Recession, fleeing firms and the auto slump stagger Michigan
At 8:30 in the morning, outside St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Detroit, about 20 men slouch against a wall, waiting for Father Tom Lumpkin to open a soup kitchen. Some are the traditional clients: winos and street people, refugees from a coherent, workaday life. But these days there is a new and growing group whose presence seems to Father Lumpkin a shocking sign of Michigan's economic blues. They are men in their prime, sturdy, able but unemployed, and baffled to find themselves taking charity.
Says one, a black who identifies himself only as John:...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
