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$500M
fund to
help
Detroit
neighborhoods,
pay tax
debt
By
COREY
WILLIAMS
apnews.com
DETROIT
- A
billionaire
businessman
whose
companies
have
invigorated
Detroit’s
downtown
announced
a $500
million
fund to
improve
neighborhoods
on
Thursday,
starting
with $15
million
that
will pay
off the
property
tax debt
of
20,000
of the
city’s
poorest
homeowners.
The
money
will
come
from two
philanthropic
organizations
connected
to
Quicken
Loans
founder
Dan
Gilbert,
who
announced
the
plan.
The
$15
million
Detroit
Tax
Relief
Fund
will
leverage
existing
state
and
local
programs
that
eliminate
or
reduce
property
tax
bills,
then pay
off the
remaining
tax
bill. It
will be
administered
by a
local
nonprofit
that
also
will
provide
counseling
to
homeowners
to keep
them out
of
future
property
tax
debt.
Other
potential
uses of
the $500
million
funding
were not
announced
Thursday.
“No
person
should
have to
make the
decision
between
keeping
their
home or
feeding
their
family,”
Gilbert,
a
Detroit
native,
said at
a news
conference.
“Partly
because
of
interest
and
penalties
accruing
on an
annual
basis,
numerous
homeowners
find
themselves
significantly
underwater,”
he
added.
“Not
only did
these
homeowners
live
under
the fear
that
their
homes
would be
taken
away
from
them,
but this
debt
often
prevents
the
property
from
being
sold or
refinanced.”
In
addition
to
starting
Quicken
Loans,
now
known as
Rocket
Mortgage,
Gilbert
founded
the Rock
family
of
companies
and owns
the
NBA’s
Cleveland
Cavaliers.
Quicken
Loans
moved to
downtown
Detroit
in 2010.
Its
family
of
companies
employ
more
than
24,000,
with
close to
5,000
living
in the
city,
Gilbert
said.
“We
have
always
said
that our
commitment
to
Detroit
had no
borders
and we
care for
every
corner
of the
city as
much as
we do
for
downtown,”
he
added.
The
Gilbert
Family
Foundation
is
providing
$350
million
of the
$500
million
in
funding,
and the
rest
will
come
from the
Rock
Community
Fund.
“The
money is
there
and it’s
ready to
be freed
and
targeted
to any
issue,”
Gilbert
said.
Gilbert
chaired
the
Detroit
Blight
Removal
Task
Force in
2013,
which
concluded
that
property
tax
foreclosure
was the
primary
cause of
the
city’s
blight
and
subsequent
abandonment
of
homes.
“One-third
of the
properties
in
Detroit
have had
these
issues
with
back
property
taxes,
interest
accruing
and
penalties,
and
caused
all
kinds of
hardship
and
strife,”
Gilbert
said.
“It’s a
problem
that is
...
massive
and it’s
contagious.”
Quianna
Sims is
one of
the
Detroit
homeowners
who will
have
their
tax debt
paid
off.
Sims
said she
bought
her home
in 2018,
and that
when she
moved in
there
were no
floors,
no
doors,
peeling
paint
and not
much of
a
kitchen
left.
“I
got
behind
trying
to fix
up the
home,”
said
Sims,
who
eventually
owed
about
$8,000
in back
taxes.
“If you
don’t
have the
money to
pay
property
taxes,
you
don’t
have a
house.
It’s
wonderful
they are
helping
people
who are
trying
to make
it
better.”
Wayne
County,
home to
Detroit,
also
will
invest
$5
million
in
foreclosure
prevention.
County
Executive
Warren
Evans
said
that
during
the
Great
Recession
one in
four
properties
in
Detroit
went
into
foreclosure.
“Make no
mistake,
the gift
will
keep
families
in their
homes,”
Evans
said.
___
This
story
has been
updated
to
correct
that the
Detroit
Tax
Relief
Fund is
only the
$15
million
that
will pay
off the
property
tax
debt.
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