Quote Originally Posted by Buy American View Post
$11 million in this article, $20 million in another article....this certainly isn't chump change. The news media isn't to blame for this and even if a few facts are incorrect, the ultimate blame for this lack of control over their house is the City of Detroit and specifically Mayor Dave Bing.
Yes, but it's not just there. It's somewhat inherent in these programs that government employees will take less care with taxpayer funds than if it were their own money.

Case in point, Pontiac recently had to hurry up and spend some federal funds, or the money would go back. One decision they made was to use $3.8 million of that to build some new houses and rehab others in the area SE of the Loop. If you know Pontiac you know that's not a very desirable area. Original homes there are selling for $5K - $15K depending on condition. There have been other new construction homes built in the last decade in that area [[more government-funded programs) that sell for $25K - $35K. You can pick up 3 bd / 1 bath homes in Pontiac's premier Indian Village or Seminole Hills neighborhood and be all-in, including rehab, for $30K - $45K.

So what does our state government do with that $3.8 million? [[Pontiac turned over the program to the state since they knew they didn't have the capacity to do it themselves given their budget problems and cutbacks) They could buy homes, rehab them and be all in for maximum $50K each. That would allow the $3.8 million to buy and fix 76 houses. They could probably actually do 100 homes at $38K each.

Instead they've found a way to spend $3.8 million on 19 new homes and 11 rehabs, in the ghetto-est part of Pontiac. That works out to something like $150K per new home and $85K per rehab. To make homes that'll be worth maybe $30K on the open market. And that's a high estimate, none have sold for that much recently, and most existing homes in that area sell for less than $10K.

So I'm not surprised when government does dumb things with our money. Detroit may be the poster child for ineptness, but the problem in inherent in the system.