For weeks this summer, Doris Glasper’s taps were dry.
She had paid her rent and utility bills. She knew that much.
But her apartment complex’s owner had not. He owed more than $100,000 to JXN Water, the city’s water authority, and the residents of Blossom Apartments were suffering the consequences.
The 70-year-old grandmother shares a three-bedroom apartment in Jackson with her daughter, two granddaughters and 3-year-old grandson. She knew a full house without water was a recipe for disaster. To make matters worse, it was in the thick of August’s oppressive heat.
The simplest tasks — washing dishes, cleaning up around the house, cooking meals — became complicated. The toilets couldn’t flush properly. Bathing now required a bucket. The bulk of their drinking water came from donations.
The floodwaters that inundated the city’s water system and led to its collapse on Aug. 29, 2022, may have long receded, but the damage done to the city’s water infrastructure and its residents is still being felt. Blossom is one of 15 apartment complexes marked for water shut off due to the landowners’ nonpayment. The same owners — whom tenants paid to cover water service — say they cannot afford to settle six-figure debts with the city’s water authority that ballooned after the area’s water treatment plant failed.
Without running water, the apartments fail to meet the city’s housing and safety codes. Now, hundreds of residents — through no fault of their own — face the threat of eviction and displacement.
In August, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Mississippi for withholding millions of dollars in emergency aid owed to Jackson that could help vulnerable residents like Glasper.
“This is still a very real crisis that is effectively evicting people from their homes,” said Crystal McElrath, a senior supervising attorney for the SPLC’s Economic Justice litigation team. “Now folks have to scramble to put down deposits and rental application fees while they’re also looking to buy bottled water and feed themselves because of this.”
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