Jay and Latonya Lloyd, tenants at the Highland Towers apartments on Woodward avenue. DTE Energy cut off the service after the landlord did not pay the bills. A delegation of tenants went to DTE Energy. (Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe)
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Media Advisory
Event: Emergency Protest at DTE Energy: Turn Power on at Highland Towers!
Location: DTE Headquarters, Bagley at Third, Across From MGM Casino
Time: Noon-1:00pm
Sponsor: Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions & Utility Shut-offs
Contact: 313.671.3715 or 887.4344
E-mail: moratorium@moratorium-mi.org
URL: http://www.moratorium-mi.org
Emergency Demonstration at DTE Energy Headquarters to Demand the Restoration of Service at the Highland Towers Apartments; Gather at Bagley and Third at Noon on Friday, September 4
On August 31, the residents of the Highland Towers apartments, located at 12850 Woodward avenue in Highland Park, had their lights and natural gas services cut off by DTE Energy. The owners of the apartment complex, which has been neglected for years by the landlords, had not paid over $100,000 in utility bills. Since Monday, DTE Energy has refused to restore the services despite the fact that there are hundreds of tenants in the building who were not notified of the impending shut-offs.
Every day that DTE Energy refuses to turn the electricity and gas services back on a worse humanitarian situation is being created at Highland Towers. The apartment building has women with small children, people with disabilities and tenants of all ages who have medical problems that require electricity and gas services.
Latonya Lloyd, who has lived in the Highland Towers for two years, suffers from asthma and needs electricity for the use of breathing equipment. Her husband has sent their eight-year-old daughter to her grandmother's home pending the restoration of their energy services. Mrs. Jene Weiss, 88, has lived in the apartment for thirty years. She is blind in one eye and walks with a cane.
Other people in the apartment suffer from kidney problems, diabetes, hypertension and other serious diseases. Their lives are literally being jeopardized by continuing to reside there under these distressed circumstances. The failure of the owners, who are reportedly having financial difficulties, to pay utility bills is not the fault of the tenants. They have paid their rents which included money for electricity and gas services.
A delegation of tenants from the Highland Towers along with members of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs, went to DTE Energy headquarters on Thursday, September 3 to demand a meeting with the corporate executives in charge at the company. Although the delegation was told that they would have someone from DTE come out to meet with them, after waiting for 75 minutes, a security officer walked into the lobby and informed the tenants and their supporters that there was no one to talk with them.
Therefore, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition is putting out a call for activists, advocates for working people and the poor as well as all people of goodwill, to come out to a demonstration outside DTE on Friday, September 4 at Noon. We must demand that DTE take responsibility for this crisis and turn the power back on for the residents at Highland Towers to avoid further pain and suffering.
The Moratorium NOW! Coalition is calling for an immediate moratorium on utility shut-offs in the metropolitan Detroit area and throughout Michigan. With the rising unemployment, poverty rates, the budget deficits plaguing the cities, counties and the state, there is an urgent need for Governor Granholm to declare an economic state of emergency in order to avoid further suffering among working people and the poor.
The declaration of an economic emergency would provide the ability of the state government to appeal directly to Washington for federal funds designed to provide for the needs of the people. The Governor could impose an immediate moratorium on foreclosures, evictions and utility shut-offs pending the outcome of the present crisis.
The failure of the city, county and state governments to take immediate action to provide relief to millions of people in the region, requires a mass struggle on the part of the people in this area. We must mobilize the people to fight against the cut backs and the elimination of essential services such as housing, food, water, utilities and jobs. To join our efforts contact the Moratorium NOW! Coalition at the numbers listed above.
Abayomi Azikiwe,
Media Liaison
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