Flint residents again face home foreclosures if they do not pay for poisoned water
By
Jerry White
28 June 2017
Once again thousands of residents in the city of Flint are being threatened with home foreclosures for failing or refusing to pay for water, which is still tainted with lead and other toxins. On Tuesday, an unelected financial board voted unanimously to overturn a temporary moratorium, paving the way for the city to issue tax liens on the homes of 8,000 residents who could then face home foreclosures.
The action is the latest provocation against working-class residents in the city of 100,000, which has been devastated by decades of plant closings by General Motors, followed by the lead poisoning of its water supply three years ago.
The Receivership Transition Advisory Board (RTAB), a body appointed by Republican Governor Rick Snyder, has unilateral power over budgetary decisions. Under the RTAB, the city remains, in effect, under emergency management without a formal emergency manager. In making its decision to overturn the moratorium, the board was acting on behalf of the powerful financial interests who control the city’s bonds and other forms of debt.
David Sabuda, Flint’s finance director, declared, “This is a cash flow issue,” claiming the city could lose up to $2.3 million in revenue if residents were not squeezed to pay outstanding bills. The RTAB claimed it was in the city’s “best interests” to get residents to pay, either willingly or with the threat of foreclosure.
The city finance department will put outstanding water bill balances on the July 17 tax bill. Residents will have until February 2018 to pay. If the tax bill is not paid in full by February 2020 Genesee County will put a lien on the home. The water bill will then be paid either…