The Dexter Avenue Inquiry

86,000 Michigan households hit by utility shutoffs this winter

May 3, 2011

On April 28, DTE Energy held a “Customer Assistance Day” at the Wayne County Community College campus in Downriver Detroit suburb of Taylor, Michigan. Over 4,500 special notices were sent out to area residents who are in danger of a shutoff.

A DTE spokesman said the energy giant was holding the event and planning future ones because of the dramatic increase in the number of households falling behind in payments. The “assistance” days are basically public relations events, which provide little if any assistance to those who cannot afford to heat and light their homes.

Statewide statistics for the frigidly cold months of January, February and March confirm that the utility companies have escalated their brutal policy of utility shutoffs. DTE shut off nearly 50,000 households during the period and the other local gas and electric company, Consumers Energy, shut off another 36,000 households.

The Downriver Detroit area is comprised of 18 neighborhoods adjacent to the Detroit River, south of the city proper. Since the early to mid-20th century, the area has been home to dozens of auto plants, ship builders, steel mills and chemical plants—all of which have either closed or downsized their labor force to a fraction of their levels several decades ago.

“CAUS says utilities should be a right, not a luxury”

April 14, 2011

One of those who participated in the discussion at The Fight for Socialism Today conference, held April 9-10 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was Sylvia Young, a Detroit mother who lost three small children in a March 2, 2010 house fire, which started after DTE Energy cut off lights and heat to her west side home.

In the aftermath of the fire, the media and authorities launched a witch-hunt against Young in order to cover up the criminal responsibility of DTE. She was accused of abandoning her children because she was at a store buying space heaters at the time the fire broke out, and state officials attempted to strip her of custody of her surviving children.

The tragic house fire was one of several, which claimed the lives of nearly a dozen Detroiters who had heat cut off during the winter months by the energy giant. In response to these deaths, the Socialist Equality Party founded the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs to mobilize the working class to defend the social rights to heat, electricity and water. CAUS played the leading role in defending Young and forcing authorities to drop their legal vendetta against her.

Sylvia spoke on the resolution entitled, “The attack on the working class and the fight for socialism.”

Photo story: The Committee Against Utility Shutoffs holds march in Detroit

March 14, 2011

This slideshow presents images of the March 12 demonstration in Detroit, called by the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs (CAUS). Participants marched down Dexter Avenue to demand an end to utility shutoffs.

Demonstrators included neighborhood residents, teachers, health care workers, unemployed and retirees. There were also Detroit high school students andcommunity college students.

The march began at the scene of a tragic fire that took the lives of three people on January 5, 2010: two disabled brothers, Marvin Allen, 62, and Tyrone Allen, 61 and Lynn Greer, 58. The fire was sparked by a space heater being used to heat the home after utilities had been shut off.

Demonstration in Detroit demands end to utility shutoffs

March 13, 2011

On March 12, the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs (CAUS) held a spirited demonstration down Dexter Avenue in Detroit to demand an end to utility shutoffs.

About 100 people participated in the event, representing a wide cross-section of workers and young people. Demonstrators included neighborhood residents, teachers, health care workers, unemployed and retirees. There were also Detroit high school students, community college students and students from Eastern Michigan University, Wayne State University, Oakland University and the University of Michigan.

The march began at the scene of a tragic fire that took the lives of three people on January 5, 2010: two disabled brothers, Marvin Allen, 62, and Tyrone Allen, 61, and Lynn Greer, 58. The fire was sparked by a space heater being used to heat the home after utilities had been shut off.

CAUS chairman and SEP Assistant National Secretary Lawrence Porter spoke from the steps of the Allen house, which still remains as it was after being consumed by flames over one year ago. He began by calling for a moment of silence in the memory of the Allen brothers and all those who have died due to utility shutoffs.

Lawrence Porter at CAUS rally: “Utilities are a social right!”

March 13, 2011

The following remarks were given at the beginning of the March 12 demonstration of the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs by Lawrence Porter, chairman of CAUS and assistant national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party. (See also, “Demonstration in Detroit demands end to utility shutoffs”.)

Porter began the demonstration with a moment of silence to remember those who have died in fires caused by utility shutoffs, including Marvin and Tyrone Allen and Lynn Greer, who perished in a January 5, 2010 blaze at 8011 Dexter Avenue, where the demonstration began.

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We come here today both in remembrance and in protest. We are gathered here to remember those who have lost their lives in fires caused by utility shutoffs. At the same time we raise our voice in protest against the barbaric conditions that lead to their tragic deaths.

We have come here today to denounce the unconscionable policy of shutoffs that have taken scores of lives in house fires, and have left people to freeze to death because they did not have heat.

Demonstrators speak out: “Heat and gas are necessities for life”

March 13, 2011

The World Socialist Web Site interviewed workers and young people who participated in the March 12 demonstration and rally against utility shutoffs in Detroit. (See also, “Demonstration in Detroit demands end to utility shutoffs”.)

Pauline, a senior at Central High School, is the friend of the daughter of Marvin Allen. Marvin was killed in the Dexter Avenue fire on January 5, 2010. “It was wrong that they didn’t give him more time to pay his bills,” she said. “He was a senior; he should have had a discount. They should have worked with him.”

“Utility shutoffs are very common in Detroit,” Pauline said. “They affect many people, including people you might not think are affected. Most people have either been cut off or are on the verge of being cut off. My mom is on a DTE budget plan. She is unemployed.

“I agreed that nobody should have their utilities cut off. If people have no job, they still have to pay their bills, but they have less money. They have to stretch what they have. Something has to give.”

Record number of Iowa residents overdue on utility bills

March 11, 2011

The Iowa Bureau of Energy Assistance recently reported that a record 267,710 Iowans—9 percent of the state’s population—are overdue on their utility bills. This figure is a 10 percent increase from the previous year. The amount owed on those past-due accounts totals $35 million.

According to the Quad Cities newspaper the Gazette, Iowa’s state agencies that oversee the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) are afraid of what will happen as spring arrives. Iowa law states that utilities cannot turn off power for those who qualify for heating assistance programs from LIHEAP during the winter months, even if the customers are delinquent. Officials expect an upsurge in shutoffs as the year wears on.

At the same time, federal funding for families unable to pay their utility bills is slated to decline dramatically. President Obama has proposed drastic cuts to LIHEAP. Funding for the program’s budget will be reduced from $5 billion in 2010 to $2.5 billion this year, the same level allocated under the Clinton administration more than a decade ago.

CAUS holds press conference to announce March 12 demonstration

March 4, 2011

The Committee Against Utility Shutoffs (CAUS) held a press conference on Friday to announce plans for a March 12 demonstration against utility shutoffs. The event was held at the Dexter-Elmhurst center in Detroit, which is located in the same neighborhood where a house fire killed three people a little over a year ago after their utilities were shut off.

CAUS Chairman and Socialist Equality Party member Lawrence Porter opened the press conference. He explained that the purpose of the March 12 demonstration, which will begin at 2pm at 8011 Dexter Avenue and end at the Dexter-Elmhurst Center at 11825 Dexter Avenue, is to oppose utility shutoffs in Detroit. He said that CAUS’s fight is part of a broader struggle of working people across the US against growing attacks on their living standards.

CAUS holds press conference to announce March 12 demonstration

March 4, 2011

Detroiters speak out on DTE’s phony “customer assistance”

February 21, 2011

In the weeks after DTE Energy’s December Customer Assistance Day, members of the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs spoke to several Detroiters who had sought assistance. Far from being “assisted”, these Detroiters faced a perpetual run-around, lies, misinformation and arrogance.

As the company indicated when posting their record $630 million in profits, “customer assistance forums” are not actually designed to assist residents, but to “manage the level of past due receivables” owed to DTE (See “DTE Energy 2010 profits soar as utility shutoffs increase”).

“I sought help on behalf of my 83-year-old mother who has to pay all of her expenses out of her Social Security check,” Lanette told CAUS.

“I have gone to so many organizations. In 2010 I went from church to church trying to get help, even before I heard about [DTE’s] Cobo Hall Customer Assistance Day.