After a class action lawsuit filed against the city of Detroit, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund says that recent water shutoffs to Detroit residents were racially motivated.<\/p>\n
Veronica Joice with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund says, \u201cThat (the shutoffs are) being done in a discriminatory fashion; and they should at least take a look at whether there\u2019s a better way to do this that doesn\u2019t affect the most vulnerable citizens \u2014 the majority of whom are African American here in Detroit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attorney Alice Jennings, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Detroit residents, said it\u2019s a known fact that there are corporations that owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city of Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.
\n\u201cThese companies are basically Caucasian companies,\u201d Jennings said. \u201cThe folks who are being cut off are almost one hundred percent African American.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked by WWJ\u2019s Charlie Langton directly if this is a \u201cracial issue,\u201d Jennings replied: \u201cIt sure is! You bet it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department stopped service to about 7,200 homes and businesses in June, compared to 1,570 in the same month last year. Water was restored to 43 percent after customers paid or worked out payment plans.<\/p>\n
At a bankruptcy hearing Monday, federal Judge Steven Rhodes asked the city for an update on the water issue, but fell short of ordering any action.<\/p>\n
Talking to WWJ\u2019s Sandra McNeil shortly after the announcement, water department spokesman Greg Eno admitted there\u2019s no doubt that the department has been lax over the years, letting the bills pile up.<\/p>\n
He said people who now owe more than they can afford are being asked to come in and apply for assistance through the Water Affordability Program.<\/p>\n
Eno said, through, it\u2019s not just free money.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have, you know, a bottomless cup of funds,\u201d he said, adding that\u2019s why it\u2019s important that affected customers come in as soon as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a class action lawsuit filed against the city of Detroit, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund says that recent water shutoffs to Detroit residents were racially motivated. Veronica Joice with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund says, \u201cThat (the shutoffs are) being done in a discriminatory fashion; and they should at least take a look at … Continue reading “Detroit water shutoffs ‘racially’ motivated”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[2370,2335,2133,157,9277],"class_list":["post-14851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","tag-black-city","tag-detroit","tag-naacp","tag-racism","tag-water-bills"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14852,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14851\/revisions\/14852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}