Still (Not) News in Flint

EVENT

The following headlines made the front page of the Flint Journal's Sunday Edition this week, instead of a public housing debacle requiring immediate attention.

Get plenty of sunshine, doctor says
Fenton man is still a guy's guy despite loss in contest

215 families are losing their housing subsidies they've already been promised due to mismanagement by the Flint Housing Commission (which does not even leave a phone number at which to be contacted). There has been no reportage of any action by the Housing Commission, such as scaling back rather than revoking vouchers, or limiting utility access as a means of avoiding eviction. 215 families could represent well over 1% of Flint's population, but there has been next to no coverage of this critical story. There have been two brief articles and a staff editorial since the story broke almost two months ago.

Three things residents and nonresidents can do to help:

1) Complain to the Flint Journal about the lack of coverage.
You can send your tactful but emphatically expressed sentiments to Mary Ann Chick Whiteside at mwhiteside@flintjournal.com

2) Contact the City of Flint at http://www.cityofflint.com/emailus/e_mail.asp and insist that funds be allocated to restore vouchers or otherwise accomodate those families deprived.
You can also complain that there is no contact information listed for the Flint Housing Commission.
You can also complain that area nonprofits have been indefinitely deprived of state funding due to blocks applied by Mayor Don Williamson's administration.

3) Make a donation by cheque or money order to:
Salem Housing CDC
3216 Martin Luther King Blvd.
Flint, MI 48505

This is an innovative and resourceful area nonprofit that is debatably providing more and better low-income housing than the HUD supervized FHC.

~ Connor

PS. This post will be repeated weekly, until this problem is dealt with.