Demand rises for publicly funded burials

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Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-08-19-funerals_N.htm

Demand rises for publicly funded burials
Updated 2h 19m ago
By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY
The rough economy is inflicting hardship on people even in death.

Coroners and funeral directors in several cities say the number of people seeking government-paid funerals, cremations and burials is spiking. Most counties and states will use public money to cremate or bury people who are too poor to pay for private services.

"People just aren't in a position to pay $7,000 for a private funeral and burial," says Lt. David Smith of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, where the number of people seeking county burial has nearly doubled since last year.

The percentage of people in poverty in the USA is climbing, says Gregory Acs, a senior fellow at The Urban Institute. When the recession started at the end of 2007, about 12.5% of the U.S. population was considered impoverished, up from 11.7% in 2001, he says.

Among the counties noting a surge in requests for indigent burials:

? The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office handled 205 indigent deaths in the last six months of 2007. This year, from Jan. 1 to June 30, the office handled 404 indigent deaths ? a 97% increase. "It has put a major financial strain on this department," Smith says. "I need to come up with $12,000 a month in a budget that's locked up tight as a drum."

Then in February, the county crematory notified the coroner it was overflowing with natural death cases and couldn't handle cases from the coroner, who handles accidental deaths, homicides and unidentified people, Smith says. "My body count in my crypt swelled to near capacity," Smith says, as he sought a crematory to handle the excess corpses.

? Las Vegas has seen a 22% increase in indigent cremations and burials since last year, says Dan Kulin, a spokesman for Clark County, Nev. In the budget year that ended June 30, 2008, the county handled 741 indigent deaths. In the same period ending June this year, the county handled 904 deaths, he says.

"It's a sign of the times," Kulin says.

? Kenton County, Ky., is expecting a record year of indigent burials. The 29 indigent burials as of Aug. 13 are more than double last year's total of 12, says Don Catchen, whose funeral home has the county contract for indigent burials.

Catchen offers a minimal private funeral and cremation for $1,400.

"With the economy being what it is, some of the lesser-income families ? are barely surviving and they don't have any money to pay for even a minimum funeral service," he says.

"I've had the (county) contract 14 years," he says, "and it's never been like this before."

 

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Re: Demand rises for publicly funded burials

Source: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2009/12/26/12273771-ap.html


Detroit families too poor to bury dead
By Corey Williams, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


DETROIT - Forgotten in death or abandoned by loved ones, Dewanda McNeil, Maurice Webber and Alan Jones were laid to rest in pauper's graves, their names left to be recognized by a half-dozen strangers at a service in a small Detroit funeral chapel.

Times are tough for the living in Detroit and unforgiving for dozens - like McNeil, Webber and Jones - dying alone and poor in the economically distressed city. Taxpayers increasingly are paying to dispose of unclaimed bodies in cities and towns throughout the United States, but the problem appears more acute in Detroit, where nearly a third of working adults are without jobs, and the poverty rate has reached 33.8 per cent.

McNeil, Webber and Jones were recognized at the once-a-month Celebration of Friends service at Perry Funeral Home, started last year by Paul Betts after he heard about the unclaimed dead. Those who attend light candles, say prayers and sing hymns to recognize the deceased.

"We're here to celebrate the fact that they were part of our world. We're just going to say, 'Thank you,"' Betts said during the service for McNeil, Webber, Jones and others.

In Michigan, where the state helps pay for indigent burials, the number of payments has risen throughout the year. From May to June, alone, they soared from 577 to 1,067. In October and November, the state averaged 1,268 payments per month, compared with 637 for those two months last year.

As bagged and tagged bodies pile cold and stiff in the Wayne County medical examiner's two refrigerated storage rooms and one freezer, some next of kin are faced with two options: paying for a funeral out of their pockets or keeping their own families above water.

"People are losing their homes. They can't keep food on the table," said Albert Samuels, medical examiner's chief investigator. "There's no way we can compel somebody to come and bury their loved ones."

About 3,700 corpses each year are wheeled into the medical examiner's office on Detroit's east side. Samuels said between 50 and 60 of the corpses now being stored are unclaimed, about double the number at any time in 2008. Since the budget year that started Oct. 1, the morgue has disposed of 27 unclaimed bodies.

"All of last fiscal year we did 30," he said.

Burials for the unclaimed cost $750 each and are done in volume. The state chips in $585 for each one in Wayne County, and getting the money can take weeks or even months as the state goes through its own fiscal crisis.

"In the meantime, those bodies are sitting here," Samuels said. "We can't bury them first and then ask the state."

Detroit is not alone in the problem. In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, the medical examiner's office waived $93,210 in fees for indigent burials in 2008 and is on track to waive $120,000 in fees this year, operations manager Karen Domagalski said.

"When we do find family, and they are refusing to make burial arrangements, the answer is always that they do not have the money," she said.

In Los Angeles County, California, bodies not claimed by next of kin can be cremated after 30 days. The coroner's office cremated 708 bodies last year. This year's total was 711 as of Dec. 17.

Cleveland and other cities in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, foot the bill for indigent cremations and burials, said Alan Clark, the coroner's office's chief investigator.

"We have one suburb that's all out of money in their budget for indigent funerals," Clark said. "That woman will be here until after the first of the year."

To help with the problem, Wayne County is negotiating to begin cremations and working on a deal to send some bodies to a local mortuary science school to help train students, Samuels said.

Until then, Perry Funeral Home will continue receiving the county's unclaimed, before forwarding them on to Knollwood Memorial Park in Canton Township, about 20 miles (30 kilometres) west of the city, for no-frills burials.

"We bury four people to a plot, each in his or her box," funeral home operations manager Betsy Deak said. "There is no upright headstone. All they have is a flush marker, usually with numbers or letters on it corresponding with information on who is buried."

Knollwood receives about $325 for each unclaimed burial, compared with $3,000 or more for traditional burials and $800 charged to financially struggling families.

"We're not making any money on it. This is a corporal work of mercy," manager Sam Tocco said.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Demand rises for publicly funded burials

Some people are choosing a "green" burial - no chemicals, very low cost, etc. The intention is to be environmentally friendly. See: http://www.ethicalburial.org/

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