Tens of thousands demand financial help!
DETROIT, Michigan - October 8, 2009 - The 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."
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."
