The Detroit News<\/a>
\nAugust 29, 2013<\/p>\nDetroit\u2019s funeral directors received this unusual text message last month. \u201cFYI, city of Detroit can\u2019t process death certificates because they have no paper and don\u2019t have money to buy any.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message, from a fellow funeral director, was mostly true: The city did stop issuing certified copies of birth and death certificates on July 23, days after the July 18 bankruptcy filing. That day, a nervous paper vendor demanded cash \u2013 and the city wanted to do business as usual, on credit.<\/p>\n
FYI: In bankrupt and frequently bizarre Detroit, dying is easy. It\u2019s proving you are dead that\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n
Cutbacks in hours, balky vendors, and the news that Herman Kiefer Complex will close Oct. 1 are all affecting the city\u2019s death and dying business. The city\u2019s vital records department will close and Wayne County will assume responsibility for issuing birth and death certificates, according to Bill Nowling, spokesman for Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you ever heard such a crock?\u201d asked Wallace Williams, president of the Michigan Select Funeral Directors Association, when asked about the paper shortage. \u201cThey told us they ran out of paper and it might take five days to get some.\u201d Williams, who texted his 20 or so funeral director members, says the potential impact of a death certificate shortage was dire.<\/p>\n
Without certified copies of death certificates, families couldn\u2019t access bank accounts, file insurance claims, or access probate court. The families are often struggling financially, grieving and frustrated by any bureaucratic delay. And although funeral homes provide copies as a service to families, they wind up taking the heat.<\/p>\n
While funeral homes and hospitals could file birth and death certificates on July 23, the city requires a special embossed paper for certified copies. Because the forms are unique to each jurisdiction, the paper couldn\u2019t be borrowed \u2013 although some funeral directors tried to lend paper to the records department.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmployees (at the vital records department) were sitting outside because they didn\u2019t have anything to do,\u201d says the Rev. Gleo Wade, Stinson Funeral Home director, who drove to the vital records department that day to see what was going on. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen the employees just sitting outside like that before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funeral directors and employees had never witnessed a death certificate system collapse, either. Funeral home officials say the department is already understaffed and stretched thin. \u201cPeople don\u2019t understand that families become very upset when they can\u2019t get the certificate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bill Nowling, spokesman for Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, says the problem was short-lived, once the vendor was assured payment. It was the kind of scenario Orr knew could occur from the beginning of his tenure here. Calming nervous vendors \u2013 the ones whose services are needed as part of the city\u2019s function \u2013 is a new skill set for city officials.<\/p>\n
Not long after running out of death certificate paper, the county told funeral directors it would no longer release bodies from the Wayne County morgueon Sundays, explaining that Sunday was a slow day for funeral homes anyway. The medical examiner\u2019s office is now closed on holidays, too, but will make exceptions for religions that require immediate burial.<\/p>\n
Funeral directors are not pleased.\u201cBack in the day, they\u2019d release bodies all day long,\u201d said Williams, the funeral director association president.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeath doesn\u2019t take any holidays,\u201d he said. \u201cDeath happens every day of the week and especially on weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Laura Berman The Detroit News August 29, 2013 Detroit\u2019s funeral directors received this unusual text message last month. \u201cFYI, city of Detroit can\u2019t process death certificates because they have no paper and don\u2019t have money to buy any.\u201d The message, from a fellow funeral director, was mostly true: The city did stop issuing certified copies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-63973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}