Cobo a scene of desperation
Social service agencies are bracing for more troubles
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http://www.freep.com/article/20091008/NEWS05/910080464/1322/Cobo-a-scene-of-desperationThe economic tsunami washing over metro Detroit swept its casualties to the doors of Cobo Center on Wednesday in the form of 35,000 people so desperate for help with mortgage and utility bills that threats were made, fights broke out and people were nearly trampled.
Some were treated by emergency medical workers on site.
It was one of the most dramatic signs to date of how deeply joblessness and the home foreclosure crisis have pushed people from the lower and middle ends of the economic scale to seek help wherever they can.
City officials said a total of about 65,000 people over the past few days have gotten applications -- due next Wednesday -- for a share of $15.2 million in federal stimulus money to help people avoid foreclosure or quickly rebound from homelessness.
Ultimately, as few as 3,500 people may receive the help.
Area social service agencies worry the problem will worsen because of lingering economic woes and the masses of people who could soon run out of unemployment benefits.
Racquel Sawyers, 35, a laid-off engineer for General Motors and Chrysler, went home after seeing the crush at Cobo. "I'm just trying to do what I can right now," she said.
Kelli Phillips tries to make the numbers work: $650 a month for rent, $300 to $500 a month to heat her old house, plus food for her and her boys, ages 6 and 17.
The unemployed office worker does it all on $1,000 a month, plus "borrowing, doing odd jobs," said Phillips, 42, of Detroit. "I clean houses for people."
That's why she stood in the chaos of thousands lined up outside Cobo Center on Wednesday, hoping for a chance at $3,000 in assistance through a Detroit housing and utility payment program funded through the federal stimulus program.
The huge lines were a sobering glimpse into the deep economic trouble in metro Detroit, but they were no surprise to social service agencies struggling to provide food, clothing, utility and housing assistance to people living in the state with the nation's highest unemployment rate -- 15.2% in August -- and a city where joblessness is approaching 30%.
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Folks are out of work, out of money and running out of hope.
"People seem to be falling between the cracks of government programs that are supposed to help them," said Kristin Seefeldt, a research scientist for the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Seefeldt, who is following 45 low-income Detroit women for a study on the recession's impact on poor people, said the group is a microcosm of what's happening across the state and country. They're losing jobs and having a hard time finding new ones. More than half owe money to utility companies, ranging from $200 to several thousand, that they're unable to pay because groceries, rent and food come first.
"They may be able to keep up with current payments, but there's always this back debt that they owe," Seefeldt said. "People are struggling. They're really struggling. Although, I would say many of them would say, 'At least I have a roof over my head.' "
Metro Detroit's economic troubles are severe. Michigan unemployment was at 15.2% in August -- and 27.8% in Detroit proper.
"You have to go back to the 1982 recession to find unemployment levels at or above the levels we're at in 2009," said Bruce Weaver, an economic analyst for the state's Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth.
Weaver said the state lost 330,000 nonfarm jobs between August 2008 and August 2009, a 7.9% drop. Of those, 142,000 were in manufacturing, a 25% drop in that sector.
Social service agencies say they're swamped with requests for aid.
"It's probably the worst hunger crisis we've seen in our history," said Anne Schenk, spokeswoman for Detroit's Gleaners Community Food Bank, the state's largest food bank, serving five counties in southeast Michigan.
Schenk said charitable groups are bracing for even more troubles as the long-term jobless run out of unemployment benefits -- as many as 50,000 in the next few months in Michigan if the federal government doesn't approve an extension.
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"That, we're anticipating, is going to throw a lot more families into poverty," Schenk said. "It's going to happen three months from now, or six months from now, or within the year. We are looking at every strategy available to us to get more food and get it out" to agencies that provide food directly.
Heading into 2009, Michigan was already in bad shape. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2008, 1.4 million Michiganders lived below the poverty line, about 14% of the state's population. In Detroit, the number was 33%. The bureau puts the poverty level at about $22,000 in yearly household income for a family of four.
Bill Sullivan, director of 211, the services hotline of United Way for Southeastern Michigan, said the region is being jolted by job losses and a culture and society that are unsustainable.
"What we saw at Cobo today is nothing new" to people struggling to get by, Sullivan said. "It's new to everyone else. The people who are most affected by a lack of jobs, what they experienced today is what they experience every day on a certain level."
Robyn Smith, community relations director for the Coalition on Temporary Shelter, said the tremendous crush of people didn't sadden her.
"I'm happy because there's something available," she said as she collected filled-out applications from a doorway guarded by a Detroit police officer to keep people from slipping in. COTS provides 44,000 shelter nights a year to the city's homeless people, about 40% families and about half working poor people.
People fainted and others fought as police tried to keep people calm and cooperative in line at Cobo, with some waiting since Tuesday night. By 11:45 a.m., Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's office sent out word for people to stay away.
Inside Cobo, lines led up to a crush of people outside the Riverview Ballroom, where Detroit Planning & Development employees were to hand out applications. At about 10:30 a.m., a shoving match broke out in the crowd, and many of the people bolted away.
"It's a disaster here," City Council candidate Gary Brown said. Brown, a former Detroit Police assistant chief, handed out bottles of water to those in line. "This is dangerous. Very unorganized, very dangerous."
Police said only a few people were hospitalized for medical issues or minor injuries in the skirmishing.
Camille Lewis and Lakia Montgomery, both 25 and longtime friends, moved in together to save money after Lewis was laid off from her Aramark job cooking at Cobo and Montgomery was let go from an adult foster care position.
"When that happened, we had to move in together," Lewis said. "That's what's making it easier."
Contact MATT HELMS: 313-222-1450 or mhelms@freepress.com. Free Press data analyst Kristi Tanner contributed to this report.
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