of, did a mapping project that revealed the city was more aggressively shutting off water in African-American neighborhoods.
M.L.P.: That’s correct. They’re shutting off water systematically in particular neighborhoods where they want to clear out the population and bring in a new population. We did something called “Mapping the Water Crisis: The Dismantlement of African-American Neighborhoods in Detroit.” What we did was convene about 25 researchers that are experts in everything from GIS mapping to architecture to water infrastructure. Also, several of them had Ph.D.s in education, chemistry and physics. We convened them together to really be able to leverage their expertise because many times when they won’t believe the activists, they’ll believe the academics.
E.G.: Most people know if they don’t pay their utility bill, the utilities will eventually be shut off. That seems to be pretty universal in the U.S., but in Detroit, the U.N. actually got involved in the water shut-offs, and I believe you testified before the U.N. on this matter. What was it about the whole situation that made the U.N. deem the shut-offs to be a human rights violation?
M.L.P.: Well it’s a human rights violation because the vast majority of Detroiters are paying more than 10 percent of their income to access water.
Over the last 10 years, water rates have gone up over 126 percent. As a matter of fact, over the last 20 years, it’s gone up as much as 400 percent. In terms of the rate structure, it’s not equitable and it’s not fair. Detroit is bearing the burden of building out this system to 126 municipalities and townships. If they were spreading that across all 126 municipalities and townships, you would see a fair rate structure.
Right now, Detroit and Flint are the only municipalities in the 126 service areas that have these very aggressive water shut-off policies. Most of these cities have policies that say it doesn’t matter how much you owe; your water won’t be shut off. Then in a few other cities, they have policies that say you have up to two to three consecutive billing cycles. In those communities, billing cycles are anywhere from two to three months. So you could go almost a year without paying your water bill before you’re even threatened with a shut-off, whereas in Detroit and Flint, it’s 30 days.
There was research that was done by Michigan State University at the beginning of the year – I think it was released in the top of February – which states that 35 percent of America, by the year 2020, will not be able to afford their water. So for us, it’s about the human right to water. It’s not about free water, but it’s about a rate structure that is fair and equitable. And we believe that people should not be paying more than 3.5 percent of their income to access water.
E.G.: Do you see a connection between the water crisis in Flint and the water crisis in Detroit, and if so, can you explain that connection to our readers?
M.L.P.: Yes. The Flint water crisis and the Flint poisoning are deeply connected to the Detroit water shut-off. Both of those issues are driven by basically the bottom line: greed. You have the governor of the state of Michigan using his powers as the executive of the state under this very egregious law called Emergency Management Law, which is funded by the Cato Institute and the Koch Brothers, and 37 states have some form of this pre-emptive piece of legislation. A lot of times people don’t even know it. What it allows them to do is set aside democracy. It allows them to set aside elected officials. It allows them to close up union contracts. It allows them to sell off and skin off assets of municipalities and school systems without a vote of the people. It allows one person to act as dictator and king. What we found is that in the state of Michigan, it was reported on “The Rachel Maddow Show” that 53 percent of the African-American population of the state of Michigan has been under this austerity law.
FURTHER READING: The man who exposed Flint's lead-poisoned water
When you look at Detroit and Flint, both cities have an emergency manager. Both cities were advised by Veolia, which is one of the worst water management entities in the world, that Flint should drink poison water. They also advised Detroit that they should privatize their operations. Detroit at one point had a system that was managed by engineers and chemists and botanists and citizens, a very robust system. That system now has been reduced to no more than high school students. So the very water, life-giving system that half the state relies on now has substandard management and oversight of the very system that was once a world-class system. What happened in Detroit was, as they were rushing to seize the water department during the biggest contrived bankruptcy in the history of America, the largest asset was the water department, and Flint was the largest external customer to the water department. You had the city of Detroit offer Flint a water contract that would have actually saved Flint $80 million over the course of 10 years. But you have the governor and the use of this private company that is interested in privatizing water globally actually advise Flint to purchase and invest in building their own water system, which was KWA, the Karegnondi Water Authority. Well, that system was never intended to provide potable water. What it was intended to do was provide water for when the governor is out of office – he already has plans to create a parallel system for fracking!
When you look at what has played out in both Detroit and Flint, the communities have been driven deeper into debt. They have less power over their municipal governance. They have less say-so in terms of their assets, and both cities right now are suffering from either the lack of access to clean, safe and affordable water or the fact that Flint is being forced to pay for poison water. What is even more egregious than what I already said is the fact that if you don’t have running water in your household for 72 hours or more, you’re in jeopardy of losing custody of your children! They are threatening people if they can’t pay these enormous water rates, then they will lose their children. For poor folks, that’s the most valuable asset that you have is your children. It’s your hope; it’s your belief there will be a better day. In order to get people to move out of the city of Detroit. Because right now they are waging a comeback, but that comeback is happening on the backs of working and poor folk.
We’re sitting right now in the middle of a public health crisis. We have a hepatitis A epidemic. We have also had an uptick of cholera, an uptick of listeria. Some of these diseases are directly correlated with waterborne diseases. You have on top of that the fact that in Detroit, we have an older, concentrated population. Many of them are elders that deal with respiratory problems. You have a large population of children that are asthmatic, so many of them have breathing issues that require water and require cleaning.
There is a major issue around people being clinically dehydrated. We were the community from the grass roots that had to raise the question within the health system and Global Health Initiative to begin to even look at the correlation of the uptick of these infectious diseases and the fact the community didn’t have water. Of course they push back on that issue once we got the evidence because Henry Ford (Foundation) told us that they knew the data was correct, that they supported the actions we were taking, but they had $2.2 billion in contracts with Mayor (Mike) Duggan and the city of Detroit, and the mayor has a reputation of being very vindictive, and they were worried that he would close those contracts if they stepped out with us and made this information public.
E.G.: Last week, free bottled water for Flint was discontinued, with the state citing two years of test results showing the water is now safe, but the mayor of Flint is threatening to sue over the cutoff. This is the narrative we’re getting in the national news. What do you see as being the issue on the ground there? Is the water safe, and is this becoming an issue of affordability as much as it is about lead poisoning?
M.L.P.: It’s both. It’s affordability and it’s poisoning. It’s not just lead and contaminants in the water; there’s also other toxins. There’s phosphates. There are bacteria issues. So what you have is the very person that had come into the community, Marc Edwards, as an ally and an advocate for the people is actually now on the payroll of the governor. So we believe he’s been bought and paid for at this point, so therefore the community can no longer trust his independent opinion. I believe the mayor is right on point with the position he is taking, which is to pursue litigation, because the governor is in his last year of his second term and his position is, he wants to be able to take a victory lap, if you will. So part of that victory lap would be impeded with the narrative that Flint is still having to consume bottled water. So what better way to make that narrative go away than to make the bottled water go away. What we know on the ground is my organization, one of the first organizations to deliver water relief to Flint. We have continued to support water relief to Flint. We will not stop until there is a restoration of water relief to Flint.
E.G.: I read that We the People delivered more than 125 tons of safe, drinkable water to the residents of Detroit and Flint in 2015. Can you tell me a little bit more about your organization and how you’re able to do this?
M.L.P.: My organization was founded in 2008 by myself and four other women. Each of those women has an incredible resume in their own right, but at the time, we were just fighting for our children to have the right to quality public education. At that point, the mayor was wanting to take over control of the Detroit public schools. We organized for five weeks, showed up with our children; we resisted that austerity and were successful.
Little did we know that was just part of the canary in the mine of what else they had in store for us. Over 80 percent of the bankruptcy was on the back of pensioners. We had no idea this was really a large scheme to take over and gentrify land and to also take control over the largest asset and one of the most key assets of North America because Detroit sits on international waters. Also, 23 percent of commerce that comes into the country comes in by way of Detroit. Knowing those dynamics, we knew that we were in the crosshairs of big business and the oligarchs in terms of seizing control of our entire city. Out of that work, my business partner and I, who is also another founder of We the People of Detroit, we begin to work on policy work for what I consider one of the greatest legislators of the history of Detroit, the honorable council member JoAnn Watson, and out of that work there was a rude awakening about what people were being told and what was really happening.
You had key cursors acting as the mayor and a City Council that was working in concert with big business to give away these assets. We begin, that day, working on our behalf to support her pushback against emergency management. At night we were organizing, on our free time, with other community activists to build community power to resist it. In 2013, a community activist, Charity Hicks, was arrested for just knocking on the door of her neighbors and friends to tell them there was imminent danger of having their water cut off. She was arrested and actually jailed.
For me, being a black woman and a mother, it became a personal assault on black women and on black families. We organized ourselves in about three or four days. I had past experience around emergency response. I headed up an eight-county emergency response team for children who were having psychiatric emergencies. We took that model and flipped it over to providing emergency water.
Out of that, we quickly learned how big and massive this city is; it’s over 139 square miles, the transportation being very compromised. We figured out that we not only needed to make sure we were creating water spaces for people to pick up water but then recognize the aging population and some of the transportation challenges. We then created what we call “water droppers.” These were people that delivered water to persons that are homebound, sick, or people that may not have transportation or may have several children and find it difficult to get to a water station.
Out of that work, we recognized people were questioning the quality of the water, so then we partnered with Michigan State University and did a project that we just finished the second leg of in November to test the quality of water in Detroit because we’d been told by the EPA that water could be tested anywhere in the state of Michigan but Detroit. That sends a message to grass roots that there definitely has to be something wrong if you can test water anywhere in the state of Michigan but Detroit, being that that’s the largest city in Michigan.
The third thing that we found was, we convened our own table of community-based researchers, and we had some of the top experts across the country, 67 of them in total; they represented all kinds of institutions of higher learning that are convened under our jurisdiction, so anything created in collaboration with them is already controlled by the community and, of course, We The People of Detroit. We hold this data on behalf of the community.
There’s been over 100,000 persons shut off from water. We have litigated against the city eight times now, and we have won each of those pieces of litigation. The water department continues to redact information, which causes us to have to continue to pursue more litigation. We were involved in another action where there’s been over 100,000 households illegally foreclosed on, which is another tactic to force people out of the city. Many of these persons are low-income persons, but they are paying as much as 80 to 90 percent above the market rate for what they should be paying for their taxes.
It’s these kind of measures along with the fact the high rate of water has been used as another weapon to place that debt on top of the tax laws, which creates a situation for low-income people that makes it unbearable because it makes it where their taxes are not affordable, and then on top of that, the unaffordability of water, which is causing them to be indebted, which then causes them to lose their property. As many of the households that we analyzed in 2015 that went into foreclosure, the majority of those owed approximately $1,900 in debt, and many of their homes sold for $16,000 to $18,000 per household, but dollars that were intended through the stimulus package to keep Detroiters in their homes should’ve paid back-water bills and back-taxes. It is now being levied to entice a younger, whiter population to move into the city. You won’t give me, a resident, who has stayed and paid in this city assistance to stay in the city, many times needing less than $2,000, but then you’ll provide $20,000 to $80,000 for another person to move into the city that is actually coming in as a new resident.
E.G.: You’re coming to Portland to talk about the situation in Detroit. Why should what is happening in Michigan matter to Portlanders? What can we learn from your experiences?
M.L.P.: Hopefully what Portland will learn is that we’re sort of the canary in the mine for other communities that we believe are going to fall prey to this kind of austerity. We actually knew in 2013 that Puerto Rico was going to be next.
Many of the same players that are a part of what happened in Detroit – everybody from the DeVos family, who is deeply benefiting from the charterizing of public education – they’re a part of privatizing water, also privatizing transportation, large airports; they’re also a part of privatizing trash collection. We believe these players need to be called out and identified. The second-largest law firm in the world has been a major actor in representing the banks that are benefiting from this austerity. There is an article called “The New Water Barons” (globalresearch.ca), and what you’ll find in that article is many of the banks that were protected during the bankrupting of Detroit are the same banks that are buying up the aqua fillers around the globe.
What I am hoping we can show is that not only some of the information and the wisdom we’ve learned over the course of this struggle but also that we can begin to look for solutions in terms of how to unite our struggles so we are not continuing to fall prey to these kind of austerity measures so we are beginning to build collective power across the nation and hopefully eventually around the world.
We believe that people should come first. We know that water is a human right. We also know people must fight for that right.
Kaitlyn Dey, Street Roots social work intern, provided the transcription of this interview.
IF YOU GO
What: Going Beyond the Flint Water & Housing Crises: Community-led Solutions for Equitable Systems with Monica Lewis-Patrick and Cat Goughnour
When: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 4
Where: Humboldt Gardens Community Room, 5033 N Vancouver Ave., Portland
Register: Online at Eventbrite; admission is free
Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots