Homelessness In Flint: A Case Study

As Doidge et al. illustrate, the historical background of Flint City’s drinking water supply emanated from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. This was through a contractual basis for over three decades, and its main source of water was Lake Huron. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is an extensive system encompassing almost 1,080 square-miles, and provides to more than two fifths of the Michigan State population. In the year 2000 alone, the system covered 11,000 miles of water channels with a storage volume of about 360 million gallons. It supplied water to nearly four million people in Detroit and its metropolitan locale.

An attempt to save money by changing water sources by an indifferent government caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, negative health effects, and a total loss in faith in the government of Michigan. Although measures have been taken to mitigate these problems, their effects have already marred the city of Flint and its

The Flint water crisis has left no one from the damage, even the pets are getting sick of the poisoned water. That was what residents Lee and Ernie of Flint Michigan saw with their cat. Flint is a city in Michigan with a total population of approximately one hundred thousand residents. The issue with the water for Flints and its residents stated in 2014 when the city decided to switch from their water resource from the city of Detroit to a local river. Immediately after the switch residents filed complaints about the water’s smell and color. In Ryan Felton’s “Flint’s Water Crisis: What went wrong,” it is apparent that the crisis should not have happened, and that flint was neglected just because it was an impoverished city.

According to an article written by Sam Kennedy (Kennedy, 2014), the Lehigh Valley lost jobs this past February for the first time in about four years. This pushed some long-term unemployed persons and

For Flint, it all began with debt. But you cannot blame a debt that has been developing over the years even though it led to major health concerns, hurt the already poor economy and left thousands with nothing but fear. Flint Michigan was an up incoming town back in the eighties. General Motors had its largest plant (at the time) in Flint and this plant brought much of the population while helping the economy grow. GM created many employment opportunities for Flint residents until they began to downsize in the late eighties. This is when the debt began to grow. GM held much of the economy at this time so the downsizing impacted everyone in Flint. As GM downsized the poverty rates increased, Flint’s government began looking for ways to make up the lost money. In 2011, Flint was 25 million dollars in debt and desperately looking for ways to reduce it (Dixon). The city of Flint was now under a state of emergency and people began asking questions. Governor Rick Snyder made the decision with his appointed members to switch Flint’s water supply from the Detroit Water System to Flint’s own river that ran through town. This switch was supposed to save the city of Flint nearly a hundred million dollars however, it did much more than that.

The family poverty rate is 25.9% which is also greater than Baltimore City by over 10%. Lead poisoning is a factor in child health in Southern Park Heights, this relates to poverty rates because if families weren’t poor, they wouldn’t have cheap lead paint in their homes negatively affecting their child’s health. The poverty rate also affects birth outcomes, if they can afford it, they have the ability to receive prenatal care which provides healthier pregnancies and baby deliveries. If the poverty rates weren’t so high, the life expectancy of the neighborhood would be way older. If the people of this community could afford proper health care and could afford better quality food, the average life expectancy age in Southern Park Heights would be higher than 66.7 years

The Flint water crisis is an issue that has been plaguing the state of Michigan for over two years and has no feasible end in sight. The neglect of various government officials and employees has culminated in a public health danger for thousands of Michigan residents, by way of consumption of water with high levels of lead. Though the individuals deemed responsible for this deplorable situation have lost or resigned from their positions, and some criminal charges have been brought about, there is still a lot that has to be done to try and repair the damage that they did.

From what you now know about the Flint, Michigan water crisis, write a minimum of 2 paragraphs capturing the following information:

    “The scale of government neglect in the water crisis in Flint, Michigan , could place the city along some of most infamous environmental disasters in U.S. history”-Lenny Bernstein.

Flint was stricken with poverty in 94 as its main source, GM, went into bankruptcy (Source) As the the company went down, many business had shut down or were moved to different locations in where their businesses could survive.

Background: Flint had several types of industries operating out of its city limit for most part of the last century. By the end of last century Flint had lost several businesses which led to high rate of unemployment and loss of government revenue which, in turn, led to a failure to provide services to its residents. In 2011 Michigan governor Rick Snyder appointed an emergency financial manager to handle Flint’s budget. Ever since Michigan took over Flint’s beleaguered finances in 2011, it has been trying to cut costs whenever possible.

There are two sides to this story, the government of Flint, MI and the people who reside

The city of Flint, Michigan went through a tragedy when the water supply turned bad with lead and toxians being released into it.The Flint water crisis started in 2014 and still has an impact on the people who live there today. This research paper explains the affects of the water crisis, and is to show and explain the hardship and struggle the people of Flint have been through. This state has a small population, but this crisis has a big affect. Flint, Michigan has gone through a tramendous struggle these past four years including, polluted water, economy affects, sociological and health impacts and criminal cases.

Flint is not new to emergency management, as it was one of the initial cities to be under the system with an appointed emergency manager, and has had four emergency managers in a span of a few years, beginning in 2011 (Hakala, 2016). Much earlier than this, in 2002, Flint was first appointed an emergency manager who was to rescue Flint’s financial crisis at the time, and this emergency manager was in charge of the finances of the city of Flint until 2006, when it was said that the financial troubles were eliminated (Michigan Radio Newsroom, 2011). In 2011, Flint’s government began to make significant employment layoffs, pay cuts and cuts in benefits to government workers, as well as public jobs such as teachers, police officers, etc. in order to combat monetary turmoil within the once-again financially damaged city of Flint. These types of changes have been going on since 2011, with funds and government employees declining. In a 2016 article, Flint’s current mayor, Dayne Walling, is quoted as saying, “Flint 's government has not become more efficient, just smaller”, and “[Flint] is doing less with less” (Hakala, 2016). He is also quoted as saying that “[Michigan] need(s) a better relationship between state and local government” (Hakala, 2016). The struggles that manifest upon the appointing of an emergency manager are simply the opposite of what should ideally be happening once emergency financial aid to a city becomes needed. The need for budget as well as some pay cuts

Her article, “Elevated Blood Levels in Children Associated with the Flint Drinking Water Crisis: A Spatial Analysis of Risk and Public Health Response,” describes the water issue revolving around Flint for decades. It has only recently begun to get better. Lead was found, as well as bacteria, in the Flint water (283-284). Mona wrote, “Increased lead poisoning rates have profound implications for the life course potential of an entire cohort of Flint children already rattled with toxic stress contributors (e.g, poverty, violence, unemployment, food insecurity)” (286). Mona also concluded that, “As in many urban areas with high levels of socio-economic disadvantage and minority populations, we found a preexisting disparity in lead poisoning” (286). Issues have been done to prevent the Flint crisis, and it has gone down over the past thirty years, however, “A once-celebrated cost-cutting move for an economically distressed city, the water source change has now wrought untold economic, population health, and geo-political burdens”(288). Much like the HDR’s theories, the Flint Water Crisis also appeals to the wealthy class. In any other community, primarily wealthy, money can be provided to prevent future water issues.