Reeling Detroit Residents Hit with 62,000 Tax Foreclosure Notices

Via NPR:

In Detroit, tens of thousands of people are facing a deadline tomorrow that could cost some of them their homes. That’s when homeowners have to make arrangements to either pay delinquent property taxes — or risk losing their home at a county auction.

When Detroit emerged from bankruptcy last year, it did so with a razor-thin financial cushion. It desperately needs every bit of tax revenue it can muster.

Earlier this year, county officials sent out 72,000 foreclosure notices to homeowners behind on property taxes — 62,000 of them in Detroit alone. They say about 18,000 of these properties are occupied, but fewer than half of those homeowners have paid all of their tax.

A tax moratorium has been discussed by some politicians but those pending “revenues” are already budgeted:

We pledge all the penalties and fees in our bond pledges to borrow money,” he says. “We can’t do a moratorium on police protection or fire protection.

The Democrats who drove Detroit off of the cliff for half a century probably planned on get some grand scale federal assistance, much like New York received in the mid 1970s. A slightly more fiscally responsible approach was taken, however, and the city is far from being out of the woods.

According to this piece, a thriving slumlord market is opening up.

The glitch here is obvious: kicking these people out and taking over the properties for nonpayment doesn’t solve the revenue problem. Can the city really expect to quickly sell over 60,000 properties for back taxes in time to take care of budgetary needs?

Is that Donald Trump at the door?