In March, the city of Flint, Michigan, started to issue water shutoff notices to homeowners warning that their water would be shut off for unpaid bills. Now, more than 8,000 homeowners are facing foreclosure over their water bills.
According to a local NBC affiliate, the city began issuing the shutoff notices and then tax lien notices to residents who were not paying their water bills in six months or more.
“We have to have revenue coming in, so we can’t…give people water at the tap and not get revenue coming in to pay those bills,” Al Mooney, a spokesperson for Flint’s treasury department, told NBC 25 on Tuesday.
This move comes after credits were cut off in February that would help the citizens of Flint pay for their water, after the city had declared that the lead levels in the water had gone down to a level that met federal regulation guidelines.
The local government claims that it is strapped for revenue and that the water shutoff notices and foreclosures have resulted in hundred of thousands more revenue being collected from Flint residents. In the meantime, the citizens themselves have to wait until 2020 for officials to replace lead pipes that contribute to water contamination.