The Flint water crisis began in 2014, after the City of Flint decided to switch the city's water system from the Detroit Water System to the Flint River. 

The city of Flint had dealt with poverty before the crisis occured. In Flint sixty percent of residents are Black and Latinx, and the median household income is less than $30,000 a year, which is half of nearby White communities at similar educational levels (Oshio & Kupperman, 2021).

The City of Flint switched their water source hoping to save more money. However, this made poverty and living conditions worse for the Flint residents.

There are three main effects we will be looking further into that were caused by the Flint water crisis. Flint residents experienced physical health effects, mental health effects, and it affected their living conditions. 

Many of the Flint residents used tap water in their everyday lives for cooking, drinking, and cleaning. Since the tap water was unsafe due to the elevated lead levels many people became ill. 

The contaminated water caused health issues such as rashes, reproductive health issues, diseases, developmental and biological processing issues, and more in residents that consumed or used the water. 

The health effects were seen in both adults and children, but the impacts were much greater for the children in Flint, particularly low-income and minority children. There is lots of data showing children in Flint with very high levels of elevated blood lead level, going from 4.0% before the crisis to 10.6% after (Hanna-Attisha et al., 2016). 

Lead is toxic to the brain and can contribute to lifelong health issues and other disorders developing later in life. Other health concerns seen were hair loss, nausea, and intestinal issues. 

Research and data collected showed that the residents with lower incomes were also facing more physical health issues in Flint. With rashes, hair loss, and nausea being higher among minority groups in lower-income communities (Ezell & Chase, 2021).

The Flint water crisis was a very stressful situation for everyone affected by it. This caused people to develop or increase certain mental health issues. 

Residents with lower incomes and living in more poverty-stricken areas of Flint, ultimately faced more mental health issues due to the actual water and the side effects of the crisis. 

There were many factors that impacted residents’ mental health since the crisis, such as health, home condition, aggression or violence, fear, divorce, and more (Sobeck, Smith-Darden, Hicks, et al., 2020). 

Data on mental health of the residents was taken using self-report tests, researchers found that things such as resilience, total coping, and personal coping were correlated with mental health ratings (Sobeck et al., 2020). 

Based on income levels we see that most of the lower-income residents are predominantly minority groups. Mental health increased in the minority groups, this is in part due from stressors associated with public health issues in the already struggling community.

Although Flint residents received aid from many different programs during the crisis, not everyone was able to acquire these resources. There were numerous reasons of why some residents could not receive the resources donated to them.

Reasons including, too long of lines, inconvenient hours, lack of transportation, and more got in the way of residents gaining free resources. Residents were also required to show identification at water PODs which caused undocumented residents to not go out of fear of being detained or deported (Carrera & Key, 2021). 

This also caused distrust in the local and federal government. Data collected from the CASPER assessment in 2016 showed that widespread distrust and high rates of distress were collected across the Flint population (Sneed, Dotson, Brewer, et al., 2020).    

Residents faced worse living conditions during the crisis due in part from having to spend more money and time obtaining safe and clean water for themselves and their families. 

People who were low-income suffered worse living conditions than residents of higher incomes. This is due in part because of not being able to afford bottled water, having to work and not being able to receive water PODs, or not being able to work and not receiving new water service line pipes. 

Parents also reported changes in their children’s health since the crisis and due to this over a fifth of participants reported their ability to attend work or school because of the effects of the crisis (Heard-Garris, Roche, Carter, et al., 2017).