Ted Phillips: “Thousands of people are living without lights, water or gas”

[Hannah Bell]

Ted Phillips, executive director of United Community Housing Coalition, is scheduled to testify this Saturday in Detroit at the Citizens Inquiry into the Dexter Avenue Fire...The United Community Housing Coalition is a nonprofit comprehensive housing organization that has serviced low-income residents in Detroit since 1973.

Phillips said that in the last few years his organization had branched out to addressing tax foreclosures, which have jumped more than 500 percent in the last seven years....

“Most people owe between $500 and $2,000, but many owe less,” Phillips said. “The majority of these houses do not have mortgages, but people have fallen behind in their taxes because of poverty.” The majority of the cases are of people who owe taxes for at least three years. “If you haven’t paid your taxes since 2007 you could lose your house.”

Phillips explained that the taxes go to the city government, but the city has an arrangement with the county government to collect the taxes once they become delinquent...

“The county government was also allowed to charge an additional 18 percent on the taxes,” he said, at a rate of 1.5 percent a month. “It’s actually worse then that,” he said, “because the amount you owe goes up each month and the additional charge is added to the increased monthly bill as it is accumulating.”

...There are large numbers of people in transition from being homeowners to tenants. “But more and more we are seeing cases where people go from being homeowners to becoming homeless,” (Phillips) added. “This is the first time I have seen this. People are now going from their homes into a shelter. The poorest layers are being hit the hardest.”

It’s a terrible thing when you have one-third of the population with utility issues. Thousands of people are living without lights, water or gas.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/phil-m19.shtml

[Occulus]

1. Can I pre-empt the bluedog centrists?

"They should have paid their bills"
"They can afford unlimited long distance but can't afford electricity? They're irresponsible"
"They have internet but can't pay the mortgage? Where are their priorities"
"They could pay for a root canal but couldn't pay their water bill? There's more to this story"

What did I leave out?

[readmoreoften]

5. Why did they choose to live in Detroit? Don't they know there're no jobs there?

[readmoreoften]

6. Here are a few more nice Right-Wing Dem responses:

*Detroit is such a mess, and we have to admit it's largely due to the unions. I'm not anti-union, but unions are terrible.
*It's sad to say it, but many people in the area enjoy freezing. It's a cultural issue, not a political one.
*What ever happened to personal responsibility?
*YES, AND THE HEALTH INSURANCE BILL IS GOING TO FIX THIS TOO! BUT YOU PEOPLE WOULD RATHER HAVE THESE POOR, SUFFERING DEARS DIE, WOULDN'T YOU!!??1!
*This is really a much more complicated problem than it seems. It's a glitch/mistake/has been corrected/will be corrected/although there is really no substantive problem.
*It's all the fault of some local Republican asswipe.
*These people are just Marxists out to destroy the innovations and progress brought about by the wonder of responsible privatization (*meaning of responsible not included)
*Think about how much worse it'd be if Sarah Palin was president for these people."
*Obama's on top of it."

By the way, I don't call them centrists anymore. They're the rightwing of the Party and they're on the right side of the political spectrum. There is nothing "centrist" about them. They don't get to define the center--and they are corporate apologists and capitulators, not "moderates" by any stretch of the imagination.

[TheDebbieDee]

8. You forgot the "Why don't they get jobs that pay more money

so they can afford to pay their taxes?"

These are the a$$holes that I'd like to pull through my computer screen!

[Hannah Bell]

9. they're wingers. anti-union? check. anti-public schools? check?

pro-war? check. "personal responsibility" is everything? check. immediate resort to personal attack whenever they're challenged? check. "those people"? check. "i ain't paying for your medical bill"? check. "social security is a ponzi scheme"? check.

the new "democrats" = the total repudiation of everything that distinguished the party from the republicrats.

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. And what is incredible is that Detroit has some of the highest property

taxes in the state. It blew my mind.

Not to mention that the big guys, GM, Ford, St. John's, American Axle, can be years in arrears on their utilities without even a late fee.

[Blackhatjack]

3. One of those Wall St Bonus Baby CEOs Ought To Have To Change Places With Them...

... it might give them a new perspective living without lights, water or gas.

Of course, some will allege they are living that way 'by choice." (That is the standard Republican response to anyone in need, right?)

[Hannah Bell]

4. i want to see that "survivor" episode. twenty wall-streeters dumped into the inner

city with no cell phones & no money.

[cstanleytech]

10. I'll see ya that idea and raise ya one up by suggesting that those twenty be dumped on

a remote island that has only enough food and water to last one person 1 year, the one alive at the 1 year mark is the real survivor....the others though end up on the menu lol

[Hannah Bell]

12. "competition"! fantastic idea.

[tsuki]

15. I have never watched Survivor, but that would be one episode I'd watch.

:popcorn:

[Kolesar]

11. I have never heard anybody say that

"by choice"

[Hannah Bell]

13. I have. Many, many times, in regard to homeless people.

[Kolesar]

14. turn off the TV, then...eom

[Hannah Bell]

17. it's not on tv i hear it, but thanks for your advice.

[sabrina 1]

7. Not to worry, soon those people will be forced to buy

premiums they won't be able to use from their wealthy overlords. There must be something they can give up to scrape up their protection money.

Are we third world status yet? Probably not, if we were, there would be free health care provided by Humanitarian Organizations. Otoh, I think that has already begun, airc. And then there's this:

Chinese Foreclosure Tourists Shopping In U.S.

A new kind of tourist package is being offered in China. Call it the "U.S. Real Estate Bottom-Fishing Tour." The first of 40 Chinese real estate shoppers are looking in the U.S. this week to buy for foreclosure properties and other housing bargains.

One of my friends lost her home to foreclosure in January after trying for a year to renegotiate her mortgage with Wells Fargo. They received two bail-outs and were supposed to work with people to try to keep them in their homes. They never even returned her calls.

Maybe Americans can get jobs working as maids and butlers in the homes they used to own before Wall St. criminals crashed the economy. Apparently the Chinese are not the only 'shoppers'. Wealthy Australians and others are also interested in buying up fore-closed homes.

The destruction of this country's economy was the real terror heading our way.

[JNelson6563]

16. The situation in Detroit is so overwhelming!

Seems to be getting worse by the day. Where will this end?

Julie--who mourns for the once great Detroit