Vacant and Abandoned Properties: Turning Liabilities Into Assets | HUD USER The absence of universal definitions of vacancy and abandonment complicates efforts to assess the number of vacant and abandoned properties nationally.Vacant and abandoned properties are linked to increased rates of crime (particularly arson) and declining property values. The maintenance or demolition of vacant properties is a huge expense for many cities.It is critical to match strategies for combating vacancy to neighborhood market conditions. Vacant lots can be greened and repurposed for new uses, such as this play area in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood. Photo courtesy: Sara InnamoratoDerelict houses, dormant factories, moribund strip malls, and other types of vacant and abandoned properties are among the most visible outward signs of a community’s reversing fortunes. Properties that have turned from productive use to disuse are found in cities, suburbs, and rural areas throughout the country, and they vary widely in size, shape, and former use.
Detroit housing market remains mystery after bankruptcy | 2013-07-19 | Housingwire With its Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing on Thursday, Detroit officially filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States. The purpose of Chapter 9 is to provide a financially distressed municipality protection from its creditors while it develops and negotiates a plan for adjusting its debts, according to data provided by the U.S. federal court system. The city's downfall began as early as the turn of the century. During the housing crisis, Detroit struggled more than most housing markets. However, toward the beginning of 2013, Detroit housing started to make a turnaround. According to the Zillow (Z) Q2 Real Estate Market Reports, set to release next week, the Detroit metro began its turnaround in November 2011, after falling 52% from its peak. So what does the city’s bankruptcy mean for housing? "Unlike some other recent municipal bankruptcies, the Detroit bankruptcy is rooted in long-term economic and financial challenges.
Report confirms root of Detroit foreclosure crisis – Workers World A powerful report on Detroit’s foreclosure crisis was published in the Detroit News June 25-27. (See tinyurl.com/ncymc9f.) The articles were the product of months of investigation by reporters Joel Kurth and Christine McDonald. They document what Workers World newspaper has stated for years: The banks are responsible for the destruction of Detroit’s neighborhoods and the loss of 240,000 residents since 2005. McDonald and Kurth set out the following facts: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. How did the crisis happen? Kurth and McDonald show how mass foreclosures in Detroit were a direct product of massive subprime lending in the city. Subprime loans have interest rates at least 3 percent above benchmarks established by government and various lending indexes. These low interest rates would soon adjust upward to an unaffordable payment for homeowners, leading to mortgage defaults and foreclosures. Federal government and tax foreclosures Coalition demands moratorium The Moratorium NOW! Gov. The Moratorium NOW!
Detroit to get $21 million more for blight demolition WASHINGTON — The City of Detroit stands to receive an additional $21.25 million in demolition money from the federal government under a proposal authorized by the Obama administration and approved Wednesday by a state housing board. The money will be enough to take down nearly 1,300 blighted structures if recent averages hold. The Free Press was the first to report that U.S. Treasury officials had signed off on allowing the Michigan State Housing Development Authority to move another $32.7 million of a $498-million award made in 2010 under the Hardest Hit Fund to its demolition account with the lion’s share — roughly two-thirds of the total — going to Detroit and the rest to Flint. Nowhere in the nation has that argument been used more than in Detroit, which had already received or been promised up to $107 million in reimbursements from the fund for tearing down abandoned, decrepit structures. “This program has always been about allowing the states to determine where their needs are.
Housing deals boost Midtown's revival in Detroit Five years after the launch of an incentive program to encourage people to move into areas in and around Detroit's Midtown, organizers of the effort say it has been a success at bringing a diverse mix of people into the neighborhood — so much that the incentives will likely keep going even after the pilot project comes to an end. The Live Midtown program was designed as a five-year deal to offer rental assistance and help employees of businesses in the area purchase homes, condos and lofts as Detroit and the nation emerged from the worst of the recession. It’s funded by three major employers — Wayne State University, the Detroit Medical Center and Henry Ford Health System — that, along with the Hudson-Webber and Kresge foundations, have spent about $1 million a year on the incentives. The goal: to encourage workers to move in and stay in the neighborhood — and in their jobs. He's happy with his decision to stay. How the incentives worked The good and bad about Midtown What’s great …
Detroit foreclosure crisis strips city of homes Laura McDermott for Al Jazeera America On the block where Jessie West lives, the buffer against decay has been her family, and her many relatives, including her mother and three siblings, who all have homes there. Still, roughly 15 homes have become blighted, been foreclosed or been bulldozed by the city on her block in recent years, she says. But not a single streetlight there has been replaced, even though Duggan’s administration has thus far installed 40,000 LED streetlamps in more densely populated and upscale neighborhoods. “This used to be a pretty, tree-lined street with carpetlike grass and manicured lawns,” says West. “We can’t afford to buy back this house in the county auction, even at a low price,” says West, who has 2- and 6-year-old grandchildren also living in her home. Her family moved to Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood from Arkansas in the 1950s. The stress from uncertainty has weighed heavily on West and her two daughters for weeks now.
Detroit police feel pain of city's financial collapse Feb 23, 2014 By Sharon Cohen Associated Press DETROIT — It has come to this: Even some criminals sympathize with Detroit's cops. Baron Coleman thought he'd heard it all in his 17 years patrolling the streets. "When they saw us take a pay cut they were in shock. Detroit police officers have long known adversity: They've worked in crumbling station houses with busted pipes, driven run-down cars, tangled with balky radios. As Detroit tries to rebound — a plan to emerge from bankruptcy was filed Friday — few groups, if any, have been feeling the pain of the city's financial collapse more than the police. Baron Coleman knows it's hard being a police officer anywhere. Nearly a generation ago, when Coleman traded a factory job for a badge and crisp blue uniform, he had certain expectations: a good salary, great benefits and a pension. The bankruptcy erased all that. "Right now, the dream of what I came on for has been destroyed," he says. He is the fifth man to hold the position in five years.
Ex-Detroit mayor Kilpatrick loses appeal of conviction Amid Detroit's resurgence, foreclosure crisis still threatens homeowners The new owner and the former owner faced off in the hallway of the brick house, which sits on a pleasant, tree-lined street. Howard Franklin and his daughter, Catherine, wanted to move in, but the people who had lost the home in a tax foreclosure had not moved out. Voices got loud. Guns were drawn, and bullets ripped through the dark house. When it was over, the 72-year-old Franklin lay dead inside the front door. His 37-year-old daughter was sprawled on the porch, also dead. Police quickly arrested Alonzo Long Jr., a relative of the home's previous owners, but anyone who thought this was a simple homicide case hasn't spent time in Detroit, where foreclosures have turned the killings into a symbol of the economic ills plaguing Detroit despite its emergence from bankruptcy in December. "We do not have a shortage of housing in Detroit. The population has plummeted, too. In January, Duggan said residents should see declines of 5% to 20% when tax bills go out in June. tina.susman@latimes.com
Detroit pays high price for arson onslaught Detroit — Arson is a raging epidemic in Detroit, destroying neighborhoods and lives as the city tries to emerge from bankruptcy. Even amid a historic demolition blitz, buildings burn faster than Detroit can raze them. Last year, the city had 3,839 suspicious fires and demolished 3,500 buildings, according to city records analyzed by The Detroit News. Burned homes scar neighborhoods for years: Two-thirds of those that caught fire from 2010-13 are still standing, records show. "Nothing burns like Detroit," said Lt. Joe Crandall, a Detroit Fire Department arson investigator, referring to the city's high rate of arson. The Detroit News researched arson for more than three months and found that it remains a huge obstacle to renewal efforts following bankruptcy. Few neighborhoods were untouched by arson and the entire city bears its costs. "People don't realize arson is a felony. Arson Chief Charles Simms said the city is making progress in its long struggle with arson. 'Arson is like a cancer'
Everything You Need to Know About Detroit's Bankruptcy - Matthew O'Brien After decades of decline, Detroit is broke. On Thursday, the Motor City filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history on its $18 billion of debt, and faces a future where only one thing is certain: lots of people are going to get much less money than they were promised. Now, I don't like to say that something was ever inevitable, but Detroit's Chapter 9 bankruptcy sure looks that way. Since 1950, its population has retreated from 1.8 million to 700,000 today. And, as you can see in the chart below, via Nate Cohn of The New Republic, it's shrunk 26 percent in just the last decade. That's left a small tax base to pay for the pension promises of a more populous yesteryear. But why has Detroit's decline been of the far more terminal sort than other post-industrial cities? Bankruptcy is probably Detroit's best chance to put some kind of floor under its collapse. The Great Recession didn't cause Detroit's problems, but it did give the city its final kick.