Predatory loans destroyed Detroit’s neighborhoods and bankers got off scot free. Hardest Hit funds from the federal government are being used to knock down houses, not save people’s homes in Detroit. Tax bills based on inflated assessments also take the homes. Arson is rarely investigated. At the same time, there is an urban plan, the Detroit Future City plan, which empties out most of Detroit for wind farms to power a white downtown and plans for canals for yachts. Detroiters experience their neighborhoods being destroyed everyday with foreclosures, school closings, bull dozers and arson, homeowners become renters as African American wealth is captured in foreclosures – a visible and painful reminder that racism is alive and well.
Film length: 1 hour 17 minutes
RESOURCES ABOUT DETROIT HOUSING, BLIGHT AND GENTRIFICATION
HOUSING: FORECLOSURE
- Detroit Eviction Defense
- United Community Housing
- According to Foreclosure Detroit, from 2005 to October 2011 there were about 63,150 mortgage foreclosures in Detroit. Of course there are many more since then.
- In the US 49% of all loans to African Americans and 39% to Latinos were sub prime.
- According to The Hill, a lawsuit charged that just ONE of the subprime lenders victimized between 5,000 and 6,000 Detroit-area homeowners. The loans were made by a subprime lender that Morgan Stanley principally financed. The complaint charged that Morgan Stanley pushed the lender to make a large amount of extremely risky subprime mortgages…. “Mortgage lending data that shows black borrowers in Detroit were 70 percent more likely to get a subprime mortgage instead of a prime one, when compared to white borrowers.“
- How groups who insured the mortgage backed securities sued the banks.
- See the Banks whose property ended up in the Wayne County 2012 tax auction.
- Detroit’s Foreclosure Meltdown
- According to the National Memo borrowers are being kicked out of their homes and then find themselves still responsible for property tax payments. “Banks choose not to finish the legal steps to foreclosure, leaving the properties vacant. Banks that walk away from homes do not have to notify the city, or even the borrower, that they have abandoned the foreclosure process. ” This is called a Bank Walkaway.
- Reduction in the amount of time to pay taxes from 5 years to 2 years, which started in 1999. State of Michigan Public Act 123 1999
- Homes are being foreclosed on and bundled to be sold only to investors. Some people cannot even have access to the opportunity to get their home back! Who are the investors? They come from everywhere and are making a 40% profit.
- There is an unused Section 8 Home Ownership Program.
- The Michigan GOP Has Just Made It Easier For Scrappers To Steal From You
- The city of Detroit also has the highest property tax burden in the state. http://www.mlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/04/jeff_guilfoyle_analysis_detroi.html
- Video: Vanessa Fluker discusses the state of foreclosures in Detroit and nationally today. (2010)
- Video: Vanessa Fluker Testifies in congress about foreclosures
GENTRIFICATION: DETROIT WORKS/DETROIT FUTURE CITIES
Detroit Works and Detroit Future City
HOUSING: ARSON
- In 2011 which was the last year statistics were available for arson investigation there were 100 solved of 5,000 arsons http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/detroit-arson_n_3591149.html
- In 2013 there were 5000 arsons with 6 investigators http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/7363/arson_investigations_overwhelms_understaffed_detroit_fire_dept?section_name=crime#.Uyop5c5EwuZ
- In 2009 there were 20 arson investigators. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/detroit-arson_n_3591149.htm