20,000 signatures reached
To: Mayor Karen Weaver
#RememberFlint
1. Amend the programs that are currently in place so that everyone who lived in Flint during April 2014-December 2016 can receive free water tanks, no matter their current status.
2. Designate a contractor pool, made up of majority Black-owned businesses, or fund to allow homeowner replace interior plumbing that was corroded during the crisis. All families affected will be identified using shared data from services line replacement program, FAST START program.
3. Produce a satisfactory report showing healthy water levels in all affected Flint homes tested once all homes plumbing and water tanks have been replaced.
Why is this important?
For nearly five years, the state and city government have doled out symptomatic solutions to a problem that remains unsolved. Contaminated water flowing through our residential pipes caused irreparable damage that comes with an average bill of $15,000 to replace interior plumbing and water heaters. This is a financial burden that countless Flint residents simply cannot bear. Clean water cannot flow through the pipes until all of the poisonous systems are replaced. This, coupled with the harsh reality that many residents faced of turning their water completely off after trying to pay exorbitant water bills and fighting liens against their homes for not paying their water bill during the water crisis, is not acceptable.
Five years later we still keep cases of bottled water stacked in our houses, we cannot brush our teeth using tap water or run clean bath water. The water relief credits, water drives and city programs were a bandage that has yet to stop the bleeding. It’s time to take responsibility for failed government. Flint residents continue to foot the bill on an issue caused by the government that we elected to protect us. As the FAST START program begins to fix the issue, it doesn’t go far enough to address the corroded residential piping. The water crisis is a gross administrative failure and Flint residents should not be held accountable for damages to their pipes from the water crisis. Therefore, we demand that you use your authority to solve this piece of a multi-layered problem and ensure that clean water flows through the city of Flint again. Restore the City of Flint’s faith today by replacing all corroded pipes from the water crisis inside our homes and outside.