Dan Gilbert Announces $ 500 Million Investment in Detroit Neighborhoods

DETROIT – Dan Gilbert made an announcement on Thursday that will directly impact Detroit in the coming years – A total of $ 500 million will be invested in the city of Detroit and its residents over the next 10 years, on behalf of a joint initiative by the Gilbert Family Foundation and the Rocket Community Fund.

READING: Local organizations are expected to invest $ 500 million in Detroit, eliminating tax debts owned by thousands of homeowners

The funds will start with help for homeowners with overdue property taxes.

Over the past decade, the city of Detroit, Wayne County and Gilbert have tackled the property tax foreclosure problem, but it remains a problem for some 20,000 Detroit residents who find themselves in an endless circle of low income, accounts tall and struggling to survive.

Ads

Gilbert said he has to stop for Metro Detroit to move forward.

“No one should have to make the decision to keep them at home to feed their family,” said Gilbert.

Gilbert and his wife, Jennifer, are pledging half a billion dollars through the Gilbert Family Foundation and the Rocket Community Fund to make a real impact on the problems people face.

The first effort will put $ 15 million in property tax refunds, which can often lead to increasing generational poverty.

“We prefer to delve into a handful of important and critical issues and have a greater impact on them than just handing out money like Santa Claus,” said Gilbert.

This is the beginning of the donation directed to the inhabitants of Detroit to stop looking back financially and move on, maintaining and improving their homes.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said that with this investment, foreclosures are no longer the big problem.

Ads

“The stress is that you have people with bills four, five or six years ago hanging over their heads, making them insecure in their lives every day,” said Duggan. “What the Gilbert’s did is to give them a path to financial security.”

The fund will be operated by the local non-profit agency Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency, which already works to help Detroit area residents with home-related payments through property tax assistance programs and related services. To find out if you qualify, click here.

Tax debt retirement money will inevitably wipe out the city and the county, but Wayne County executive Warren Evans said there is much more at stake here.

“I prefer that property taxes be paid, interest and fines waived, fees waived, fees removed and people have the ability to pay their taxes,” said Evans. “This will build a stronger Wayne County.”

Ads

Gilbert estimates that $ 15 million will resolve the taxes owed, leaving $ 485 million to go after other problems. He said he has not decided where the money is going next and that he is focusing on one problem at a time.

To learn more about organizations’ investment, visit the Gilbert Family Foundation website here.