Squatters Slow Detroit's Plan To Bulldoze Way To Prosperity

DETROIT (AP) — Chris Mathews' crew showed up this month to demolish one of the thousands of vacant homes destined for demolition as part of Detroit's grand plan to bulldoze its way to prosperity when a call from his office stopped them in their tracks: A middle-aged woman who watched the crew tear away the home's warped wooden steps the day before had called their company, Adamo Demolition, to point out she was living on the second floor, despite no power, heat or gas and a flooded basement. Since the city doesn't allow occupied properties to be demolished, squatters who won't leave voluntarily and who have no previous connection to the homes have to be removed by police for violating the city's trespassing laws. Drug dealers often set up shop in them, bodies turn up in them and some houses have been sites of sexual assaults. [...] for some of the approximately 16,000 homeless people in Detroit, the structures offer safety and shelter. Squatters aside, the city will not stop its fight against blight, said Craig Fahle, a spokesman for the Detroit Land Bank Authority, the agency overseeing the project. Tiffany Tilley, a real estate agent, said about 20 to 30 percent of the more than 100 properties she has shown have had signs that someone had been squatting in them.

 

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