Detroit – And the neighborhoods?
In recent years, as investments in Detroit have transformed much of downtown and Midtown, a short drive on any major road – up Woodward, up Grand River, down Jefferson, up Gratiot – told a different story , and for some Detroit residents the real story: the neighborhoods in the city, where its people live, where their small businesses call home, are still struggling. New skyscrapers and sports facilities are cool, critics say, but what about neighborhoods?
A partial answer to that question came on Thursday, when Dan Gilbert, the billionaire businessman and a driver of downtown transformation over the past decade, said he plans to invest $ 500 million in the city’s neighborhoods over the next 10 years.
The founder of Quicken Loans Inc. and owner of Cleveland Cavaliers made the announcement during an interview that aired on Thursday on “CBS This Morning”, and expanded the subject at a 10am press conference at One Campus Martius.
“I would like to see the people of Detroit benefit,” said Gilbert. “You look at all levels of the city center now and we have to take that to the neighborhoods and make sure that the whole city has that energy.”
The corporate titan told CBS that the effort will start with $ 15 million for arrears on property taxes. It will cover about 20,000 homes, said Jay Farner, CEO of Rocket Mortgage.
Farner said the present “will eliminate the burden of property tax debt”.
He praised Quicken for playing a “small role” in the city’s revival since moving its headquarters to the city center 11 years ago, but said the “systematic and generational” problems the city faces will not have “quick fixes” .
Mayor Mike Duggan said the gift made Thursday “an extraordinary day for Detroit, a major step forward in a strategy to start breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty in this city”.
For the past decade, Gilbert chaired the Detroit Blight Task Force. This work put him in close and regular contact with Duggan, and that relationship continues.
“Dan was totally focused on stabilizing the neighborhoods,” said Duggan. “He told me, ‘If we don’t stop people from leaving the house, all we’re going to do is stay behind.'”
Duggan continued, “It was Dan and his team that paid neighborhood groups to knock on every door in this city that had a family at risk of being executed, telling them all the programs available, signing for the poverty exemption and we reduced executions. homeowners’ mortgages by 95%. “
“We have very few foreclosures now,” said Duggan. “The stress is that you have people with bills four, five, six years ago hanging over their heads, making them insecure in their lives, every day, and what the Gilbert’s did today is give them a path to financial security, “said Duggan.
Property taxes were an issue that worried residents, Farner and Gilbert said on CBS.
“It became very clear to us that it was property taxes that caused most of the plagues in Detroit and that the vast majority of citizens were at a point of tax execution,” Gilbert said in an interview with CBS. “With interest and fines, that debt continued to grow and, in some cases, it was more than they owed on the mortgage and people just left the house because they couldn’t afford it anymore.”
Wayne County executive Warren Evans announced that the county would contribute another $ 5 million in foreclosure prevention funds.
“Is it a total solution to the foreclosure problem? Absolutely not, ”said Evans. “Is it a step in the right direction? This is. It takes us along the way. “
Evans described foreclosure as a “social process”, not just an economic one.
“Sometimes you wonder, how do people fight it?” Evans said. The home is “the biggest investment most people make,” said Evans. Stabilizing the home will stabilize families, he said.
Gilbert also spoke about recovery from a stroke on May 26, 2019 and the months of rehabilitation.
“You get to appreciate everything and everyone more than you do,” he said. “When you have a stroke, it’s like the whole family has a stroke.”
CBS reporter Dana Jacobson said in the interview a few weeks ago that Gilbert said he would go to the office about two days a week and use a wheelchair to help his mobility. In addition, he has hours of physical therapy almost every day.
At the Detroit event, Gilbert, wearing a light blue sweater, walked to the pulpit with the help of a cane and an assistant.
“Nice morning for a walk,” said Gilbert.
Gilbert said that the more he and his team studied Detroit’s problems, they came to believe that property tax foreclosures were at the root of them, creating “massive plague cycles”.
“This is not a sparse problem,” said Gilbert. “It is huge and contagious. And big problems demand big solutions. “
Jennifer Gilbert, all dressed in black, stood slightly behind Gilbert, with her right hand on his right shoulder, during their comments.
“Detroit residents need greater access to economic opportunities,” she said. Property tax debts are “the root of the problem”.
In 2010, the mortgage tycoon and real estate developer moved Quicken Loans’ headquarters from Livonia to downtown Detroit. His company Bedrock owns more than 100 properties in the city center. She and her affiliates are Detroit’s largest employer, with more than 17,000 workers.
Gilbert’s companies have invested and committed more than $ 5.6 billion in their efforts to help revitalize Detroit.
Twitter: @CharlesERamirez