Ms Fayette Coleman Water Fight
Donation protected
Ms.Fayette purchases a 50 gallon trash bin to collect rainwater. Ms. Fayette uses this water to clean up her home and flush her toilet. Her bill is $7911 she's been cut off for over (2) years. ...
Coleman gets by using bottled water for drinking, much of which she gets from charity. She heats water for sponge baths and flushes the toilet only after bowel movements. Otherwise, she does without.
“One thing I really miss is washing my clothes,” said Coleman, a former factory worker with multiple health problems who lives on a Social Security disability check of $954 per month.
“Once every couple of months, when I’m able to get some money, I can go to the laundromat.”
“I limit my visitors. It’s embarrassing. You live in struggle every day.”
Coleman’s situation, in many ways, is uniquely Detroit. And it underscores how complicated water shutoffs can be.
She moved into the house about five years ago when her old rental down the street caught fire. Coleman mailed her $400 monthly rent to a property manager and never knew her landlord.
Inside the cramped home, she keeps a stack of water bills.
Initially, they were for $23 a month, which she paid. In 2013, the bill dropped to $0 for several months. She thought that meant the account was paid in full.
It wasn’t.
$7,000 water bill
Coleman said she was surprised to learn a separate, larger bill was going to a post office box — and the rental had gone into tax foreclosure in early 2013. That May, another bill arrived at her door: More than $7,000 was owed at that address. Coleman needed $700 to keep the water on.
“How do you let someone’s bill get to $7,000?” Coleman asked. “You know I can’t pay that. You know this ZIP code. Nobody can pay that here.”
Court records indicate the landlord, who lived in Macomb County, filed for bankruptcy in 2015. The News couldn’t reach her for comment.
Since 2014, the Detroit Land Bank has owned the house, property records show. The agency has “no obligations to pay water bills” in homes it acquired through tax foreclosure because the process wipes away all water debt, Craig Fahle, a spokesman for the land bank, wrote in an email.
Coleman hasn’t paid rent in more than a year. She hopes to buy the house — with help from activists — through a program that allows tenants of 4,500 occupied Land Bank homes to buy them with a $1,000 down payment and 12 payments of at least $100.
Until then, she can’t get on a payment plan because she lacks a lease.
Detroiters Struggle to Survive Without City Water
Detroit Unlikely to Forgive Water Debts of Poor
Ms Fayette needs to raise $1500 for her water services to be restored and help with moving costs. Please donate what you can give to help Ms. Fayette.
Ms. Fayette is a great example of neighbors coming together in good faith to help one another. We must protect the right to clean water and sanitation.
Coleman gets by using bottled water for drinking, much of which she gets from charity. She heats water for sponge baths and flushes the toilet only after bowel movements. Otherwise, she does without.
“One thing I really miss is washing my clothes,” said Coleman, a former factory worker with multiple health problems who lives on a Social Security disability check of $954 per month.
“Once every couple of months, when I’m able to get some money, I can go to the laundromat.”
“I limit my visitors. It’s embarrassing. You live in struggle every day.”
Coleman’s situation, in many ways, is uniquely Detroit. And it underscores how complicated water shutoffs can be.
She moved into the house about five years ago when her old rental down the street caught fire. Coleman mailed her $400 monthly rent to a property manager and never knew her landlord.
Inside the cramped home, she keeps a stack of water bills.
Initially, they were for $23 a month, which she paid. In 2013, the bill dropped to $0 for several months. She thought that meant the account was paid in full.
It wasn’t.
$7,000 water bill
Coleman said she was surprised to learn a separate, larger bill was going to a post office box — and the rental had gone into tax foreclosure in early 2013. That May, another bill arrived at her door: More than $7,000 was owed at that address. Coleman needed $700 to keep the water on.
“How do you let someone’s bill get to $7,000?” Coleman asked. “You know I can’t pay that. You know this ZIP code. Nobody can pay that here.”
Court records indicate the landlord, who lived in Macomb County, filed for bankruptcy in 2015. The News couldn’t reach her for comment.
Since 2014, the Detroit Land Bank has owned the house, property records show. The agency has “no obligations to pay water bills” in homes it acquired through tax foreclosure because the process wipes away all water debt, Craig Fahle, a spokesman for the land bank, wrote in an email.
Coleman hasn’t paid rent in more than a year. She hopes to buy the house — with help from activists — through a program that allows tenants of 4,500 occupied Land Bank homes to buy them with a $1,000 down payment and 12 payments of at least $100.
Until then, she can’t get on a payment plan because she lacks a lease.
Detroiters Struggle to Survive Without City Water
Detroit Unlikely to Forgive Water Debts of Poor
Ms Fayette needs to raise $1500 for her water services to be restored and help with moving costs. Please donate what you can give to help Ms. Fayette.
Ms. Fayette is a great example of neighbors coming together in good faith to help one another. We must protect the right to clean water and sanitation.
Organizer and beneficiary
Meeko A. Williams
Organizer
Detroit, MI
Fayette Coleman
Beneficiary
