Stop Tax Foreclosures & Water Shut-Offs
Demonstrate Thursday June 23, 12 Noon
Wayne County Treasurer’s Office
400 Monroe (Greektown) Detroit
Instead of using FEDERAL HELPING HARDEST HIT HOMEOWNERS FUNDS to keep people in their homes with running water – the politicians are using that money to TEAR HOUSES DOWN!
On June 1, 2016, the State of Michigan got a new grant of $188 million in Helping Hardest Hit Homeowner Funds from the federal government. While the purpose of these funds is to keep families in their homes, only 26% of the $188 ($49 million), is planned for foreclosure prevention including preventing tax foreclosures. The rest is going for “blight removal”.
While this is outrageous, even $49 million used for tax foreclosure relief would be enough to stop the residential tax foreclosures scheduled to go into effect June 30. But they make it almost impossible for people to apply for and get this money! WAYNE COUNTY SHOULD PLACE AN IMMEDIATE MORATORIUM to HALT THESE FORECLOSURES TO ALLOW PEOPLE TIME TO GET ACCESS TO THESE FUNDS AND STAY IN THEIR HOMES! There is plenty of legal precedent for a foreclosure moratorium dating back to the 1930’s. But confronted with the demand for a Moratorium, Wayne County treasurer Eric Sabree’s aids said the “bondholders wouldn’t like it.”
Mayor Duggan and Corporation Counsel Butch Hollowell are lying when they say that federal law determines how the Helping Hardest Hit Funds are used. MSHDA recently admitted that as the state Housing Finance Authority, they make the decision how the funds are used. MSHDA simply needs to put into effect a 13th amendment for use of the funds to insure ALL THE HELPING HARDEST HIT FUNDS ARE USED TO STOP RESIDENTS OF TAX FORECLOSED PROPERTIES FROM BEING EVICTED, AND TO PAY DELINQUENT RESIDENTIAL WATER BILLS WHICH AMOUNT TO A CONSTRUCTIVE EVICTION.
Only the politicians running our city, county and state can’t see the obvious — using Helping Hardest Hit Funds to pay delinquent property taxes and water bills would pump money into these government agencies which in turn can be used to fight blight and everything else. The banks that caused the blight should be made to pay for its removal. And why are federal funds being turned over to a blight task force laced with corruption, led by a sub-prime lender (Gilbert) who is being sued by the Justice Department for costing people their homes through the misappropriation of FHA dollars. And why is the Detroit Land Bank spending government funds to defend corrupt officials against a criminal probe into their misuse of the Hardest Hit Funds?
Moratorium Now Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions & Utility Shutoffs
Moratorium-MI.org
moratorium@moratorium-mi.org
313-680-5508
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