Commentary: Southeastern Michigan braces for safety net to break

The social levies are breaking in my city, my metropolitan region, my home, my heart.

An economic Katrina is hitting metro Detroit, devastating dozens of square miles and tens of thousands of families.

The small-minded Senate Republicans from the South -- one of the most bailed-out, subsidized regions for decades -- who argue government shouldn't help the Detroit Three automakers should heed a warning: either you invest in jobs, or you invest in welfare, pension guarantees and the reconstruction of a regional economy not unlike that of New Orleans and the American South.

That is exactly the kind of scenario which we are facing here in Southeastern Michigan, ground zero of an economic Katrina that began in 2001. Already we have lost more than 350,000 jobs. In 2009 we anticipate we will lose at least another 100,000. By 2010 add at least another 60,000 jobs, wrecked and gone.

And that's if the automakers actually survive.

Other states are just beginning to feel the wrenching losses that we have for seven straight years. And the worst hasn't hit yet.

Unlike New Orleans' Hurricane Katrina, there is no stinking Superdome providing refuge for the newly displaced here. No federal swat teams are coming to help. No helicopters are swooping in to rescue the sick and suddenly-homeless.

Unlike New Orleans, our story lacks a dramatic one-month narrative arc of death and survival. Our Katrina is ravaging families more slowly, as a kettle of water warms and turns to a boil, gradually killing its lobster.

But our region is being devastated, nonetheless.

Rising need

Our equivalent of New Orleans' levies is our tattered safety net, and local leaders are not sure how long it will hold.

Tent cities are sprouting up like winter grass in public parks. Suburbanites in Oakland County flock to shelters overwhelmed by the influx of new refugees.

Doctors say they're seeing suicide and depression skyrocket. Local food banks are going dry for the first time in history. Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan reports a 70 percent increase in need this fall compared to fall 2007.

"The suburbs are really where you're seeing the need grow, as jobs disappear," says Gerry Brisson, Gleaners' senior vice president.

In Plymouth recently, Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church heard of growing hunger in its community and recently hosted an event with Gleaners.

They prepared for 250 families to come for food donations, and 700 families showed up. "And that's in Plymouth! Plymouth!" Brisson said of the upscale suburb. "That is far removed from the really poor folks in the city and older suburbs."

Days later, a Warren church invited Gleaners to come and distribute food to 150 families -- and 1,700 families showed up.

"Our driver arrived at 8 am and hundreds of people were waiting," Brisson said. "What does that say about the safety net?"

What is so worrisome is how much darker the landscape is expected to grow over the next two years. Thousands of people who took forced buy-outs will see their buy-out money run out. Last week Governor Jennifer Granholm, facing yet another of state deficit, passed an executive order to cut another $23 million in assistance for the struggling.

By next year, Gleaners anticipates local emergency food needs will rise as much as 50 percent -- threatening to crash our social levies altogether.

"It's going to take much more than just food banks," Brisson says. "The food bank network was designed to be a short-term stop gap. It's going to take good government to really help families who are going to need the help in the mid-term."

"One in 8 people in Michigan relies on food assistance, and the trend line shows no sign of abating," says Sharon Parks, President of the Michigan League for Human Services.

Broken covenant?

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Americans watched in protest as our federal government failed to protect and help our fellow citizens in their time of greatest need.

For many people, it was if we watched a covenant being broken, a social contract between neighbors, civic institutions and our government, the glue which has held us together despite our diversity and differences: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

What should be so disturbing to all Americans is that Michigan's growing crisis demonstrates that New Orleans was no anomaly. We are watching our social covenant being broken yet again.

Where are the national reporters, the television cameras, and the outrage? Where are the national advocacy organizations? Where are the Americans of good hearts and good intentions?

Thousands of people in my region cry out to Washington for help. One woman I spoke with last week began weeping when I asked her about the impact this economic crisis is having in her life. She described neighbors on the verge of foreclosure; a friend who lost his job just two weeks before he would become eligible for a full pension; families split up this Christmas as one spouse works hundreds of miles away to send money back home.

Perhaps most importantly, she has lost faith in her government and her country.

"We all bought into a lie, that the value of everything was going to go up, that our mortgages and our jobs were somewhat secure," said Donna Laing of Plymouth, whose husband has seen his company shrink from about 300 to 5 people nationwide.

I don't believe all of America doesn't care. I believe it does not know how truly awful our situation is becoming here.

But Washington knows, and for seven straight years, it has turned away.

A nation's people define itself by how it responds to the needs of the hungry and vulnerable, especially during a time of crisis.

Washington can choose to support Michigan and the rest of the Rustbelt through this perilous time by investing in jobs or in welfare, or neither.

What will it be, America? What is this country made of? Are we who we say we are?

The people of southeastern Michigan call out and ask, as our levies give away.

A benefit for Gleaners Community Food Bank will be held tonight from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at Café Felix, 204 S. Main St., Ann Arbor, 48104. Suggested donation is $10. Or to donate directly, go to Gleaner's website:http://www.gcfb.org/site/PageServer">www.gcfb.org/site/PageServer

Editorial Board Writer Amber Arellano writes a column on culture and politics each week. Find her columns anytime at:http://www.detnews.com/arellano">www.detnews.com/arellanoEmail her at:aarellano@detnews.com">aarellano@detnews.com