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Flint residents warned they could face foreclosure over refusing to pay water bill

M

Malyse

Member
In the wake of the lead crisis, [activist Melissa] Mays and many other city residents refused to pay their water bills — which, at the time of the lead crisis, were the highest in the country — given that the water they were paying for was poisoned. The state had been subsidizing some people’s bills, but in March that financial support disappeared.


Then, the city started sending out shutoff notices, warning residents who weren’t paying their bills they would have their water cut off. Mays was one of the people who got such a letter last month, but she wasn’t deterred.

“I was like, ‘You know what, we’ll live off of bottled water, we’ll make this work,’” she said. She and her family were considering getting a cistern or rain barrel for their yard to get through. “Because nobody should pay for poison.”

On Friday, everything changed. She received a different letter from the city informing her that the state may soon put a tax lien on her house. If she doesn’t pay $819 of her water bill by May 19th, Michigan will begin the process of foreclosing on her.
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Mays isn’t the only one. While residents had been anticipating the shutoff notices, the tax lien letters showed up without any warning. Now, just over 8,000 residents who have received those notices have until February 28, 2018 to pay their bills in full to forestall the foreclosure process.

This could be a tough hurdle for many residents to clear. More than 40 percent of Flint’s population lives below the poverty line.
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https://thinkprogress.org/flint-water-bills-foreclosure-melissa-mays-3ef5b59bd50a
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
For Mays’ family, that has meant grappling with a number of serious health problems — including autoimmune disorders, kidney stones, and seizures — as well as financial costs such as buying three $500 hot water heaters when each one broke thanks to the chemicals and sediment in their pipes.
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Fuck
 
F

FStubbs

Member
Shiv47 said:
The state is run by Republican trash of the highest order, and Flint is poor and has a majority black population
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Didn't the governor run on a platform of "I hate black people"? This is his final solution to the problem.

Jeff Sessions would applaud him.
 
A

Arttemis

Member
Having just done a senior engineering design report on failing, 3rd world water infrastructure, it's shocking to see how much ours compares.

And people still want to build a wall?
 
P

Protein

Banned
If they bussed in white families, they would have Evian dispensers on every corner by next week. Hell, Ronald Reagan would appear in the sky and make it rain.
 
M

Mr Swine

Banned
Didn't Trump complain that Obama did nothing and now is doing the same thing? Horrible that this hasn't been fixed yet :/
 
V

Version 3.0

Member
$800 water bill? For how long? I think that's more than I pay in a year, and I live in Las Vegas. I wonder if a lot of that is late fees and such.

Their government needs to fix this. No one should have to pay their water bill when it's not potable water being provided. It's amazing that this continues to snowball even under national scrutiny.
 
J

Javaman

Member
Since when does a lean turn into foreclosure? It should only come into effect when you try to sell the house.
 
A

Adam_Vania

Banned
Shiv47 said:
The state is run by Republican trash of the highest order, and Flint is poor and has a majority black population
Click to expand...

the other side is no better. Clinton didn't bother going to Michigan during her campaign and in fact ordered a bus of volunteers on their way to go to Iowa instead because they already had the numbers
 
S

sturgboski

Member
Adam_Vania said:
the other side is no better. Clinton didn't bother going to Michigan during her campaign and in fact ordered a bus of volunteers on their way to go to Iowa instead because they already had the numbers
Click to expand...

That doesn't sound right at all. In fact didn't she visit, start an initiative and make a pledge for if she won?
 
W

WedgeX

Banned
Adam_Vania said:
the other side is no better. Clinton didn't bother going to Michigan and in fact ordered a bus of volunteers on their way to go to Iowa instead because they already had the numbers
Click to expand...

You wanna cite your sources? Is this satire?

wmL4lt3.jpg


http://nbc25news.com/news/local/gal...ddresses-crowd-about-the-water-crisis#photo-9

NBC said:
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton poses for a photograph at the House Of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016 in Flint, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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And Obama allocated 100% of what he was able to when the crisis happened. But Congress, and to be absolutely clear here I mean Congressional Republicans, dragged its heals for a solid year following that.
 
M

Malreyn

Member
this is incredibly stupid...if you foreclose everyone's homes because the water is too poisonous to drink to pay for it, who's gonna move in to replace them knowing the water is too poisonous to drink? they'll never get tax revenue and the town will go bankrupt.
 
G

GoldenEye 007

Member
Perfect plan all along! Poison the water, make people pay, take their house when they naturally refuse to pay for poison, whites I mean rich investors take over, flip them, BAM. New white GOP neighborhood!

Oh and the water lines fixed too of course.
 
D

dskillzhtown

keep your strippers out of my American football
Adam_Vania said:
the other side is no better. Clinton didn't bother going to Michigan during her campaign and in fact ordered a bus of volunteers on their way to go to Iowa instead because they already had the numbers
Click to expand...

That equates to making people pay for poisoned water or foreclosing on their house because they didn't pay a water bill? How does choosing where to deploy campaign resources even come close to that?
 
J

jon bones

hot hot hanuman-on-man action
Adam_Vania said:
the other side is no better. Clinton didn't bother going to Michigan during her campaign and in fact ordered a bus of volunteers on their way to go to Iowa instead because they already had the numbers
Click to expand...

you tryin to fake news us bro
 
J

Jmanunknown

Member
Adam_Vania said:
the other side is no better. Clinton didn't bother going to Michigan during her campaign and in fact ordered a bus of volunteers on their way to go to Iowa instead because they already had the numbers
Click to expand...

Do not pull this both sides bs when Republicans are actively not trying to fix the problems. Your just trying to deflect and its really sad because American citizens in the supposed greatest country on earth are being poisoned by their own water and the people in charge of helping them are actively trying not to help them.
 
G

Got

Banned
Adam_Vania said:
the other side is no better. Clinton didn't bother going to Michigan during her campaign and in fact ordered a bus of volunteers on their way to go to Iowa instead because they already had the numbers
Click to expand...

you're fucking ignorant as shit dude.

and you wallow in it like a pig in filth.

like, you actually stumbled and bumbled in here to proudly proclaim how fucking ignorant you are.

and then, you'll proceed to double down on it and act like we're wrong and you're right

and then, you'll proclaim there's nothing more to say and saunter out of the thread like you just got your dick sucked by all of us (oh no #fireColbert)

but really, you're just fucking ignorant.
 
J

jph139

Member
Simon Belmont said:
How is it possible that this hasn't been fixed yet?
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It's easy to blame the Republicans here (and they deserve the shit they're getting) but, end of the day, it's not easy to completely replace an entire city's water system. Even with A+ local government, they would still be years away from "fixed."

It's almost as if ignoring our infrastructure for decades was a bad idea?
 
G

geomon

Member
Refuse to pay for your poison and lose your house. Meanwhile the mayor and governor are doing just fine.
 
O

Ogodei

Member
The joke's on the state if they foreclose. Those houses are worthless now because of the damaged pipes (not so much in the houses themselves, but the neighborhoods and the pipes leading to the water main).
 
A

A Link to the Past

Banned
Adam_Vania said:
the other side is no better. Clinton didn't bother going to Michigan during her campaign and in fact ordered a bus of volunteers on their way to go to Iowa instead because they already had the numbers
Click to expand...

So let's get your sentiment straight

You: "the other side is no better"

So if your lie about Clinton not visiting was true, to you, ignoring Michigan is exactly as bad as giving children permanent disabilities

I think Clinton made plenty of mistakes, but it takes some real cognitive dissonance and a bad faith argument to come to that conclusion. You either want to score points against Democrats or you actually think that children's health is only as important as politics.
 
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