Residents urge Flint council to do more on homelessness, trash and safety

Several Flint residents used the public-hearing period to press council on immediate neighborhood needs.

Christina Porter said she had been told that CPS (Child Protective Services) was placing single mothers with daughters age two and under into a local motel (the Travel Inn), and called on the city to find better housing for those families: “No way should a two-year-old be living with her mother in a room,” she said. Porter said she has a list of vacant trailers and low-cost housing options she has offered to coordinate with council members.

Rich Jones urged a 30-day curbside cleanup plan and called for a gang task force after describing multiple shootings that had damaged homes. Beverly Biggs Levy (a candidate for the third-ward council seat) described an unrepaired street defect that has sat for months and warned that poor repairs are wasting taxpayer money.

Public commenters repeatedly linked visible blight and trash to safety concerns. The council thanked the speakers and several members said they would pursue community-engagement activities and look into enforcement and service responses; no formal direction to change CPS practice was made during the hearing, and no CPS official responded to the claim.