A Water Crisis Is Growing In A Place You’d Least Expect It

This story is part of a collaboration with APM Reports, the investigative unit of American Public Media, and Great Lakes Today.

For months, Rev. Falicia Campbell kept a secret from her congregation, her friends and even her adult children. It was a secret she was ashamed to divulge: She was living without running water.

Like a growing number of Americans, the 63-year-old Chicago resident couldn’t afford to pay her rising water bills. She inherited her mother’s house in Englewood, a poor neighborhood on the city’s South Side, and last year received a $5,000 bill.