Water Statement to Michigan Rep Chang

MWRO/WATER STATEMENT

To: Rep. Stephanie Chang

From: Maureen D Taylor, MSW

Re: Status Report on Accessibility


Rep. Chang;

As the State Chairperson of the MI Welfare Rights Organization, know that we are humbled to present these words that outline our collective feelings on this sensitive and critical issue as thousands of residential customers in Detroit face new rounds of water shutoffs.

I am reminded that in the Lansing State Capitol, stands a bronze statue of a seven-year old Helen Keller, blind at birth, memorializing the moment of her historical enlightenment.  Her teacher, Ann Sullivan, and this story made famous in the Oscar winning movie, “The Miracle Worker” was trying to convey the essence of what words meant to a child born without hearing or sight. The bronze statue captures that moment as Helen put her hands under the pump while her teacher, Ms. Sullivan, used hand-to-hand sign language and spelled out the word…  W-A-T-E-R…to her.  Helen finally understood the relationship between the word and what that word represented.

June 1st marks the day the great Helen Keller passed away, so it is ironic that in June of this year, we are celebrating not an age of enlightenment, but instead we are a witness to a period of human darkness that will stain this State for years.

It is not necessary to recant the economic climate that residents of Michigan have been struggling through since the recession of 2005 and beyond.  Entire cities and communities scattered across the State continue to reel from the loss of financial foundations built by so many years of fruitful employment. In the US Census of 2010, it was reported that MI was the only state to have loss significant population.  In Detroit, we know this fact all too well, as do all elected officials that purport to represent the residents.

Over one million residents from just Detroit have left this City leaving us with just under 800,000 to fill the void created by such a dramatic population decline.  Factories that were the back-bone of financial stability for millions of families have been slowly phased out. Computers are taking the place of the American working class, and that trend is best seen here in Detroit and in surrounding factory-based counties. Technology that used to enhance labor, today has replaced labor leaving in its wake the skeleton of what was in neighborhoods all over Wayne County. 

We are slipping into the dark-side, shoved into this draconian condition marked by a false and divisive narrative, which covertly suggests Detroiters have resources but because of our criminal leanings, we don’t want to pay water bills. Poverty is being criminalized as the poor are held responsible for not having enough money to pay rising utility costs.  The economics of the low-income family profile is completely overlooked. Consequently, we learn nothing from past
civil uprisings, or the current uprisings in Cities across the country.    

Our calls for relief are mostly ignored. Our tears go unnoticed, and our prayers have been unanswered. We have hope, and try to hold on, but this latest assault against the most vulnerable is galvanizing a response that know one here wants to anticipate.

Welfare Rights and the Peoples Water Board have fought tooth and nail over these last 16 months, in every way possible to convince the City of Detroit Water and Sewerage Dept. that the path they had chosen was both wrong and not cost-effective. We have tirelessly offered solution after solution to this crisis demanding that a Water Affordability Plan be instituted, even if it is implemented at first as a pilot project to be tested.  Always the answer is “NO”, so we find ourselves again in this painful gap of pending defiance and civil unrest as we are unable to do anything but stop this by any means necessary.

We urge our elected officials to review this crisis and that they put the issue of mass water shutoffs at the top of the list as the deadline for continued tolerance approaches.  As MWRO is the recognized union for low-income families, we cannot turn from this struggle.  If our colleagues from the UNITED NATIONS are correct in that the US of America cannot deprive low-income populations of access to clean water and sanitation, we will then pursue the path of litigation as we seek to file suit against this violation of international law.

We will not stop there.  We will press you to create legislation that outlaws such practices now and forever.  We will not stop there.  We will demonstrate, we will picket, we will agitate, we will interfere with business as usual everywhere we can in an effort to erase forever the notion that water is a commodity to be bought and sold.  Access to water is a human right, and must always be held as a common trust never to be denied because people are too poor.  Shame on those who created this concept, and shame on us if we allow this “cancer” to exist without an all out battle against it.

Maureen D Taylor
State Chairperson

MWRO Statement on UN visit to Detroit to investigate massive water shutoffs--Part 1

This is the first of a two-part statement from MWRO on the United Nations visit to Detroit by two Special Rapporteurs on Detroit water shutoffs.

On Oct. 20th, 2014, United Nations representatives Catarina de Albuquerque and Leilani Farha met with Mayor Mike Duggan and part of his staff to discuss the recent mass water shutoffs plaguing Detroit.

U.N. Special Rapporteurs. Photo credit: theguardian.com

The meeting was very frank and at times contentious with the Special Rapporteurs (SR) asking questions based on citizen/resident reports they had received from what they refer to as “civil society” organizations and direct visits to residential homes. The premise of the meeting was itself historic in that this was a session to discuss best practices, shared by the SRs, relative to how decreasing revenues might impact water access, distribution and sanitation specifically in low-income households. The two special investigators have amassed a myriad of expertise over the years after visiting many countries that have faced dwindling economies and transient populations.

Amid a flurry of “denials” and veiled attempts to discredit the intention(s) of these two specialists, the SRs continued to press for answers about recent water shutoffs. The session went back and forth until Mayor Duggan stepped up and suggested he would be interested in receiving detailed information about any current residents without water. The Mayor placed a call at the suggestion of the MWRO rep to the phone center and was able to get right through to someone without a long wait. This single act proved the City’s case that new practices are being put in place to address resident complaints — the problem is that these procedures aren’t reaching the poorest and most vulnerable residents. Long waits on the phone to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Dept. have been a frequent complaint and we hope, at least in this instance, progress is being made. In the end, what was suggested is that specific account information would be needed to examine any claims of denied water and the City would look into each case that was submitted.

Detroit Mayor Duggan with Alexis Wiley. Photo credit: clickondetroit.com

Since that historic session, several things have occurred. The City has issued statements that paint the Special Rapporteur’s visit as “nothing but a show.” One city employee, Alexis Wiley, the Mayor’s chief of staff, labeled their initial report as “sad” suggesting they were following a separate agenda that did not reflect the truth about water shutoffs in Detroit. Another City employee suggested that information gathered by talking with a few residents did not rise to actual truth, and that only through talks with the City were facts able to be put forward. Residential interpretations were not credible, in other words, and were not to be validated. There are none so blind than those who refuse to see!

In 2005, 2006, and 2007 — the Water Affordability Plan was submitted to the DWSD after is was tweaked and then accepted by the City Council and the then Mayor. Always, it is said there are legal reasons why this wonderfully crafted document can’t be implemented. And always when we ask, “Why not?” no credible answers are shared. The corporate interests that have lined up in great anticipation of receiving mega-infusions of cash is the logical place to search for the financial support needed to help shore up the City. Revenue sharing, unpaid commercial and corporate water accounts, so many places to look for untapped resources yet the then Emergency Manager’s only goal, it appears, was to inflict economic and physical pain on the most marginalized, most vulnerable, the poorest.

Over and over again, the City has suggested that those unable to find resources to help prevent shutoff or restore water already shut off were not truthful or that they were too dumb to find simple information. The old, tired, “people want free water” message was dragged out, a phrase that is repeated even though no one ever asked for that. It was revealed that the City has always practiced water shutoffs, and that was an established practice never before challenged. It was admitted that some 300,000 water shutoffs have happened over a period of years, a fact the City was not ashamed to admit. Must have felt the same rage and shock like those in the room in Nuremberg during that trial, listening to soldiers talking about how they were just following orders....

Shutting off water in Detroit. Photo credit: detroitnews.com

The Special Rapporteurs’ questions and the session ended in about 90 minutes, after which they traveled back to their hotel to prepare the press release for the media. Their specific UN conclusions are online, which include a strong recommendation that all residential water accounts be restored, which allows the City to investigate each address to determine if there are low-income families with children, the disabled, the elderly, or veterans living there who need supportive programs that structure payments they can afford. There are other recommendations the SRs offered, that have been published far and wide that address other ways of managing delinquent water payments that other nations routinely employ.

In closing, MWRO agrees with the basic, fundamental conclusion offered by our international guests. Because the population of Detroit has dropped, because the unemployment numbers have risen, because the good paying auto-industrial jobs have disappeared, and because many of the jobs available today are low-paying, the City still has a legal obligation to supply clean water and sanitation to all — even if only one resident is left! It is in fact a violation of international law to deprive residents of water if they are too poor to pay in the regular way. Ms. de Albuquerque and Ms. Farha were not daunted by Mayor Duggan and his staffs comments. Clearly, they don’t understand the UN reps’ mission.

This is not a popularity contest that is directed by who we like and who we don’t. It is patently wrong to disconnect water where low-income people live, and no amount of “American Exceptionalism” can alter that fact. There are millions of poor Americans who live in horrible conditions that are ignored daily while we act as if all is well; and Detroit has a large share of those families.

The responses coming from the City are at best shallow, defensive, ignorant, and at least, devoid of compassion. What kind of city is this and what kind of people are in charge who would countenance such demonic practices? Are our elected officials so drunk with power that they would choose not to find a way to keep the poorest residents safe and clean? Why didn’t someone in city government stand up when the emergency manager made this life-threatening recommendation and scream to the highest star how wrong it is and that as duly-elected officials, you would not force-march masses of Detroit residents into the crematoriums of poverty and torture?

Thousands march in Detroit against water shutoffs. Photo credit: michiganradio.org

Why did it take strangers, trained in recognizing violations against humanity, to shine a light on these dark-age practices and call them out for what they are? This is the best example of how the recognition of class differences have surfaced because we have different ethnic races of administrators, both men and women, both young and old who have been part of this sorry episode of residential infliction of pain. Our elected city officials would have found continued comfort in the torture of low-income people had they not had the covers of gross negligence pulled from them exposing what all knew but few had the courage to declare.

Along with our city officials stand many of the members of the clergy from all denominations, who have stood in silence while the torture of the most vulnerable has unfolded. The Spirit that many profess to serve has been waiting for you all to discover your courage or your voice or at least your crippled-hand gripped around a pen where you could author an anonymous note decrying what has been happening relative to these water shutoffs. I try daily to forgive your cowardice and hope only that when you make your transition to the afterlife, that the fires of “hell” are unkind to you.

We hope the legal violations identified by the two Special Rapporteurs find their way sooner as written charges to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, and also to the U.S. State Dept. All nations should be alerted about these international violations so that sanctions might be discussed and even levied to make this practice stop. The U.S. government is ultimately responsible to secure the human rights of the most vulnerable and that task lies first with our ‘beloved’ mayor, then with the county executive, then with the governor, and lastly with all presidents.

As a field general in the army of social justice for vulnerable, low-income populations, it falls to me and mine to keep this battle in the face of all humanity and to take every opportunity to convince those in power that their salvation lies in distancing themselves from the “dark” side in favor of protecting, serving, and advancing the quality of life for all.

Maureen D. Taylor
State Chairperson, MI Welfare Rights Organization

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!

PPEHRC Proposes "People-Peace-Planet” Budget to Congress

We're proud of our sister organization, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC), that recently went to Washington, DC on December 10 -- International Human Rights Day -- to present a "People-Peace-Planet” budget to members of Congress.

"In a press conference in the Cannon Office Building, speakers called on the Congressional Budgetary Committee to pass a budget resolution that re-directs military spending to domestic needs that serve “people, peace and the planet.” They then presented their proposed budget and supporting petitions to staffers of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Co-Chair of the Budgetary Committee." Read the full story at Social Justice Groups Demand Congress Slash Military Budget, Spend Money on People, Peace, Planet.

Image from DC Media Group

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.

How Poverty Taxes the Brain

A new study finds evidence that living in poverty has dire negative consequences on one's ability think straight and accomplish the things needed each day.

"...In a series of experiments run by researchers at Princeton, Harvard, and the University of Warwick, low-income people who were primed to think about financial problems performed poorly on a series of cognition tests, saddled with a mental load that was the equivalent of losing an entire night’s sleep. Put another way, the condition of poverty imposed a mental burden akin to losing 13 IQ points, or comparable to the cognitive difference that’s been observed between chronic alcoholics and normal adults."

"The finding further undercuts the theory that poor people, through inherent weakness, are responsible for their own poverty – or that they ought to be able to lift themselves out of it with enough effort. This research suggests that the reality of poverty actually makes it harder to execute fundamental life skills. Being poor means, as the authors write, “coping with not just a shortfall of money, but also with a concurrent shortfall of cognitive resources.”" "This explains, for example, why poor people who aren’t good with money might also struggle to be good parents. The two problems aren’t unconnected." "“It’s the same bandwidth," says Princeton’s Eldar Shafir, one of the authors of the study alongside Anandi Mani, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Jiaying Zhao. Poor people live in a constant state of scarcity (in this case, scarce mental bandwidth), a debilitating environment that Shafir and Mullainathan describe in a book to be published next week, Scarcity: Why having too little means so much."

"... The limited bandwidth created by poverty directly impacts the cognitive control and fluid intelligence that we need for all kinds of everyday tasks. "“When your bandwidth is loaded, in the case of the poor,” Shafir says, “you’re just more likely to not notice things, you’re more likely to not resist things you ought to resist, you’re more likely to forget things, you’re going to have less patience, less attention to devote to your children when they come back from school.”" "At the macro level, this means we lost an enormous amount of cognitive ability during the recession. Millions of people had less bandwidth to give to their children, or to remember to take their medication."

"Conversely, going forward, this also means that anti-poverty programs could have a huge benefit that we've never recognized before: Help people become more financially stable, and you also free up their cognitive resources to succeed in all kinds of other ways as well....." Read the full article at: How Poverty Taxes the Brain.

Welfare Warriors Respond to Smiley and West

For the past few weeks, rebroadcasts of Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West's national television discussion, "Remaking America: From Poverty to Prosperity," has been shown on PBS stations. Conversations from this series include a range of professionals with their solutions to poverty. They include personal-finance expert Suze Orman, filmmaker Michael Moore, poverty expert Jeffrey Sachs, urban-revitalization strategist Majora Carter, and others.

In response, Pat Gowens, Director Welfare Warriors, had this to say:

Dear Tavis Smiley,

Instead of inviting wealthy guests to explain poverty, please include the
experts on your show: people living in poverty and the people organizing to
end the war on the poor.

You asked, "Why do the poor stay poor?" For the same reasons the rich stay
rich. Intergenerational class mobility is US folklore. You asked "Are poor
people superfluous?"

Poor people keep this country (and all others) functioning, generation after
generation. Without poor people we would have no food and few children. Poor
farmworkers provide all of our food. Poor mothers reproduce and produce the
majority of children and poor women care for the children of all classes
whether in daycares or as nannies. Without poor people we would have no
restaurants, malls, fast-food industry, service industry, temporary worker
agencies, hotels, tanneries, and foundries.

Poor people work the sub-poverty wage jobs, the jobs with the most growth in
the US, the least benefits and the most danger.

Without poor people we would have no prison industrial complex, no massive
job creation for professional poverty pimps, few social service careers, and
far fewer wars.

But poverty is not just about bad wages.  Poverty is also a result of the
majority of work generating no wages: unwaged motherworkers; unwaged
caregivers of the sick, the injured, the elders, the dying; and unwaged
caretakers of animals, crops, and communities. Doing the unwaged work leaves
few hours in a day to generate income. Unlike Europe, the US provides no
economic support to motherworkers and children. Nor does the US provide paid
sick leave or paid maternity leave to most workers.

Just as there are more sub-poverty jobs each decade, there are also more
people with disabilities who can not generate income. Disability also causes
poverty.

Your wealthy panel of "experts" did not include even one token sub-poverty
worker, one unwaged worker, one disabled person, one anti-poverty activist.
And there was no mention of the violent war on the poor.  Poverty after all
is violence.

Ignoring the "elephant in the studio"-- the motherworkers, farmworkers,
injured workers, children, disabled people, elders, and the sub-poverty wage
workers--smacks of prejudice against the poor. Excluding the activists
working to stop the war on the poor is incomprehensible.

Please consider becoming the vanguard, a leader in giving a voice to victims
of poverty and those who are fighting the war on the poor. Whether
harvesting food in the US or mining coltan in the Congo or doing the unwaged
caregiving for dependent people, victims of poverty are at the mercy of a
violent worldwide economic system that elevates its status and wealth by
standing on the backs of the poor. This must be changed.

Pat Gowens, Director Welfare Warriors
Editor, Mother Warriors Voice, a 25-year-old international
mothers-in-poverty publication

A FEW POVERTY EXPERTS:
Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Diana Spatz (LIFETIME), Pat Albright, Margaret
Prescott (Every Mother Is A Working Mother), Dotty Stevens (Survival News),
Marian Kramer (Michigan Welfare Rights), Charles King (Housing Now), Arturo
Rodriguez (United Farm Workers), Pat Gowens

Statistics on the 99% vs 1%

Want more evidence that the 99% are being screwed by the 1%? Check out these U.S. figures:

• 400 billionaires
• The richest 1% owns 1/3 of the wealth
• Luxury car sales are up 8.7%, jewelry 20%
• 1 in 6 people have no health insurance
• 1 in 7 people live below the poverty line
• 1 in 7 people are food insecure
• 1 in 17 earns below the federal minimum wage ($7.25/hr)

 In fact, it looks like it's really the 99.99% vs .01%! 

Benefits Shut Off for 41,000 Michigan Welfare Recipients

(repost from Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Fri, Sep 30, 2011)

On Saturday, Oct. 1, 41,000 Michigan welfare recipients will lose cash benefits in the amount of approximately $515 each. Gov. Rick Snyder capped maximum welfare payments at 48 months. Several Michigan recipients filed a class action lawsuit to overturn the four-year cap. 

Five years was the original cap on cash assistance for welfare. In some cases, extensions were available for those in need. The lawsuit says that the welfare cap violates the due process clause of the 14th amendment. They claim that the cutoff notices were vague and generic. The plaintiffs are asking a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order against the cap. 

Exemptions are available for those with disabilities that make them unable to work. Those over 65, caring for a disabled spouse or child, who don't qualify for social security or who receive low benefit payments may also get an extension. 

There is some concern among taxpayers about what qualifies a person as unable to work. Chronic alcoholism, drug addicts and obesity are three problematic disabilities. These don't qualify specifically as handicaps, but some of the resulting health conditions do qualify them. There is also concern about how welfare payments, especially food stamps, are spent. 

Welfare cash assistance cuts aren't the only economic issue plaguing Michigan. Cuts are happening everywhere. In August, 11.2 percent of Michiganders were unemployed. Let's look at Michigan's deteriorating economy, by the numbers.

• 2.5 million: People in Michigan who receive one or more form of welfare benefits.

• 220,000 thousand: People in Michigan who receive cash benefits. The four-year cap would reduce it to 180,000 people.

• 21,000-25,000: The number of welfare recipients in Detroit alone (Michigan's largest city) who had their cash benefits cut.

• 30,000: The number of children in Michigan who will lose welfare benefits. 

Read the rest of this article at Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben | Yahoo! Contributor Network. 

Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben writes about people, places, events and issues in "Pure Michigan."

Screen shot from Michigan League for Human Services.

What Have Poor People Done to Deserve Such Hatred?

The foundation on which society rests has been permanently altered. The question is this: What Have Poor People Done To Deserve Such Hatred?

The State House of Michigan has passed House Bill #4409 to separate welfare families from cash assistance if they have reached their lifetime cap of 48 months, retroactively. In the worst job market, the worst housing market, the worst spike in violence in decades, and the worst spike up in suicides as well, is this the time to kick poor people off? They will no longer be able to pay for rent, mortgages, lights, gas and water.

Yesterday, yet another dagger was pushed into the frail bodies of these low income families, also supported by a gang of demonic public officials. As these families are identified as no longer eligible for cash, their Social Security numbers will be sent to the State Police so they can cross-checked with existing open warrants.

If a family member has an outstanding warrant for jay walking, child support, a moving traffic violation that has not been addressed, they can expect to found and arrested and held until that court matter is settled. That person's component of the family Food Stamps will be removed and will not be retroactively restored when and if the court case is settled.

As the foundation of society is crumbling, workers must work harder to understand these new dynamics that will forever more control our lives. There is no middle class -- the middle of what? There is one working class, some earn this much while others earn that much and some earn no money at all, but we are all still one class.

Technology that used to enhance labor now replaces it. Think about the U.S. Post Office, self-check out counters at grocery stores, ATM cards that replaced our visits with tellers inside banks, etc. Think of the new "zip rental car" that has streamlined the process of renting cars without agents to manage that task. Enterprise, Avis, Hertz, Dollar employees and the rest will soon feel the sting of
mass layoffs as soon as these mega-agencies perfect this procedure and install this newest technology in place of human beings.

People-workers have to envision what kind of new world we want to see, who it should care for, how it should care for us, and make certain that we put steps in place to "make it so." The needs of the many must always outweigh the needs of the few!

The June 30th, 2012, March To Washington will underscore that theme: One Class,
One Cause! We are organizing across the country for this mega-event that will be the beginning of eliminating poverty. You only have 298 days left to get involved. Do something today!! http://www.end-poverty.org/ Email: endpoverty2012@gmail.com, or call: (313) 964-0618.

Image screen shot from Media Voices for Children

Detroiters Speak Out at Poverty Tour

Today, members of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and others joined forces and met Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornell West’s "The Poverty Tour" with our point of view.

The session was electric with some 200-300 residents in attendance. A loud and well organized small group came to shout down the speakers with cat-calls of "sell-out and traitor" being slung toward both Tavis Smiley and Prof. West but they each held their own.

Prof. West started his remarks by commenting on the many fundraising and public events he sponsored for President Obama and recanted how he had remarked early on in the campaign that he would not be silent should the President falter.

The anger from some in the audience was about the false rumor that "The Poverty Tour" is being sponsored by the Tea Party or some Republican operatives; and that the intent of the Tour is to denounce Pres. Obama. Many people stood at the microphones to speak. When it was our turn, we all suggested to those loud folk that since we voted the President in we had every right to criticize what we didn't like and will continue to do so.

Dr. West talked about “too much Geitner,” “too much Larry Summers,” and “too much Ben Bernanke” -- all operatives working in Wall Street and for Wall Street.

We all agree and wish that our dear President had selected others to fill those seats. The loud group represents the antithesis to what we are all about. Class warfare was introduced and some folk wanted to turn the fight into ‘do you or don't you support the President?’ That is not the fight. They were summarily shouted down by those who came to describe both the plight of the poor and the fight of the poor.

We won a political victory because we were able to demonstrate through our comments that the poverty issue was systemic and needed to be solved in a systemic fashion. The level of anger also exists because people are looking for answers to their problems, most immediate and some long term.

Answers were in short order so some people left unfulfilled. The answer of course is that systematic poverty based on the rise in technological production means that a new system must be created where the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Folks are almost ready to hear this message as the only conclusion.

MWRO, one of the founding members of THE ASSEMBLY TO END POVERTY, announced the March On Washington set for June 30th, 2012. Both Tavis and Prof. West were very warm and receptive to MWRO so they left on their way to Akron with a belly full of Detroit and the ASSEMBLY! 

Image from The Poverty Tour

National Poverty Tour Comes to Detroit

On Monday, August 8th, 2011, something very critical is happening in Detroit.

The 15-city POVERTY TOUR: A CALL TO CONSCIENCE is making a stop at City Hall. PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley and Princeton Professor Cornell West have coordinated this national effort to shine a light on the plight of the American poor.

MI Welfare Rights has been invited to attend and, we in turn, invite you to come and share your thoughts about the rising poverty that we all see happening in Detroit. With the threat of 12,600 welfare families being cut off of benefits effective October, 2011, we are in the front seat as we see our meager standard of living being driven down.

Read Poverty Tour statistics on U.S. poverty.

Meet us at the Detroit Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (aka City County Bldg) in the Auditorium on Monday, August 8th at noon sharp until 2pm. This Tour has made appearances all over the country as they document everywhere else what is happening here.

See you there! 

Video: "Tavis tells the Truth about Poverty in America," CBS commentary found on Poverty Tour website.

Why We March: Announcing the Workers March On Washington

Beginning today, August 1, 2011,  we will begin the first of many posts about preparation for the national Workers March On Washington, June 30, 2012. As a proud member of the Assembly to End Poverty, MWRO is actively organizing thousands of workers and low-income people to speak out and demand an end to poverty!

For the next several months, we will keep you posted with regular reports, analyses and commentary on why we must march. While we gather momentum toward this great march, we know that the heart of this work lies in the stories, testimonials and experiences of poverty from every person in the U.S. that we meet along the way.

We know that the foundation on which society rests has changed forever. Science has advanced technology very fast, making workers more productive than ever before. Fewer human beings are needed to produce. In Michigan, we live in a State that’s been hit very hard by this new world order. Yet, political operatives have suggested that mothers on welfare with children be separated from their benefits and forced into the work market. The first 12,600 public assistance families will be eliminated effective Oct. 1^st, 2011. 

In the worst job market, in the worst housing market, with family violence spiraling out of control, the answer is to push women and children into deeper poverty? The State will save $64 million by eliminating payments to this group.  What is the worth of a human being?

The Assembly To End Poverty is calling for a Workers March On Washington, June 30, 2012. We march on D.C. because we want to eliminate poverty, and not the poor. We can and we will do this! 

Get involved, contact:  EndPoverty2012@gmail.com.  You have 335 days left.

Image courtesy of Creative Commons (Berd)

Tell Michigan to Save the Low-Income Energy Efficiency Fund

We have just learned from our friends at the Sierra Club-Detroit Chapter that the Low-Income Energy Efficiency Fund (LIEEF), a fund distributed across the state to help low-income people prevent heat shut offs, is in dire jeopardy!

The Michigan Court of Appeals recently decided that the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) does not have the authority to administer the fund as it has for more than a decade. The MPSC regulates the rates of natural gas, electricity and telephone utilities in Michigan; and is led by three commissioners appointed by the Governor.

Public comments on this ruling and the impacts it will have on Michigan communities are desperately needed by Monday, August 1, 2011 by 5 p.m. EST.

It is too late to mail your response to Lansing but you can give your comments by e-mail at  mpscedockets@michigan.gov. Your comments should reference Case No. U-16418 . You may also attach a document in Word or PDF format. Please note that all information you submit on this matter will become public information available on the MPSC's website and is subject to disclosure.

You can also reviewed current public comments and documents on this at Case No. U-16418. The entire report on LIEFF is available at http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mpsc/PSC_Report_on_Low_Income__Energy_Efficiency_Fund_1010_337742_7.pdf

Rhonda Anderson of the Sierra Club-Detroit Chapter tells us: 

"...this money is set aside to use as an emergency fund for people [who] have had their utilities shut off. This [money] often is critical in that it assists them in having them turned back on. Utility shut off is one of the leading causes of homelessness. Considering the unemployment and poverty here in the City of Detroit by cutting this emergency fund out, it will mean so many thousands will be left in the cold and dark, maybe on the streets."

Everyone know that Michigan is a snow state. In the middle of Winter, temperatures can reach into the single digits and below zero degrees. The blistering cold is especially dangerous for low-income families with young children and senior citizens. Yet, every year we know thousands of people across Michigan are at risk of freezing in their homes because they cannot afford or keep up with the high cost of heating bills from for-profit utility companies. Help us reverse this life-threatening decision against Michigan residents.

State of the Poor in Michigan

From Maureen D. Taylor, MWRO State Chair

The out-going director of the MI Dept. of Human Services, Ishmael Ahmed delivered a message today where he outlined the “State of the Poor.” The room was held spell-bound as the numbers of people new to poverty were described and the numbers of people already immersed in poverty were counted together. By his official figures, 29% of children living in this state fall below the poverty level. Between 25% and 30% of all adults are receiving food assistance, many more are entitled but don’t know that they are eligible. He lamented over the pockets of poor people living in disproportionate numbers in places like Pontiac, Flint, Saginaw, Inkster and Detroit with poverty figures at 49%. He referenced by comparison southern states that are color-coded to indicate at what level of poverty they rank. Director Ahmed described the fact that almost all of them are colored to indicate that they are at or below the poverty level. There is one state north of the “Mason-Dixon Line” with the same color - Michigan.

The tremendous loss of jobs in the manufacturing industry in southeastern MI, especially in both urban and rural cities in this state have plunged millions into abject destitution. Working people need time and resources to recover from this devastating circumstance.

Instead, what is happening is the “Great Takeover” of personal property once owned by these folks who used to have jobs.

We continue to be rendered homeless by these ravenous banks that foreclose on our family homes. We continue to see our cars repossessed by lending institutions after making faithful payments for months and years. We are dropped into the vat of destitution because we suffered a medical emergency so all of our savings evaporate leaving us vulnerable to economic predators of every design.

What are we to do? Where are we to go? Detroit used to be home for 1.4 million residents. The current census will record between 800,000 and 900,000 residents as the “Great Exodus” continues unabated of workers moving about the country in search of jobs. The next chapter of the “Grapes of Wrath” featuring wandering families is being written.

The DHS Director believes that the way to repair this crumbling system is for the grassroots mothers and fathers to take control over what needs to happen to manage these difficult times. Not speaking of the tea party approach that wants all government excluded. We must hold the government responsible for securing the basics of society – food, healthcare, public safety and education. We agree with Ish…

Image from State of Michigan DHS

Dignity for Poor People

An Open Letter from MWRO Member, Ann Grimmett:

At the 2010 USSF, I'm looking forward to none of the usual, tribalish, clanish, cliquish elitist, snobs looking down their noses at myself and other poor people! What I really want to see is this...

I WANT TO SEE DIGNITY RETURNED TO POOR PEOPLE!! I want to NOT see human beings forced (by this diabolically/tyrannical system) to relieve themselves in alleys, and doorways, because they have NO PLACE to go, sit down, roll off toilet paper, and wipe themselves when they're through defacating and urinating!

The world is in a state I could NEVER have imagined, because I didn't think I'd ever hear another poor person pass judgment on someone so unfortunate as to HAVE to relieve themself in so undignified a manner. Because truth be told that old adage, "when you gotta go you gotta go," is more than a "slogan." It is an inescapable FACT!

So, to all those who would judge, it would behoove you to imagine yourself in that position! Romans 14:4 "Who are you to judge someone else's servant?"

We need to put ourselves in a position to raise up our fellow man, not put him down!
That should "remain the domain" of the "Terrorists" that run this country (into the ground!), not the people who're being run over and over-run!

(Clip art courtesy of cksinfo.com)

National Conference to Abolish Poverty

You are invited to:

The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC)
and the Social Welfare Action Alliance (SWAA) Announce:

Building the Unsettling Force:
A National Conference to Abolish Poverty

Friday July 17, 2009 -- Sunday, July 19, 2009
Spalding University -- Louisville, Kentucky

"There are millions of poor people in this country who have very little, or even nothing to lose. If they can be helped to take action together, they will do so with a freedom and a power that will be a new and UNSETTLING FORCE in our complacent national life." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from "Why We Can't Wait," 1963

Join poor and homeless families, social workers, residents of homeless encampments, families fighting foreclosure, Katrina victims, unemployed workers, people without health care, members of the religious community, artists, representatives of the labor movement, and friends from the International Community as we come together to confront the economic crisis and to build "Another World" based in Economic Human Rights for all.

Abolish poverty in these times of increasing homelessness, hunger, and unemployment? We say "yes" and turn to the wisdom of Martin Luther King Jr., who envisioned a movement led by an organized "unsettling force" built across racial lines that would spark a "revolution of values" to reorganize our society.

As we confront the life and death struggles in our communities, the daily Katrinas of hunger, homelessness, massive downsizing, the denial of the rights to health care, heat and water, and the destruction of our families simply because we are poor, we will come together to envision, strategize and organize for “Another United States” and “Another World.”

Join us! See www.economichumanrights.org for more information.

Organized by the Social Welfare Action Alliance (SWAA) and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC)

Michigan Welfare Rights Organization is a member of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign.

Workers, youth open fightback at Tent City

Excerpt reposted from Workers World

By Kris Hamel
Tent City, Detroit

June 16—Hundreds of poor and working people have gathered at the National People’s Summit and Tent City in downtown Detroit to put forward the people’s vision of a future with guaranteed jobs and income, universal health care, housing and utilities, and all rights that working class people are currently denied under the capitalist system.

More than 330 people registered for the four-day event. They have come from throughout metro Detroit and Michigan—even workers from the Upper Peninsula are at Tent City. Workers and activists from Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and more are represented.

The People’s Summit and Tent City, based in Grand Circus Park from June 14-17, was called in response to the National Summit of big-business CEOs and executives being held at the General Motors Renaissance Center—GM’s world headquarters.

“They’re going to regret the closing of 14 plants and the laying off of General Motors workers, because the workers are fighting back!” said Frank Hammer, a retired United Auto Workers International representative and leader of the Autoworker Caravan, as he opened the rally after a militant demonstration outside the big-business summit today.
American Axle workers.

More than 500 workers, including many from around Michigan and Ohio, marched in front of the GM Renaissance Center demanding jobs and human needs, not corporate greed. “The workers have spoken—keep the plants open!” was one of many chants that thundered from East Jefferson Avenue as dozens of cops and private thugs stood in formation guarding the privately owned Ren Cen.

As the workers marched and rallied for jobs, Richard Dauch, CEO of American Axle and Manufacturing, Inc., addressed the capitalists inside, along with former Michigan Gov. John Engler.

Read the rest of this story at Workers World. Image courtesy of Workers World. Tent City marchers photo by LeiLani Dowell.

Starved for a Brighter Future

Reposted from comrades at the Welfare Rights Initiative at Hunter College-CUNY

Krsytle Cruz, the mother of a bright 4 year old girl, recently graduated from the Hunter College Nursing program. She received welfare while she earned her degree. The welfare agency in New York City told her she had to complete 35 hours of workfare each week. For four year college, New York welfare law only counts work-study and internships—not academic classes.

This doesn’t make any sense. Almost 90% of women receiving welfare who graduate college are lifted out of poverty. The ripple effect on kids attaining higher education is well-documented, too. Fortunately, Assemblyman Keith Wright has introduced a bill that would bring New York state welfare policy in line with federal policy and recognize the indisputable connection between educational opportunity and economic opportunity.

Through the Welfare Right Initiative at Hunter College, Krystle was able to complete 35 hours of internships and work-study each week while raising a family, attending classes and studying. It was a struggle that not all students can tackle. She was able to stay in school in part because of considerable advocacy on her own behalf. On average, Krystle was called into the welfare office twice a month and sent notices that she and her little girl would be cut off from food stamps or Medicaid. Even though she fully documented all her activity, she was still told that her hard work to acquire a college degree—work that gives her and her daughter opportunities for a better life—didn’t count.

When I last spoke to Krystle, she said: "In my own experience with women receiving public assistance, I have observed how their strong desire to go to school is crushed by caseworkers telling them that they cannot. Instead, women are sent to dead-end workfare assignments. The family remains starved for money, and starved for a brighter future."

A recent New York Times article reported that low-wage workers who move from welfare to employment often fail to advance because they need advanced skills and higher education. But Krystle was able to realize her dream and break out of this cycle. Her caretaking of sick family members led her to pursue nursing. Her family's pride in her accomplishment is shared by her college president, fellow students, and others who today receive public assistance. Better welfare policy would create more stories like hers.

(Image courtesy of Welfare Rights Initiative)