SAVE DETROIT HOMES – REMOVE ALL OCCUPIED HOMES FROM THE TAX FORECLOSURE AUCTION THIS FALL
Use the City’s or County’s “Right to First Refusal” in Combination with the Hardest Hit Funds to Save Occupied Homes
We demand that:
1. The City of Detroit or Wayne County exercise its “Right to First Refusal” and remove all occupied homes from the upcoming auction of tax foreclosed properties.
2. The City or County, in coordination with MSHDA, purchase the occupied homes using the Hardest Hit Funds.
3. The City or County returns ownership of the occupied homes to the occupants. In the case of occupied rental or investor-owned homes, ownership would be transferred to the occupants.
Michigan received an additional $260 million in Hardest Hit Homeowner Funds from the federal government. While the stated purpose of these funds, which are the people’s share of the federal bank bailout, is to keep families in their homes, the state has allocated $231 million for blight removal, leaving only $47 million to pay off delinquent property tax bills and mortgage arrearages to keep people in their homes.
But Gov. Snyder’s MSHDA which administer the funds has made it almost impossible for families get to these funds! In contrast, according to the Special Inspector General, there is no supervision over how the blight programs are run, and now the Detroit Land Bank and Blight Taskforce are under investigation for criminal fraud for their misuse of these funds.
With these Federal funds available, there is no excuse for any Detroit resident to be losing their home as a result of a tax foreclosure, or face a water shut-off which is an effective eviction. Wayne County Treasurer Eric Sabree, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and the Great Lakes Water Authority should declare immediate moratoriums (halts) on evictions resulting from tax foreclosures and water shut-offs.
Join the fight to save homes from foreclosure/eviction. Weekly organizing meetings:
Mondays at 7 PM at 5920 Second Ave., Detroit, MI 48202
For more information, please call 313-680-5508 or 248-470-0296
MORATORIUM NOW! COALITION – moratorium-mi.org
We can win this fight if people get involved.