VACANT PROPERTY TOOLBOX

Recently, Steve Preston, the new Secretary of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development stated, “Detroit is the epicenter of the foreclosure process.” There is a rapidly growing surplus of vacant housing in the City of the Detroit. Many of these vacant homes are the result of mortgage foreclosure. Detroit’s foreclosure rate is 4.8 times the national average.

Job loss and the rising cost of fuel and groceries have many families struggling to make ends meet. To make matters worse, home values have plummeted as interest rates on mortgages resulting from predatory lending continue to rise. Homeowners who thought their home was their largest asset find themselves with no equity.

Each day, neighbors and community members watch in dismay as more property in their neighborhoods becomes vacant, abandoned, and eventually eyesores in their communities. These neighbors often feel powerless and afraid. This feeling of powerlessness leads to more vacant property because stable homeowners begin to flee the neighborhoods fearing further decline.

The current crisis of vacant and abandoned property in the City of Detroit requires a comprehensive approach and immediate action. Citizens can bolster the effectiveness of government systems by working with government as it allocates already scarce resources to this problem. Partnerships are required to enable communities to work most effectively with government, non-profits, Community Development Corporations, and others to maximize the impact of their efforts.

Neighbors want to take control of their neighborhoods to protect safety, stability, and housing values. However, all too often, concerned citizens encounter roadblocks to addressing issues related to vacant property such as determining ownership of properties or a lack of information about governmental resources, policies, and processes. Through the development of vacant property plans in Detroit neighborhoods, the Detroit Vacant Property Campaign has identified a number of goals to address the issue of vacant housing and strategies for accomplishing those goals. These goals include:

• Educating homebuyers and homeowners about mortgage, property tax, and foreclosure
processes to keep homeowners in their homes and avoid additional vacancies
• Developing a well organized Vacant Property Strategy which includes inventory and
assessment of vacant homes
• Determining property ownership in order to hold owners accountable for the condition of
their properties
• Preventing damage to vacant properties to retain home values
• Obtaining control of vacant properties for access to make repairs and market
• Getting vacant properties reoccupied
• Demolishing vacant properties to protect home values
• Managing vacant lots
• Building neighborhood capacity
• Retaining residents