Culture

A New Site Allows You to Pay a Detroit Resident's Water Bill

Turn On Detroit's Water matches donors with Detroiters who are under water on their water bills.
Rebecca Cook/Reuters

Last week, a bankruptcy judge ordered the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to come up with answers for helping residents pay their overdue water bills, in light of the thousands of shut-off notices the agency has issued across the city. While the water authority must present its alternatives in court today, two resourceful women have already come up with one solution.

Turn on Detroit's Water is a website that matches donors with Detroiters who are struggling to pay their water bills. The site invites residents with overdue bills to submit their information. From there, the site—which is the work of Tiffani Ashley Bell and Kristy Tillman—matches them with donors willing to assume their obligation.