Detroit: Too broke to bury their dead

http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/01/news/economy/_morgue/

Detroit: Too broke to bury their dead
Money to bury Detroit's poor has dried up, forcing struggling families to abandon their loved ones in the morgue freezer.
By Poppy Harlow

DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- At 1300 E. Warren St., you can smell the plight of Detroit. Inside the Wayne County morgue in midtown Detroit, 67 bodies are piled up, unclaimed, in the freezing temperatures. Neither the families nor the county can afford to bury the corpses. So they stack up inside the freezer.

Albert Samuels, chief investigator for the morgue, said he has never seen anything like it during his 13 years on the job. "Some people don't come forward even though they know the people are here," said the former Detroit cop. "They don't have the money."

Lifelong Detroit residents Darrell and Cheryl Vickers understand this firsthand. On a chilly September morning they had to visit the freezer to identify the body of Darrell's aunt, Nancy Graham -- and say their goodbyes.

The couple, already financially strained, don't have the $695 needed to cremate her. Other family members, mostly in Florida, don't have the means to contribute, either. In fact, when Darrell's grandmother passed recently, his father paid for the cremation on a credit card -- at 21% interest. So the Vickers had to leave their aunt behind. Body number 67.

and perhaps try to raise the money from private sources.

I'd rather look at a cemetery than a boarded up old building that is rotting away.

After all, it doesn't cost the citizens of the city a PENNY, and brings in untold millions.

I think that just might be the answer...

There's going to be so much crybaby crap from the victimology crowd if Chicago wins tomorrow.

I hope Rio gets the nod tomorrow. This whole thing smacks of the American Exceptionalism that is so hated here at DU. The US hosted four Summer Olympic Games in the last century. South America has hosted none, ever.

I don't even care that it's Michelle Obama's birthplace, and Barack Obama's adopted hometown. In fact, I would venture to guess that if neither Barack or Michelle Obama had a close connection to Chicago, the majority of DUers who speak out on the subject of having the Olympic Games there would speak out against it.

I'm seeing a lot of people make the argument that holding the Olympic Games there would create tens of thousands of jobs. I'd ask, how many of those jobs would go to Chicagoans who are currently not working? My guess is that most of those working on infrastructure and stadium stuff are working at this very moment, for one contractor or another.

Case in point: They're building a new bridge into Big Bear Lake, where I live. A project that will last six days a week, for almost two and a half years. There's a sign at the edge of the construction zone that says something about stimulus dollars at work. Well guess what? There are between 16,000 and 18,000 people who live in this valley, and not a single one of them works on the bridge project. Nor were there ever any jobs offered. Suddenly a group of contractors showed up from 6,500 feet below and began work. Every single worker drives up the mountain to work on the project, which makes it none too green if you ask me, but I digress.

Let South America shine. Put South Americans to work. We've hosted the Olympic Games more than our fair share of times.

cremation. If you bury someone you have to dig a grave, have a coffin and fill in the hole. It just costs more to bury than cremate, but not because of lack of space in cemeteries.

The rich get richer and the poor can't even bury their loved ones.

bring out your dead...

I am positive this happens in no other city. Positive.

Poor people in every other city can afford exorbitant funeral costs. That much is clear.