A Forgotten Population

Flint seniors are still navigating the costs of the water crisis

By Harrison Zuritsky

Everyone in Flint has been affected by the water crisis in one way or another. The costs that continue to arise for senior citizens seem to be exacerbated by their fixed incomes and limited resources. Between handling medical care, transporting bottled water to their homes and replacing appliances, residents have been hit hard by all of the unexpected costs of the crisis. Conversations with some of Flint’s elder residents during a visit to the city earlier this year revealed how they are navigating the financial stressors. Harrison Zuritsky reports.

A Forgotten Population

Flint seniors are still navigating the costs of the water crisis

Annette Whitt, a 66-year-old lifelong Flint resident, points out a stain on her bath faucet.
Credit: Asher Ben-Dashan

Annette Whitt describes her eye and skin issues that she blames on the water crisis.
Credit: Asher Ben-Dashan

“I'm going to clean it today. I probably have to use a knife to get in the groove of this,” Annette Whitt says. She noticed a buildup of minerals on the faucet during a tour of her house. Credit: Asher Ben-Dashan

Carroll Kinkade, 75, lost her husband around the start of the water crisis which scared her away from using the water. Credit: Asher Ben-Dashan

Elizabeth Taylor, 81, suffers from osteopenia, a bone mass condition, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She shares how medical issues have made buying bottled water difficult. Credit: Asher Ben-Dashan

Elizabeth Taylor brings two cases of 32-count bottled water to her house each week. Credit: Asher Ben-Dashan

A 24-count case of bottled water weighs 27.2 lbs. Senior residents say they struggle to carry these. Credit: Harrison Zuritsky

Deborah Holmes is the executive director of Brennan Senior Center in Flint. She’s been in the position since 2012. Credit: Harrison Zuritsky

Carroll Kinkade’s water bill. Credit: Asher Ben-Dashan

Rose Morrow, 60, talks in the recreation room at Hasselbring Senior Center, where she volunteers. Credit: Asher Ben-Dashan

SCENE #1: HOME – ANNETTE SHOWS ME THE GRIMINESS OF HER HOME

[Annette Whitt opens her shower curtain]

Whitt:
See this higher cruddy stuff like–I was trying to scrub this off but you can't. And I had to buy a new one of these too.

[Ambient sound of Annette Whitt scraping her bath]

Zuritsky:
Annette Whitt is leaning over her bathtub showing me her faucet. She’s 66 years old and a lifelong resident of Flint. She points out how the tap water stains her appliances.

Whitt:
So you have to buy a new toilet and a new faucet because it messes it up and then it leaves brown marks when you take a shower or bath. It leaves brown marks down here on your drain thing. That's nasty.

Zuritsky:
In 2014, to save money, the city changed its water source to the Flint River, exposing residents to contaminants including lead, fecal coliform bacteria and TTHM, a cancer-causing chemical that were a byproduct of treatment. Although officials say water quality has recovered, residents don’t trust them, or what’s coming out of their pipes. As a result, Annette and most others avoid using the water as much as possible. They only use bottles when it comes to drinking, cooking and washing. Many of them even refuse to wash their clothes in it.

Whitt:
I don't drink it. I don't cook with it, none of that. This man from… I go out to Kroger's and Davidson to buy my water all the time. So I was in there yesterday, I bought six more. He said, by God, you guys sure got a lot of water. I said, we live in the city of Flint. What you expect?

Zuritsky:
In her basement, Annette points out a stack of bottles that reaches the ceiling. She buys six to eight cases every month for her and her son, a cost of about $50. She’s also had eye and skin issues she blames on the contaminated water that was pumped into her house during the crisis. This has led to countless visits to the dermatologist and eye doctor, all requiring copayments that add up.

Whitt:
Every time I went it was $25. When I went to the eye doctor it was $25… I was going to the eye doctor at least once a month…So after I turned I think 65 or 66, I only had to pay $10 for office call now. But that's still money…

Zuritsky:
Annette is one of many seniors I connect with during a visit to Flint in March. I’m traveling with a team of eight reporters to look into ways the community has recovered. My conversations with seniors reveal how difficult the crisis continues to be for them.

I sit down with Carroll Kinkade at the Gloria Coles Public Library. She tells me how her husband’s death around the start of the crisis scared her away from using the water.

SCENE #2: LIBRARY – KINKADE IS CONSTANTLY BATTLING COSTS AND DISTRUST

Kinkade:
I do not like to even turn the faucet on. I use it to flush my toilet and wash my dishes…I wash my body outside of Flint water. I will not use it any more than I absolutely have to.

Carroll, who is 75, even washes her clothes at a laundromat, another hit to her fixed income of $1200 a month.

Kinkade:
I'm lucky if I get out of the laundromat for $20 a visit and maybe every other week, so that's $40 a month… I've got my heat at 55 degrees for the winter, which is absolutely frigid and I'm still paying over $200 a month for power.

Zuritsky:
I meet Carroll several times over my week in Flint. She shows me her 1994 Cadillac DeVille. The rubber lining that holds her windows is peeling off. She wants to get it repaired.

Kinkade:
Where do you get money that you don't have?

Zuritsky:
Like everyone, she is still paying for bottled water, which adds $60 to $90 a month to her grocery bill. It’s a constant theme. All of these additional expenses have paralyzed her budget to the extent that she can only fill her car’s gas tank once a month.

Kinkade:
When I get low on gas, I simply park. I stay home for days and weeks at a time sometimes.

SCENE #3: HOTEL ROOM – TAYLOR’S WATER AND HEALTH ISSUES

I also talk to Elizabeth Taylor. She’s a lively 81 year old who loves origami and her workout classes. Each week, she goes to the grocery store to buy two cases of water, because that's all she can carry from her car into her house.

Taylor:
So picking up that water, putting it off the shelf on the cart at the grocery store is an issue. So I've got it there. Now I got to get it on the counter to have it checked out unless a nice clerk walks around and checks it. So I got it that far. Now I've got to get it into the car. Now I've got to get it out of the car and into the house.

Zuritsky:
To add to her difficulties, Elizabeth was diagnosed in 2023 with osteopenia. That’s a bone mass condition.

Taylor:
I've already been told by the doc, because I have osteopenia, which is air pockets, holes in your spine. “Don't pick up those heavy things.” Well, I mean my personality is like if I can't find somebody, I'm not going to just stand there until somebody shows up.

Zuritsky:
I wanted to see for myself what Elizabeth grapples with so after our conversation, I went to the Family Dollar in Flint to lift the same cases she hauls into her house. At 36 pounds each, the cases are heavy, bulky and awkward.

[Ambient sounds of beeping, cash register and water bottle cases hitting the shopping cart]

Zuritsky:
Elizabeth has tried to cope with all this stress by seeing a therapist. That’s another cost to her budget at $50 to $75 every session.

Taylor:
I had lost my son and my best friend and then another best friend. I was just spiraling and I was going through cancer treatment.

Zuritsky:
In 2023, Elizabeth was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She insists it's a result of the tainted water.

Taylor:
It was just too much. And that's why I asked for a trauma counselor. I was like–shit, I’m in a state of trauma.

SCENE #4: SENIOR CENTER DIRECTOR

Zuritsky:
Toward the end of my week in Flint, I make my way about 2 miles outside of downtown to visit the Brennan Senior Center, which serves residents 55 years and older.

[Nat sound of a woman sewing in a room at Brennan Senior Center]

I’m here to speak with Deborah Holmes. She’s been the executive director since two years before the water crisis hit.

Holmes:
Honestly, the seniors have always been forgotten, and in many ways they've always been forgotten. And they definitely were forgotten with this water crisis.

Zuritsky:
Deborah says a lot of the seniors at the center became sick after the switch to the Flint River water and stopped coming in.

Holmes:
I saw seniors that were healthy seniors, they would come in to this center every single day, work out, walk. And then all of a sudden, I think within a month of this water crisis, the next thing they got sick and they died.

Zuritsky:
For those who kept coming, she saw first-hand how the crisis impacted their budgets.

Holmes:
The lead in the water destroyed like their hot water heaters, their faucets and so forth.

Zuritsky:
All of those appliances had to be replaced.

Holmes:
So this was money that they had to use from out of their pockets, and quite a few of the seniors are retired, and it made a big hit on them…And my concern was when they retired, they didn't put this in their budget that they would have to spend money like this for a cause that was created by man.

Zuritsky:
Today, in addition to all the expenses they incurred from polluted water, residents are now facing a 6% increase on their water bills, which are already among the highest in the state. That’s according to the nonprofit Food and Water Watch which monitors government accountability.

SCENE #5: SENIOR CENTER VOLUNTEER

[Rose responding to community members as they walk into the senior center]

Zuritsky:
Later that day, I visit another senior center called Hasselbring. Rose Morrow is at the front desk. She is a volunteer here. She’s 60 and pays college tuition for her daughter. She adds up what she spends on water on a sticky note.

Morrow:
Okay, so that's $120 plus $42.80 plus $50. So that's $212 and 80 cents a month just for drinking water.

Zuritsky:
That’s what she’s paying for bottled water for drinking, cooking and washing. And then there’s the city water bill on top of that.

Morrow:
And then the bill normally, oops, $212.80. So $212.80 plus another, basically $160 a month for the water bill itself.

Zuritsky:
She’s shocked when she adds up the yearly total.

Morrow:
So it's $2,553.60 a year that I'm spending because of the water crisis. That's crazy. You just made me add that up. I never knew I was spending $2000. I just know I spend it, but I never sit down and did the numbers until you asked me. Wow, that's $2,553.60 I could be using on something else.

Zuritsky: .
This is Harrison Zuritsky from Michigan for Flint Unfiltered.