person:debra watson

City of #Detroit resuming brutal policy of mass water shutoffs - World Socialist Web Site

▻https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/04/05/detr-a05.html

City of Detroit resuming brutal policy of mass water shutoffs
By Debra Watson
5 April 2018

More than 17,000 Detroit households face having their water turned off as the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) resumes mass water service shutoffs to city homes this month. Since the Detroit municipal bankruptcy devastated city workers’ pensions and jobs in 2014, the DWSD has issued water shutoff notices to over 100,000 residences.

Between 2014 and 2017 Detroit saw more than one in seven of its 677,000 residents lose access to running water.

Because cold weather prohibits the smooth and cost-effective execution of water shutoffs, the annual culling waits for the spring thaw. Homrich Wrecking, a private contractor hired by the city to turn off water at the street, or rip out water connections when warranted, has just had their contract extended by the Detroit City Council to 2021, an indication that no one among the city’s officialdom expects this annual horror to end any time soon.

#eau #pauvreté

#Detroit housing crisis deepens with county tax foreclosure auction - World Socialist Web Site
▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/11/23/hous-n23.html

Detroit housing crisis deepens with county tax foreclosure auction
By Debra Watson
23 November 2016

Thousands of Detroit and Wayne County residents fear eviction in the coming months in what could be one of the biggest dislocations of low-income residents to result from the Wayne County treasurer’s yearly tax auction. The latest tax auction started only weeks after Wayne County Circuit Chief Judge Robert Colombo Jr. ruled in September on a lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union filed in July against the county. The ACLU lost its bid for a moratorium on tax foreclosures on owner-occupied homes in Detroit.

Detroit abortion rate underscores rising poverty, declining access to contraception - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/05/30/abor-m30.html

Detroit abortion rate underscores rising poverty, declining access to contraception

By Debra Watson
30 May 2014

Nearly one in three pregnancies in the city of Detroit ends in abortion, a figure that has been rising steadily since 2001. In 2012, the most recent year for which data is available, of an estimated 18,360 pregnancies among Detroit residents, 5,693 ended in abortion, or 31 percent.

#santé #états-unis #avortement #détroit

Poverty rises dramatically in Michigan

►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/pove-o05.shtml
By Debra Watson
5 October 2012

Poverty in Michigan has increased a staggering 66 percent since 2001 according to the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) released in September. This is the largest increase in poverty in any state in the country. Three-fourths of this rise occurred before the recession began in 2008.

Michigan’s poverty rate continued to rise sharply through 2011, to 17.5 percent up from 16.8 percent just a year earlier, and well above the national average of fifteen percent. The climb in the poverty rate only partially measures growing social distress because state and federal governments are at the same time cutting safety net programs once available to the most economically vulnerable populations.

#états-unis #pauvreté #inégalités #développement #santé #crise-économique