U.N. Comes to Detroit on Water-Sanitation and Housing Crises

Detroit is in the midst massive water shutoffs, sanitation health concerns and large-scale tax & bank foreclosures tied to widespread homelessness. These grave problems have drawn international concerns about the crises affecting low income and poor people in Detroit. Victims of poverty across the state of Michigan are losing their very right to live. We have sought help from all levels of government, non-profit organizations and the private sector but no one has stepped forward to stop these violations on the human right to water, sanitation and housing.

It is abominable that government officials and the courts have allowed banks and corporations to dictate whether people can or cannot have affordable water in their homes, and keep a roof over the heads of children! Public resources that are intended to support programs for low income people are regularly diverted to investment programs for private profit instead of public good.

Along with the Detroit People's Water Board and Food and Water Watch, MWRO has asked the United Nations Office of Human Rights to hear testimonials from residents, and receive evidence of violations from advocates and groups on these human rights atrocities.

Please come to United Nations Detroit Fact Finding Public Town Hall Meeting on Sunday, October 19, 2014 from 4-6 p.m. (doors open at 3:00 p.m.), at Wayne County Community College District, 1001 W. Fort St, Detroit, MI 48226. For more info9rmation, contact MWRO at (313) 964-0618 or info@mwror.org Spread the word!

Fighting for "Housing Is a Human Right"

It's Winter again and every year we know temperatures are going to go below the freezing point. If you're homeless or living in poverty, there's no way to escape the cold and protect yourself from the pain of freezing wind on your skin without shelter.

Yet, across the country, thousands of cities and municipalities are tearing down thousands of low-income affordable housing units (aka public housing) in favor of mixed income housing. The problem is if you have no income or chance of a living wage job (like thousands of people in Detroit),  and you've been drastically time-limited off of public assistance (like Gov. Snyder has done to thousands of families across Michigan), what are your housing options?

These are questions MWRO and the Housing is a Human Rights Coalition discuss on a daily basis. You ask, but aren't there places where low income people (under 62 years old) can get housing assistance and take shelter?

Detroit Shelter. Photo courtesy: VoiceOfDetroit.net

• Forget the homeless shelters, they're full and oftentimes not safe spaces for children.
• Forget Section 8, the wait list (if you can get on one) is 2-4 years long.
• Forget HUD public housing projects, thousands of units are torn down annually and those that get saved are converted to senior housing apartments.
• Forget privately managed apartment buildings, they require credit checks, large deposits, first and last month rents, steady income, silent children and babies -- oh, yeah...and a pint of blood.

In fact, more people are being displaced from Detroit affordable housing as we post this:  Developers, HUD, Non-Profits Collude To Move Detroit Seniors, Disabled Out Of Downtown Griswold Apts.

In Detroit and across the state of Michigan millions of dollars in federal housing assistance aid come through (like the Step Forward Program) to help families prevent foreclosure and to keep homeless shelters running. These are surely needed funds.

But what we also need are programs and policies to rebuild good housing stock in Detroit -- not tear it down -- specifically for LOW INCOME families. At this time there are no public officials, private developers, non-profit organizations or housing authorities addressing this critical need.

MWRO and HHRC are working with local residents and officials to educate the community on this dire situation and build solutions. We invite you to learn more about this on the HHRC website.

To sign up for our next set of housing workshops, call MWRO at (313) 964-0618.

Obama Administration and Detroit Housing Needs

Obama Administration officials are coming to Detroit next week to discuss how to leverage existing federal funds to help the boost the city. This, like all previous meetings, is by invite only. We're told that community leaders, non-profit leaders and business leaders will meet with Gov. Snyder, Mayor Bing and dictator Orr.

Nowhere in these meetings has there been an invitation to the real leaders of Detroit -- its residents! Detroiters who live day-in and day-out with the consequences of emergency manager dictatorship, corruption, broken city services and meager resources for primary and secondary education have never been invited to provide their input on the changes that should be made here or where federal dollars should be (re)directed.

If they want to know what low-income residents of Detroit want, here's a partial list:

• Sell City-owned houses to low-income Detroiters for $50 without delay toward a goal of reducing homelessness. These houses are ready and available now and there is nowhere near enough public housing units or subsidies available for the vast need of low-income residents.

• Assist these new homeowners with acquiring Community Development Block Grant funds (from HUD) to repair these homes for families and neighborhoods.

• Provide training funds from non-profit foundations and businesses to low-income Detroiters for construction, plumbing, electrical, roofing and HVAC skills to repair these homes, thereby, creating new job opportunities.

• Increase SNAP and child care benefits to low-income people in Detroit so that parents can focus on home repair and skills-training work.

• Purchase plots of land for community organizations and block clubs to establish more community gardens for organic produce and food sustainability education.

• Distribute much needed funding to the Detroit Department of Transportation so that buses across the City -- of which low-income Detroiters desperately rely upon -- can increase service and get people to these home rebuilding projects, school and work.

Over 60% of the children in Detroit live in poverty. There's no better way to raise them out of that than by helping their parents acquire the stability they need in housing. It's unfathomable and unsustainable for a family to pay over 50% of its limited income toward rent. Yet, everyday thousands of low-income families across Detroit move from apartment to shelter to couch to car to street with no public official blinking an eye about this.

If federal, state and local officials want to be part of the solution for Detroit's economic crisis, get out of the way and stop being part of the problem!

Photo by MWRO.

Learn How to Bid on a Detroit House

If you live in Detroit, you know that there is at least one abandoned house on every block. Sure, a whole bunch of these need to be torn down as nothing can be done with them but many others are salvageable and livable. In fact, The City of Detroit's Planning and Development Department owns nearly 40,000 houses -- most of which have been turned over from non-bids through Wayne County's Tax Foreclosure process -- that are part of this housing stock.

While local shock-and-awe news outlets would have you think that no one wants to live in Detroit, the truth is there are many people already living haphazardly in Detroit who need a place of their own. The shelters are full, families are doubling up, and kids are moving from couches to cars as low income families try to stay warm and safe.

How can it be that Detroit has both thousands of abandoned houses and thousands of homeless families?

We can't sit idly by and witness these human rights violations. If you or a family you know wants to learn how to bid on a city-owned home, come to one of two MWRO House Bid Workshops: Wed, Sep. 11 at 6pm or Tue, Sep. 24 at 6pm. You must pre-register by calling the MWRO office at (313) 964-0618.

We will discuss the current and explain how the process works. But know this: biding and owning one of these homes will take a LOT of work! This is not for the faint of heart or for someone who thinks s/he can star on a television episode of "Flip This House." Come to learn, come to win this fight!

Photo from National Resource Defense Council.

Press Release on Detroit Housing Takeover Discussion

The Housing Is a Human Right Coalition is presenting to the Detroit City Council today at 1:00 p.m. its work to move homeless families into abandoned bank- and government-owned houses. The community is invited to this discussion on addressing the need for safe, affordable housing for homeless veterans, women and children; and improving the security and quality of neighborhoods across Detroit.

Maureen Taylor, MWRO State Chair, will lead the Coalition's presentation, including a history of the increasing homeless crisis in Detroit and the significant potential for addressing the economic and social costs through the City of Detroit's Nuisance Abatement ordinance.

For additional information, contact the Housing Is a Human Right Coalition through the MWRO office at (313) 964-0618.

Activists Help Foreclosed Families Retake Homes

In November 2008, the MWRO blog discussed the federal and local governments approach to the Detroit foreclosure crisis: bailing out banks, evicting families from their homes, and then demolishing good homes to make way for gentrified neighborhoods and more strip malls! In this story, we learn more about how comrades and other housing activists are helping families keep a roof over their head in foreclosed homes, instead of overcrowded shelters or on the street!

Excerpt reposted from the New York Times. Read the full story, "More Squatters Are Calling Foreclosures Home."

...In Minnesota, a group called the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign recently moved families into 13 empty homes; in Philadelphia, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union maintains seven “human rights houses” shared by 13 families. Cheri Honkala, who is the national organizer for the Minnesota group and was homeless herself once, likened the group’s work to “a modern-day underground railroad,” and said squatters could last up to a year in a house before eviction.

Other groups, including Women in Transition in Louisville, Ky., are looking for properties to occupy, especially as they become frustrated with the lack of affordable housing and the oversupply of empty homes.

Anita Beaty, executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, said her group had been looking into asking banks to give them abandoned buildings to renovate and occupy legally. Ms. Honkala, who was a squatter in the 1980s, said the biggest difference now was that the neighbors were often more supportive. “People who used to say, ‘That’s breaking the law,’ now that they’re living on a block with three or four empty houses, they’re very interested in helping out, bringing over mattresses or food for the families,” she said....

(Image courtesy of the New York Times)

Homelessness: "America's Youngest Outcasts"

Yesterday's national story reporting that 1 in 50 children in America are homeless raises, again, our concerns about how much the current financial bailout plans will help low-income and poor families. “Children without homes are on the frontline of the nation’s economic crisis. These numbers will grow as home foreclosures continue to rise,” said Ellen L. Bassuk, M.D., president of the National Center on Family Homelessness.

The report concludes that states with the highest number of homeless children are: TX, CA, LA, GA, and FL. When the numbers are examined along with children's health problems, the worst performing states are: TX, GA, AR, NM, and LA. Moreover, one-third of the nation's homeless population are families with children. It's also believed that "the current home foreclosure crisis will be adding a new demographic to these statistics: middle-class blacks and Latinos" who were previously stable until pieces of their life--jobs, health, home--continued to break away.

In this report, Michigan ranks 29th overall among America's Youngest Outcasts for (1) Extent of Child Homelessness, (2) Child Well-being, (3) Risk for Child Homelessness, and (4) State Policy and Planning Efforts. However, it ranks 36th for Risk for Child Homelessness, and 38th for Child Well-Being (with 1 being best, 50 being worst).

In the first half of 2006, the Baseline Data Report on the state of Michigan’s Homeless (pdf) found that 56% of homeless persons in families were children, most under the age of 10. Poverty continues to be the greatest cause of homelessness for families.

President Obama has allocated $1.5 billion in stimulus funds to help with homeless prevention funds. Through state governments, families and individuals will be able to apply for short-term mortgage and rental assistance, including help with security deposits and utilities. This is helpful but it's not enough!

The Michigan economy is the worst in the nation! Homeless individuals and poor families are on the edge of survival. With massive housing foreclosures and evictions, large social service cuts, and no job prospects in Michigan, we must do more as a people to help our most vulnerable members of society. Push your elected officials and business leaders to allocate more funding to low-income and poor people's needs. "Bail out the people, not the banks!"

(Image from National Center of Family Homelessness)

Foreclosed Property Renters Facing Homelessness

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) released two reports today about the increasing homelessness of renters in foreclosed properties. They have compiled data on all 50 states and DC and found that 40% of all families facing foreclosure due to eviction are renters.

They point out that state laws vary greatly and are complex when it comes to renters and foreclosures. Renters have little protection and may be evicted with little or no notice, if a landlord loses the renter's home.

Among major findings of Without Just Cause, a 110-page report prepared by NLCHP in collaboration with the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) are:

* Only 33% of States (17 States) require any type of notice to tenants.
* Only 29% of States (14 and DC) require a judicial process for foreclosure.
* In several states (e.g. FL, IO, WI, NY, OH) tenants may remain only if they are not named in the foreclosure proceeding.
* Only 2% of States (NJ and DC) explicitly preserve tenants' rights in the lease after foreclosure.

The second report, An Ounce of Prevention, highlights homelessness prevention programs in 25 states.

In Michigan, the Without Just Cause report states:

Eviction Process
Notice must be provided, “Notice to Quit / Termination of Tenancy”, giving tenant 30 days to vacate. Tenant is then entitled to a hearing; if tenant does not vacate at end of 30 days, tenant must be served with summons and complaint. If the landlord prevails at the hearing, then the tenant must move within 10 days. If the tenant does not move, a writ of restitution can be issued, which provides for immediate physical eviction (no notice).

Eviction Timeframe
4-6 weeks from date tenant receives Notice to Quit to day sheriff physical evicts tenants.

In addition, State Senator Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit) has introduced a bill that would stop all mortgage foreclosures and evictions for 2 years. Please contact your elected representatives to safeguard the homes of renters and homeowners!

Seniors and the poor freeze to death in a country gone awry!

Dying a slow, painful, horrible death, a Bay City, Michigan, elderly man was discovered January 17th frozen to death in his home. It happened a few days after the local utility company, Bay City Electric Light & Power installed a "limiter"--which limits the flow of electricity--outside his home for failing to pay his electric bill but neglected to show the senior citizen how it worked. Neighbors found the war veteran alone and wrapped in several layers of clothing in his bed.

Further south in Detroit, another man was found frozen solid in an abandoned warehouse. It took two days after the initial reporting for firefighters to show up and saw the man out of the ice. Authorities say he may have been there several months. And across town, scrap metal hunters found a 67 year old man sitting frozen in the front seat of his pickup truck. It's suspected that he may have suffered a heart attack. The door was wide open and he was covered in snow.

What in the world is going on?!

Senior citizens and poor people dying all around us in the bitter cold. It's no surprise that every winter snow and freezing temperatures are going to make it difficult to stay warm. But it's also everyone's responsibility to look after their neighbor, and to stop ignoring other vulnerable people in our neighborhoods and near our jobs.

It's unconscionable that it takes days for us to notice that something may be wrong with our neighbors. Why didn't someone check out sooner the man who regularly sits in his chair by the window? Why didn't neighbors go see why that pickup truck door was open day and night?

It's justifiably right to blame the utility companies for shutoffs, hospitals and clinics for lack of affordable access, and city officials for lack of low-income housing, but what about us? What are we responsible for?

It seems at minimum, we have a responsibility to check on and assist as best we can the vulnerable people around us: the seniors who live next door, the poor women and children across the street, the homeless man on the way to work. Yes, times are hard for all of us but they're harder still for others.

The latest ice storm in the midwestern and eastern states may prevent electricity restoration until mid February. Let's start figuring out what we can do to prevent the loss of anymore precious lives.

(Image from Associated Press)

Eight Years of Hell Come to an End!

By Maureen D. Taylor, MWRO State Chair

Last week, my friend, confidant and great poet Ron Allen and I talked about the "State of the State." I miss Ron who relocated out of the state because, among many other things, he was my dance partner when we would accidentally meet up at this grocery or that department store. Many a time, some Temptation tune or some Bee Gees classic would be blaring out overhead, and we would take off on a serious Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers ballroom dance step or two to the amazement of store on-lookers who always had a smile at our antics.

Ran and I spoke about how silly so many people are who ascribe to our new President's powers as if he was Superman. He is but one human being. As wonderful as we all feel about his being the President and that he has opened the door for us to do great things with him, it is both unfair and unrealistic for people to assume that he will correct all mistakes or reverse all policies.

Whose task is it to work at eliminating poverty across the country? OURS! Whose task is it to help Federal funds get directed to chronically low income persons so that those on the bottom can be encouraged and employed? OURS! Whose task is it to take control of what projects need be instituted in places like Detroit with 50% unemployment in black communities, 60% unemployment in Latino communities, 70% unemployment among Native Americans, and 75% unemployment among youth? OURS!

There is much work to be done in America, as Ron and I discussed. The soul of poetry and cultural creation has been gutted by 8 years of "mob-rule." How long will it take to repair the damage done by the Bush/Cheney Mob? Probably decades. But what matters is that we have to start the process of change now.

We are standing at a crossroad. We all have freedom, or no one does. We all have food to eat, or no one does. We all have places to live, or no one does. Technology has reached a point where there is no need for ANYONE to be hungry, homeless, without health care, uneducated, or without the means to pursue happiness and full equality.

Bush is gone, and a breath of fresh air has moved into the White House. Rush Limbaugh is having a case of the vapors, and the right wing is in absolute misery. So this is the time for us to put our best foot forward and get busy. All help and support must be directed to those at the bottom because to help them means lifting all ships. Low income people and Welfare mothers - let's give 'em something to talk about.

(Photo courtesy: Flickr Creative Commons)

“Capitalism vs Democracy”

‘Cipients Speak! December 2008
by Maureen D. Taylor, MWRO State Chair

As we come to the end of the year, MWRO sends out greetings to our members across the state and to the welfare rights members across the country, the front-line fighters. Don’t get weary now! The American worker is looking at this collapse of an economy that we have all grown up under, and many questions abound.

Most of our lives, we have equated capitalism with democracy. People have the right to make money at the expense of someone else. Lights, gas, water – all natural resources have been privatized as corporations make millions at the hands of our suffering, and we are taught that this is the “American way.”

Retirees put their trust in these same corporations, and allowed these snakes to invest their pensions in stock market ventures, and now that their precious dollars are gone, the message is, “too bad!” We have seniors living well below the poverty level, juggling decisions to pay bills or pay for prescriptions, and we are okay with that?

Veterans who served honorably are living in homeless shelters, and we are okay with that? Southern congressional officials are demanding that northern workers accept the no-benefit salaries paid to non-union workers, and we are okay with that?

Capitalism doesn’t mean democracy, it equals terrorism.

The door is open to start rebuilding the country based on a new standard of living. Welfare Rights supports a guaranteed annual income for those unable to secure employment that maintains a level of existence well above poverty. If we can spend $10B per month over eight years for wars, we can keep people fed, clothed, and out of harms way.

The technology exists today to feed folk, to build cars that run on vegetable oil, to build affordable homes, to provide healthcare, and to make America closer to the dream that it was built on. We have to construct a new point of view that emphasizes that the needs of the many are more important than the needs of the few. Thank you, Mr. Spock! Happy Holidays to All!

Families, Children And Elders In Poverty Ask Congress For A $1 Billion Bailout

[reposted from
People's Tribune]

By Poor News Network

“Thousands of families, children, and elders in poverty are barely subsisting in this country, while thousands of others are struggling to stay housed after having their houses foreclosed on. If we were given even $1 billion of the $700 billion bailout being offered to corporations, we could bring hundreds of families permanently out of poverty,” said Lisa Gray-Garcia, author of Criminal of Poverty, Growing Up homeless in America and co-founder of POOR Magazine and PoorNewsNetwork.

Lisa and many other very low-income and poor families, youth, and elders publicly released this plea to Congress recently to reconsider the $700 billion bailout and consider giving at least $1 billion to families, youth and elders in poverty.
“Why is it that so many of us are struggling to survive on less than $5,000 a year and congress is considering bailing out these multi-million dollar corporations?” asked Vivien Hain, unemployed mother of three struggling with poverty.

“As poor people we have created solutions to poverty such as permanent housing based on a sweat equity model, all it would take to launch is $1 million!” said Michael Crutchfield , unemployed father of two.

As Congress decides on this extremely expensive bailout, poor people across the nation watch in disbelief. Shelters are closing, state budgets are being slashed, services for the poor are being closed and people’s homes are being lost to foreclosures.
“When poor people ask for help, we are called bums, stupid, lazy and blamed for what got us into poverty. When these high profile panhandlers ask for money they are given $700 billion”, concluded Lisa Gray-Garcia in the statement to Congress.

Poor News Network
Resisting Poverty Through Media, Education and Art
Image: Tony Robles and Tiny at POOR Magazine’s Take Back the Land Ceremony/Eviction Protest in San Francisco. PHOTO/POORMAGAZINE.ORG