Detroit Uses Stimulus Money to Lure Residents With $1,000 Homes
- Posted on February 10, 2011 at 12:52am by
Meredith Jessup
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Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is desperately trying to bring residents back to the Motor City, starting with civil servants . In one of his first major steps to bolster select Detroit neighborhoods, the mayor announced this week that he plans to lure at least 200 police officers back to the city by offering renovated abandoned homes for as little as $1,000 each.
About 53 percent of Detroit’s 2,845 police officers currently live outside Detroit. The exodus of officers began in 1999 when the state revoked mandatory residency for the city’s municipal employees, allowing police to live where they wanted.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Bing plans to use $30 million of federal stimulus money to purchase and refurbish abandoned houses in select neighborhoods. The city reportedly plans to spend up to $150,000 to renovate each home. Additionally, officers will be eligible to receive up to $25,000 for a down payment on a city home, though many homes will come down-payment free with forgivable loans and energy-efficient construction.
Officer LaDawn Russell, who left Detroit for Oak Park in 2007, in part for her children, is considering moving back. “Around New Year’s Eve, I don’t hear gunshots” in Oak Park, said Russell, 30.
Residents of the neighborhoods and officers responded positively. By Monday evening, about 50 officers had inquired about the program, according to the mayor’s office.
“I think for any neighborhood, whether it’s in Detroit or outside of the area, to know that there are professional public safety officials in the community is always a sense of comfort,” said Pamela Miller Malone, president of the Historic Boston-Edison Association.
By offering special home-ownership programs to police officers, Bing hopes to combine plans to boost the city’s population and tax base while deterring rampant crime.
“We hope this serves as a call to action for other corporations, organizations and individuals to live where they work,” Bing said. “Detroiters want to live in safe, clean neighborhoods. They deserve nothing less.”
The city’s new plan comes on the heels of a similar proposals from Wayne State University, Detroit Medical Center and Henry Ford Health System which all recently offered cash incentives to about 30,000 employees to move into Detroit’s Midtown area.
If more federal funds become available, Bing said he’d like to extend a similar offer to firefighters, most of whom live in the city’s suburbs.
“We will beg for additional dollars,” Bing said, adding that no city tax money will be used to relocate police.
The new housing incentives are just one part of Bing’s Public Works Program which he says could be a “model for the nation” — an ironic choice of words since Detroit was once one of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “model cities” which has received billions of federal dollars for urban renewal in recent decades to fight the so-called War on Poverty.
“We are so excited about this program,” Police Chief Ralph Godbee said.
But some officers aren’t taking the bait. Officer Randall Coleman, who currently lives outside Detroit, said that moving into Detroit might mean working “24 hours a day.”
While insurance costs are high and school performance low, some look at the large homes available and see the offer as too good to be true.
Officer William Booker-Riggs said he plans to move back to Detroit from Southfield, where he moved about nine months ago for reasons he wouldn’t explain. He said he is impressed with the large homes in the targeted areas and joked that his daughter has already asked to have her own three bedrooms.
Another irony: the neighborhoods reserved for the police relocation program are considered to be the safest in the city, patrolled regularly by private security companies.
The city of Detroit received $41 million from the stimulus’ Neighborhood Stabilization Fund. The other $11 million is reportedly going to help lower-income resident purchase homes.
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Comments (88)
jackboom
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:58amWe lost the war on poverty! Defund it.
Report Post »WBOB
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:44amthe fact that officers left the city when the option was given, says it all.
Hope it works for them….at least they’re “packin”
Report Post »rons
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:38amFor years I have heard people complain that we need to focus on fixing our own country instead of nation building. Are you happier having billions of our dollars go to the Pakistan government as they harbor terrorists? Or Egypt, the second largest recipient of our foreign aid and yet may turn against us? Let us all complain about helping Detroit out and not acknowlege or gripe about all the money that is going to rebuild Iraq and Afganistan.. As for myself, I would much rather see the money be spent here at home.
Report Post »The American
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:32amPerhaps the city should have a stipulation that their officers actually live where they work!
Report Post »rons
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 9:41amthat sounds unconstitutional to me. You should be free to live where you want to live.
Report Post »DisillusionedDaily
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 9:11pmIf you establish a rule like that you will soon not have a police force!
Report Post »NikMar
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:27amAnd now we all know for certain why the progressives are in such a hurry to “herd” people from one part of the city into another – for their own good and safety, of course. Surprise, surprise! They are truly evil…
Report Post »decendentof56
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:27amYou’re not a racist for stating the facts. The facts are that ‘the great society’, and all of the socialist programs born from it have been a failure.
Report Post »How many brand new housing projects have been built to give minorities affordable housing that have in turn been trashed. I’ve seen them from up front as an employee of a public utility. They become crime infested when the residents move in. The cycle repeats itself generation after generation.
The fact that divisive, race -based organizations like the NAACP have never addressed the above fact speaks volumes of their inherent racism. Many Blacks realize the NAACP is not really interseted in improving Blacks lives, but, rather, continuing their manipulation OF Blacks to continue their agenda, whatever that may be. The Progressives also use faux-racism to continue enslaving Blacks and other groups who they feel they can use to further their goal ‘fundamentally transforming’ America.
flyguync
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 9:37pmMy wife and son went on a youth mission trip a couple of years ago to help people in the Atlanta projects. They were picking up trash and playing with the children – one of the coordinators told my wife that unfortunately, the trash would be just as bad or worse the next day. When people have everything handed to them with no personal investment, there’s no ownership. That’s just how it is.
Report Post »angelcat
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:21amFrom what I hear about Detroit from friends who live in a suburb near by, it is almost to the point where the mayor may have to PAY people to move there and give them the houses plus a stipend every month to agree to live there. Detroit is a good example of what happens when liberals are allowed to implement their ideas – disaster.
Report Post »emertz8413
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:18am53 percent of Detroit’s police force lives outside the city….Wouldn’t you too, if you had to work there?
Report Post »flyguync
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 9:33pmYeah, these policemen are armed and don’t want to live there!
Report Post »Platonician
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:00amThat’s exactly what destroyed Detroit, patronage politics! They are insane, doing always the same again and again!!
Report Post »Chasvs391
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:57amFree food, Free Education, Free Medical Care, Free Homes! Obama has WON! All we need to do is DESTROY the rest of the Country and GIVE IT ALL AWAY! Fckers destroyed their own DAMN City, let them fix it themselves!
Report Post »decendentof56
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:43amTry to engage a liberal (or Black) on the topic of how Detroit got this way. None of them will say anything about how radicals, wanting to use the welfare system to bring down Capitalism, was supposed to help Blacks. They won’t know of that.
Report Post »They still vote for those same radicals today.
Watcher1952
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:54amAs Beck says…watch the other hand….I would be that BING has a money making scam going on with this. Why in the first place can’t an officer, firefighter etc; live where they want as long as they report to work. Also look at the population change in Detroit….greatest numbers of Iraqi people…..Muslim neighborhood…..We need to give Detroit back to Ohio…..
Report Post »Platonician
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:01amYou are absolutely right!!
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 11:01amHEY! I live in Ohio. We are hopefully cleaning up the trash now. we do not need more!
Report Post »GeauxAlready
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:48am,
Imitation is the Greatest form of Flattery.
Thank you, for appreciating my humor. But, Mom really stop following me or I will reinstate the restraining order.
Report Post »MommaGrizzly
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:45amI want to help those in Detroit but whatever happened to ‘taxation without representation’?
Report Post »beckwill
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:45amcrackhead + racist = crackist…. I think we’ve just thought of a new name for the progressive party.
Report Post »rlo
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:44amDoes my new home come with a bullet proof vest and my choice of assualt rifle???
Report Post »vaughan
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:44amSounds like another scam…‘starting with civil servants’…now that’s a great start. I think what they need is a good artsy sculpture…like Philadelphia has…you know that really neat clothespin near city hall…I’m sure that it has some deep meaning ….that only they understand. Do you think Detroit needs a large clothespin? LOL
Report Post »pamela kay
Posted on February 11, 2011 at 2:37amVAUGHAN, Here in Ohio we have “The city of sculptures” They are everywhere. We have no shopping areas, few restarants but flowers and sculptures in every direction. We have a huge city building, a bank and a whole lot of empty buildings. They have repainted and dressed things up but have no parking close to anything which prevents any business to successfully operating. The surounding areas are low income and discourage anyone who might attempt to open in the city. All the big companies have moved out. It is a ghost town that has mostly sculptures as it’s residences. Ooops, I almost forgot our pathetic progressive news paper.
Report Post »beckwill
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:43amAnd trashed within a year?
Report Post »pamela kay
Posted on February 11, 2011 at 2:20amBECKWILL, unfortunately, you are right. We have an area here that gets an extreme makeover on a regular basis and ends up worse after every overhaul. When people do not earn their own way they do not respect anything that is handed to them. It leads to generation after generation with their hands out expecting more and deserving it less.
Report Post »GeauxAlready
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:38am.
Report Post »Mom is that you?
Ross
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:34amDetroit is a rusult of Unions. What city or country can they destroy next?
Report Post »GeauxAlready
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:51am.
Report Post »Detroit and the south side of Chicago are Obama‘s model city’s for the rest of the country.
ThoreauHD
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:19amI’d sooner work in Iraq. There are some things only a nuke can fix.
Report Post »jose wasabi
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:18amOK, let me get this straight. You’re taking my money ( and your money ) and sending it Detroit to buy and rehab homes? So a person from Utah or Alabama, or wherever you live is buying homes for police in Detroit? Exactly what is wrong with our country and politicians and the Stimulus Plan in particular.
Report Post »GeauxAlready
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:18amHave you been to Detroit lately? Crackheads, whores, pimps, molesters and thats just the City Council. Can’t describe a neighborhood, kids might read this……………
Report Post »hauschild
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:16amThat describes pretty much any urban American area.
Report Post »GeauxAlready
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:48amHow much you want to bet, that the bulk of the free homes will wind up in the hands of minorities, Who are not in Law Enforcement?
Report Post »Bookster
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:17amI wouldn’t live there is they gave me the house AND $1000 cash.
Report Post »ronmorgen
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:16amMy $’s to an inner city police force in another state. Amounts to theft.
Report Post »828 Patriot
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:06amI wouldn’t live there if they were giving the houses away.
Report Post »SND97
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:18amBut Patriot, you must admit it’s a very good idea to try. Just pray it works and the city changes, it is in danger of total destruction there. I know most people don’t know what I mean by that but folks? It’s a war zone ready to go nuclear.
Report Post »Blazing patriot
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:22amThe Motor City is making a comeback. Unless you’ve lived there and experienced it ….Don’t knock it!
“You see, it’s the Hottest Fires that makes the Hardest Steel.”
Report Post »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKL254Y_jtc
Cemoto78
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 7:26amWhat Detroit needs to really focus on is getting rid of all the corrupt politicians in the local government, beginning with the Mayor and city council.
Report Post »grandmaof5
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:20amI wonder if this will be like Extreme Makeover: house renovations, and in this case – house value, etc. will be considered “income” and they will get a hefty tax bill by the IRS. And what happens to the homes they are in right now? And they have all that money for low income residents to purchase homes, kinda like Freddie and Fannie, that worked so well last time.
Report Post »betterthantv
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:24amI grew up in Detroit and still have family there. Detroit is NOT making a comeback. The Unions have effectively destroyed the entire state of MI. They were supposed to “make a comeback” with the building of the casinos years ago. But that was a desperate failure. There is simply no hope for Detroit. Build a wall around the city and let the Progressive animals destroy themselves! Detroit is and always will be irrelevant!
Report Post »cykonas
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:30am@BlazingPatriot
I’m from Wyandotte, so I know Detroit. A glitzy video or two, or ten, or a million is not going to transform a cesspool into the Garden of Eden. As long as the “good people” of Detroit keep electing the Grandholms, the Kilpatricks, the Conyers, the Bings, the Jacobs, the Condinos et al and continue to adhere to the ignorance of the modern day union mentality Detroit, if it changes, will only get worse.
The only reason I would come to Detroit is to see the Tigers play, and then only if it’s a day game and I can carry.
Report Post »GeauxAlready
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 8:51am.
Report Post »I wonder if half the people who get free homes will be republicans?
Cobra Blue
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 10:00amNext is New York City, Los Angeles, CA, New Orleans, …etc. etc….Coming to an inner city near you. The liberal progressive plan is working just beautifully.
Report Post »Immyfathersservant
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 10:04am@CMOTO78
Report Post »As far as I can tell, alot of the corruption cleanup has been in process now for 4-5 years. There is no indication that Bing is corrupt. Certainly not when compared to Coleman Young, or Kwame Kilpatrick. They have been knocking heads together to clean it up. Please don’t throw false information out there because of your personal tainted view. I live in the suburbs of Detroit and am very awhare of whats goin on, its my back yard!
DanB
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 10:41amI find this disgusting.
If Detroit actually had this money of their own to offer these deals, then great!
But where is the money coming from? The federal government? Let me do a little thinking here. Essentially, it doesn’t matter if Detroit cleans up with this program. They are now beholden to the Feds. They must beg to get this money. If the money stops, they are sunk. So they must continue to seek the money. If they are begging, that means they MUST comply with whatever strings the Feds attach to said moneys. So they are NOT free. They MUST go along with the dictates of the federal government. That is why this stinks something fierce. They are selling their freedoms.
And those who say this is coming to a community near you are very correct. We are so enamored of the money that we beg for that we are gluttons for punishment and servitude. We say we want freedom. We’ll vote “tea party,” but when the federal government is handing out OUR money (which comes from us in taxes and inflation, etc) we all get in line and say this is money well spent (and beg for more). Americans have been selling their freedoms for a very long time. When will we wake up and realize that we are addicted and have not the freedoms we claim to treasure. For apparently we do not truly treasure our freedoms for as soon as we have some freedom we immediately sell it for money. Hm, who was it that said the love of money is the root of all evil?
Report Post »Rmingtn
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 10:57amI -DO- live in Detroit. It is a cesspool, with a few islands of civility. The free housing for cops is in one of the nicer areas. Don’t be fooled by any talks of “comebacks” in Detroit. Except for areas where hundreds of millions have been spent to make “downtown” look nice for the fans coming for sports teams the city is nothing but a blight. I’m in one of the nicer areas. It used to be called copper canyon before the cops all left. I’ve got several empty homes on my street. Two burned down. Scavengers are working on removing anything of value from the rest.
My home was broken into, and it took the cops 36 HOURS to come by and do anything. They refused to dust for prints because, and I quote: “To much time has passed.” If I could afford to buy a house I would move out in a heartbeat. I’m almost to that point now. A few more thousand and it’s off to Canton, Milford, or Fenton.
Until the leaders of Detroit stop kissing the… Well sucking up to certain groups and organizations Detroit will never recover. Look at the schools! The only reason a family would move back under this plan is because schools of choice allows their kids to go to school in the suburbs. What’s the current graduation rate? I think it’s 10 or 15 percent in Detroit.
And ultimately THAT’S the biggest sign that nothing has improved. We’re still setting up the vast majority of our kids to be uneducated fools. To either pop out more fools, or get arrested and spend most of their lives in jail.
Report Post »That one guy
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 11:12amUnfortunately, the question at this point isn’t a matter of whether or not stimulus money is right or not. That ship sailed quite some time ago. The issue at hand for Mayor Bing (A former former entrepreneur turned mayor, I may add) is accessing available money to help correct a massive problem that has existed in the city of Detroit since the 1960′s and that is primarily urban flight. It’s the duty of an elected official to do all he can for the people and the place he represents. If that means tapping into money that would otherwise be used for another program outside his area, it would be inexcusable on his part to let that opportunity pass. Since his tenure began in the middle of 2009, he has brought business leaders and elected leaders together to address a multitude of issues that have been created from the former mayors (sans Archer) of the past 30+ years. For once in the city’s recent history, a mayor has come forth with a longterm plan that addresses consolidating a population and services of a city that has been reduced by half in the past 50 years. All the while he has been embracing the business community and sees that they are the essential piece that many before didn’t. And corruption is a word that Bing has no tolerance for. He fired the chief and deputy chief of the fire department when he learned of an incident about a wallet getting stolen by a department employee, for God’s sake. Just look at everyone that has been canned from the “School of Old” since he took office. I pray for guidance and courage for Mayor Bing, he’s got a fierce battle to face from many fronts, I just hope he continues to fight the good fight for the city he and so many others love.
Report Post »watchtheotherhand
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 11:25amWe can argue all day with the liberal subversives that like to comment on here but one thing any honest intellectual person can not deny is that Detroit was a liberally run democrat/union controlled city. I think the end results speak for themselves!!!!!!! Not to mention the largest debtor state California.
Report Post »watchtheotherhand
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 11:27amWho is subsidizing the actual value of these homes????? Nothing in life is free and somewhere somehow these homes are being subsidized by the tax payers one way or another !!!!
Report Post »That one guy
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 11:40am@ WATCHTHEOTHERHAND and a host of others. You‘re arguments are falling on deaf ears if the don’t offer solutions to fixing the problems Detroit faces. By all means, keep em coming if they make you feel better.
Report Post »Creestof
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 12:54pmWall off the city and turn into a giant prison like in “Escape from New York” …you can toss all the illegals in there as well, rather than just tossing them back across the border until they’re ready for another attempt.
Kurt Russell is too old now to rescue anyone from there if we do…so, we’d be safe : )
Report Post »watchtheotherhand
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 3:18pm@ THAT ONE GUY…….dude the solution is git rid of the corrupt politicians and unions that destroyed that city by financially raping it. You think throwing more money at the problem is going to solve anything???? It will attract more crooks looking to cash in. Take a little lQQksy to New Orleans and the Katrina disaster to see what corruption is going on there!!!! Detroit’s problem is a product of the very people you are lQQking to to solve it. Yeah let‘s all hold our breath they’ll get it right this time.
Report Post »watchtheotherhand
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 3:24pmDon’t get us wrong THAT ONE GUY….it isn’t the city or the typical citizen of Detroit we are upset with it is the liberal crap of politicians/unions that led to its downfall that makes many of us angry. So once again our tax money goes to solve their mess. And anywhere you put politicians and money together there will be corruption. I don’t know about your current Mayor he may be great but just give it time and the society vampires will be right back there.
Report Post »ANTISOCIAL-IST
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 3:30pmcash for bunkers
Report Post »avenger
Posted on February 10, 2011 at 3:32pmah another lib dream turned to shet…tax money wasted again by the liberals….
Report Post »pamela kay
Posted on February 11, 2011 at 2:15am828 Patriot, There are no jobs in Detroit. So all this money will be spent for what? More foreclosures down the road? It is a band-aid for a serious injury, no more. It is postponing the inevitable. More free money and handouts when what the city really needs are jobs not dependency on our government that will only cost the rest of us in the longrun.
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