Detroit residents at risk of losing their homes given stay of execution

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/13/detroit-residents-deadline-extension-taxes

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Thousands of Detroiters were granted a reprieve from the city’s tax foreclosure crisis this week, as the Wayne County treasurers office extended the deadline for those behind on their property taxes by one month.

Just a few months after Detroit emerged from the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history,the city now faces an economic crisis of a different kind: tens of thousands of its residents cannot afford to pay the taxes on their homes, leading to what activists have called a “conveyer belt” of tax foreclosures that some fear could further hollow out the city’s already-beleaguered neighborhoods.

On Tuesday, which was supposed to be the last day residents could enter into payment plans with Wayne County, hundreds filled up the treasurer’s office in downtown Detroit, carrying Manila envelopes and folders filled with their property information, and holding out hope they could work something out with the county.

Annie Calvin, a 64-year-old woman who lives on Detroit’s east side, said she bought her home a few years ago from Detroit Property Exchange, one of the countless companies that resell foreclosed or blighted properties. But Calvin said she was never told of the $5,000 in back-taxes owed on the property. By the time she was able to pay that money off, she owed $2,000 more in taxes and late fees.

“We paid it off but they kept adding fines,” she said. “I’m worried. I might have to rent a house now.”

After waiting in line and speaking with one of the dozens of county representatives on duty, Calvin was able to enter into one of the county’s standard plans. She paid 10 percent down and will now pay 3% a month on her back taxes, in addition to her current monthly taxes.

While many home owners set uppayment plans on Tuesday, about 30,000 properties are still facing tax foreclosure. More than 10,000 of those properties are believed to be occupied. With Detroit’s average household size of 2.71 people, that means nearly 30,000 people could lose their homes if they’re unable to enter into a plan this year.

Activists worry this could further dismantle the Detroit neighborhoods already pockmarked with vacant land and dilapidated housing. Outside the treasurer’s office, about 20 protesters held signs calling for a moratorium on all foreclosures in the city. Errol Jennings, the president of the Russell Woods Sullivan neighborhood association, said about 30% of the homes in his community were facing tax foreclosure this year, and another 30% could fall into foreclosure next year.

“You start to wonder what that would do to our nice, well-manicured, safe neighborhood,” he said through a bullhorn at the protest. “What happens if you drop a bomb on 300 homes in the middle of it?”

Activists point out that property taxes in Detroit are often pegged to property assessment values from years prior, leading some to pay a couple of thousand dollars a year on homes worth less than that. Wayne County also chose not to pursue foreclosures on many houses for years, allowing the taxes to pile up, and furthering the chances homeowners’ tax burden would be too high to pay off. Activists contend the state illegally used hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money to tear down blighted houses – the money was intended to help keep people in their homes.

Cheryl West, 68, recently lost the home she and her family had lived in for 60 years to tax foreclosure. She’d fallen behind on her taxes after not being able to find enough work in 2010. When she tried to enter into a reduced payment plan with the county in 2011, she found out she was ineligible because she’d lived outside the house for about a year. Since then she’s attempted to work out something with the county, but never had enough money to pay off her taxes.

About a week ago a bailiff from the Wayne County treasurer’s office blocked West and activists from Detroit Eviction Defense from entering her home, as day-laborers hired from the county threw her remaining belongings into a dumpster parked out front.

“The county is pulling things over on people,” West said, standing, surrounded by cardboard boxes on her front lawn. “This should not be put on anybody. I don’t care about judgment from the courts. There will be judgment from God. There will not be any peace in this house.”