Former Marine Wants To Populate Detroit With Veterans

[Vic01]

A former U.S. Marine is looking to bring a surge of soldiers to the city of Detroit — but it’s not for the reason you may think.

Reed Benet says he wants to populate the Motor City with veterans with help from a program he’s proposing called “Valor Village USA.”
“We surged into Afghanistan and attempted to fix those places, while they were shooting at us,” Benet told WWJ’s Vickie Thomas. “We’re trying to surge military vets in Detroit.”
Benet says vets can take advantage of a $417,000 loan guarantee through the GI Bill, that will allow them to become a landlord of a four unit building.
“If we get this thing going, it gets the attention of Wall Street,” Benet said. “They will sit here and say, wow that is something new for Detroit.”
Benet said a surge of Marines in the city could make a big difference.
“The question is, do you want to live in Detroit?” he said. “How would it be if you didn’t have to move until you found 999 of your compatriots that would move there also? Would that make you feel safe? Would you feel safe in that neighborhood?”

Benet said veterans who do become landlords will be able to live in one unit, and be a landlord of another.
“Hopefully we can have a Quicken Loans type lender that wants to come in, write lots of loans and hopefully make a lot of money,” Benet said.
Benet approached Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan with the idea last week.


http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/03/...with-veterans/

[Dan Wesson]

A former U.S. Marine is looking to bring a surge of soldiers to the city of Detroit — but it’s not for the reason you may think.

Reed Benet says he wants to populate the Motor City with veterans with help from a program he’s proposing called “Valor Village USA.”
“We surged into Afghanistan and attempted to fix those places, while they were shooting at us,” Benet told WWJ’s Vickie Thomas. “We’re trying to surge military vets in Detroit.”
Benet says vets can take advantage of a $417,000 loan guarantee through the GI Bill, that will allow them to become a landlord of a four unit building.
“If we get this thing going, it gets the attention of Wall Street,” Benet said. “They will sit here and say, wow that is something new for Detroit.”
Benet said a surge of Marines in the city could make a big difference.
“The question is, do you want to live in Detroit?” he said. “How would it be if you didn’t have to move until you found 999 of your compatriots that would move there also? Would that make you feel safe? Would you feel safe in that neighborhood?”

Benet said veterans who do become landlords will be able to live in one unit, and be a landlord of another.
“Hopefully we can have a Quicken Loans type lender that wants to come in, write lots of loans and hopefully make a lot of money,” Benet said.
Benet approached Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan with the idea last week.


http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/03/...with-veterans/

At first glance, I'm thinking, Brain fart?

Then this page, http://startgarden.com/ideas/detail/...vetvillages-gr

Now I'm thinking, Opportunistic brain fart?

More great ideas using free money just laying around from a broke Uncle Sam.

I wish him well. Hoorah!!

[Vic01]

103+ views and only one reply? I guess you're all out getting some funding...

[davewindsor]

103+ views and only one reply? I guess you're all out getting some funding...

Or it's very rare to find a vet on this site. When I look at that list, only 3% of those 22m vets live in the state of Michigan and it's probably because they have family living nearby. If I were a vet, I'd buy a 4-plex in sunny Florida or the Carolinas over Detroit where you can find real estate just as cheap and I wouldn't have to deal with our crummy winters, huge heating bills, high crime rates and higher taxes. In Florida, you've got all those nice beaches filled with beautiful women in skimpy bikinis all year. What's the draw for a vet to set up shop in crime ridden Detroit over any other city or state in the US other than having family members that may live in the area?

[mwilbert]

I may be misunderstanding, but I think the idea here is not to convince a particular vet to live in Detroit instead of Florida, but that there be some kind of coordinated purchases in a limited area of the city, which would change the nature of the area that they were moving to. Detroit has pretty good infrastructure for veterans, so it isn't completely ridiculous. There are a lot of veterans, you don't need a very high percentage of interest to populate a neighborhood.

I see the problem primarily as one of doing the coordination--how do you insure that you actually are going to have an adequate number of people, actually finding places to buy, in a short enough timeframe that the pioneers don't feel too exposed. This is the kind of thing that I can easily see growing once it is established, but which establishing would be pretty difficult.

[Meddle]

Build a wall around it. Let Rambo run it. Rename it Guantanamo Heights.

[masterblaster]

From working in Afghanistan 3 out of the last 4 years, I noticed the following about those brave men and women who serve in our military:

1. They are not really "city" people. They seem to have a preference for suburban, rural, and small-town living.

2. They prefer to live in the south, the southwest, and the west. I think a large reason for that is that the major of military bases are in those areas of the country. There just is not alot of military bases in the Midwest. Also, just from what I've seen, the Midwest is underrepresented in the military in general.

I think it would be very, very hard to attract veterans because of the state of the public school system in Detroit. Military folk seem to be very family-oriented and would want their children to go to quality schools. To me, there did not seem to me to be a large yuppie contingent amongst the service men and women that I came into contact with.

I just don't think that vets, having served in dangerous combat zones, and now being retired from that, would tolerate dealing with the foolishness/crime that they would have to deal with in this city. Again, these are thoughts base on my own personal experience.

[Honky Tonk]

From working in Afghanistan 3 out of the last 4 years, I noticed the following about those brave men and women who serve in our military:

1. They are not really "city" people. They seem to have a preference for suburban, rural, and small-town living.

2. They prefer to live in the south, the southwest, and the west. I think a large reason for that is that the major of military bases are in those areas of the country. There just is not alot of military bases in the Midwest. Also, just from what I've seen, the Midwest is underrepresented in the military in general.

I think it would be very, very hard to attract veterans because of the state of the public school system in Detroit. Military folk seem to be very family-oriented and would want their children to go to quality schools. To me, there did not seem to me to be a large yuppie contingent amongst the service men and women that I came into contact with.

I just don't think that vets, having served in dangerous combat zones, and now being retired from that, would tolerate dealing with the foolishness/crime that they would have to deal with in this city. Again, these are thoughts base on my own personal experience.

Seriously? You guys didn't have latte's with sprinkles, and quiche before starting out in the morning? LOL! Thanx for serving, masterblaster!

[Islandman]

Or it's very rare to find a vet on this site. When I look at that list, only 3% of those 22m vets live in the state of Michigan and it's probably because they have family living nearby. If I were a vet, I'd buy a 4-plex in sunny Florida or the Carolinas over Detroit where you can find real estate just as cheap and I wouldn't have to deal with our crummy winters, huge heating bills, high crime rates and higher taxes. In Florida, you've got all those nice beaches filled with beautiful women in skimpy bikinis all year. What's the draw for a vet to set up shop in crime ridden Detroit over any other city or state in the US other than having family members that may live in the area?

This.

There are plenty of vets here, but I completely agree about where I would use my VA Home Loan Guaranty.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

I am always skeptical of plans that call for motivating other people's actions. Veterans are people just like everyone else; they can choose to move to Detroit, open a business, rehab a house like anyone else. Yes, they are eligible for loans and things that are unique to veterans. But they should do it on their own if and when they want to. Corralling them to move to Detroit would be both A) impossible; if they don't want to move to Detroit anyway, they won't and B) ignoring the real impediments to creating a flood of people moving in, i.e. crime, taxes, schools. If we work successfully on those three things, there will be more of everybody in Detroit.

[stasu1213]

We need a Rambo to get rid of these hooligans who run the streets and terrorize the residents.

[gazhekwe]

When I read the post title, my first thought was, Detroit already has lots of vets, many reportedly un- or underemployed, many homeless. I was hoping for a plan to get them together to work on improving a place and develop housing, jobs, gardens for the whole community, with a focus on vets willing to share work and experience. Vet Town? We always seem to want to attract new while ignoring what we already have.

[leapfrog]

Or it's very rare to find a vet on this site. When I look at that list, only 3% of those 22m vets live in the state of Michigan and it's probably because they have family living nearby. If I were a vet, I'd buy a 4-plex in sunny Florida or the Carolinas over Detroit where you can find real estate just as cheap and I wouldn't have to deal with our crummy winters, huge heating bills, high crime rates and higher taxes. In Florida, you've got all those nice beaches filled with beautiful women in skimpy bikinis all year. What's the draw for a vet to set up shop in crime ridden Detroit over any other city or state in the US other than having family members that may live in the area?

You raise interesting points, davewindsor - but there are some vets here, i'm one of them!

[Vic01]

When I read the post title, my first thought was, Detroit already has lots of vets, many reportedly un- or underemployed, many homeless. I was hoping for a plan to get them together to work on improving a place and develop housing, jobs, gardens for the whole community, with a focus on vets willing to share work and experience. Vet Town? We always seem to want to attract new while ignoring what we already have.

It's been a few days since I read the article, but I'm almost sure that those vets we already have in/around the City would be welcome to get involved.

[Lowell]

I'd bet the Old Miami Bar is rubbing their hands hoping this happens.

[davewindsor]

We need a Rambo to get rid of these hooligans who run the streets and terrorize the residents.

As well intentioned as the thought of a vet becoming Rambo might seem to bring order to this city, I don't think one of Detroit's many young gangsters would put up with a lot of abuse from a vet without retaliating. In fact, that young gangster might decide to burn Rambo's house down when he's out grocery shopping. Does the VA loan guaranty cover arson? Detroit doesn't even allow gated communities like Florida. Plus, the justice system is so poorly funded and disfunctional in this city, which needs to be addressed first.

When I read the post title, my first thought was, Detroit already has lots of vets, many reportedly un- or underemployed, many homeless. I was hoping for a plan to get them together to work on improving a place and develop housing, jobs, gardens for the whole community, with a focus on vets willing to share work and experience. Vet Town? We always seem to want to attract new while ignoring what we already have.

I don't think such plans would work out that well. I'm sure there is already some kind of system in place through the Veterans Affairs office. I'm not here to diss on vets as I commend them for their service to the country, but a lot of them are not in the same physical or mental condition to run an apartment building as a university grad that also was on an athletic team.

Here's a statistic where 20% of war veterans report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression http://www.rand.org/news/press/2008/04/17.html

And to top that off, what about the vets that had their limbs blown off and/or are restricted to a wheel chair?

I'm not trying to be negative, but there's a reason those vets are unemployed or homeless and I don't think they would even accept counseling or allow someone to tell them what to do if it was offered.

I once bought a rooming house that used to have a vet that I rented a room to that was a retired sergeant. All he did was spend his pension drinking and smoking all day either in his apartment or in the backyard and give free bottles of beer to anyone who would sit with him. He was in perfect physical health, but mentally he was not there. He had issues and some traumatic experiences that could only be resolved through alcohol abuse. If you tried to have a sit down to set him straight, he would yell at you. I have other stories I could tell, but I'm not going to get into them.

The idea of turning Detroit into a vet town as the city's saving grace is just flawed in so many ways.

[mwilbert]

I am always skeptical of plans that call for motivating other people's actions. Veterans are people just like everyone else; they can choose to move to Detroit, open a business, rehab a house like anyone else. Yes, they are eligible for loans and things that are unique to veterans. But they should do it on their own if and when they want to. Corralling them to move to Detroit would be both A) impossible; if they don't want to move to Detroit anyway, they won't and B) ignoring the real impediments to creating a flood of people moving in, i.e. crime, taxes, schools. If we work successfully on those three things, there will be more of everybody in Detroit.

I'm skeptical too, not because I don't think it is a good idea in principle, but because it is usually too hard. A while ago there were a bunch of libertarians who were promoting the idea of libertarians moving to New Hampshire, where there is already a bit of a libertarian bent, in the hopes of getting critical mass and transforming NH into a really libertarian realm. A bunch of them did move there, but not enough to have any noticeable effect on the politics. It wasn't an insane idea, it was just attractive enough to enough people for it to work.

But recognize that if you have a plan where part of the attraction is that a bunch of people do the same thing in a short period of time, you probably are going to need some kind of motivation and coordination. Once you have things rolling, the existence of the cluster may be enough to attract more people. This is similar to the approach Dan Gilbert is taking in trying to create a business cluster downtown--as you get enough stuff concentrated, it should start attracting more interest organically.

If you wanted to entice enough veterans into Detroit to change the city, that would probably be impossible. But if you get could them to concentrate in a neighborhood as part of a plan to make that area especially attractive to vets, that could work and be transformative of that limited area. It is still a hard path, first because there may just not be enough veterans interested in living in Detroit in any case, and secondly because of the coordination problem. Sun City in Arizona didn't arise because older people suddenly all decided to move to the desert. Del Webb built a bunch of infrastructure he thought would appeal to seniors, made a bunch of rules he thought would appeal to seniors, and advertised like crazy to seniors to get them to move there. I don't think there is any similar person available to promote a veterans' area of Detroit.

Of course fixing Detroit's problems is important and will make the city more attractive in general, but there is no reason not to try to attract specific groups too.

[Lombaowski]

I don't think such plans would work out that well. I'm sure there is already some kind of system in place through the Veterans Affairs office. I'm not here to diss on vets as I commend them for their service to the country, but a lot of them are not in the same physical or mental condition to run an apartment building as a university grad that also was on an athletic team.

Here's a statistic where 20% of war veterans report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression http://www.rand.org/news/press/2008/04/17.html

And to top that off, what about the vets that had their limbs blown off and/or are restricted to a wheel chair?

I'm not trying to be negative, but there's a reason those vets are unemployed or homeless and I don't think they would even accept counseling or allow someone to tell them what to do if it was offered.

This has to be one of the most ignorant things I've ever read on the internet. I am an OEF/OIF vet, have a graduate degree, and run a division in corporate America. There are many like me, we aren't all drinking our pensions away with the one arm we have left. HTH

[Gistok]

This has to be one of the most ignorant things I've ever read on the internet. I am an OEF/OIF vet, have a graduate degree, and run a division in corporate America. There are many like me, we aren't all drinking our pensions away with the one arm we have left. HTH

Pay him no mind... he's one of the most pessimistic forumers you'll find. Funny how he keeps mentioning that he's not trying to be negative... but then continues on finding anything negative that he can to say. You'll notice that he finds negative statistics about a minority of vets, but doesn't look for positive ones pertaining to the majority... even though the majority of veterans come back from their tour of duty to lead productive lives.

We salute you for your service to your country Lombaowski...

[Meddle]

Plenty of trained killers errrr, ex-military working as cops around the country using their government supplied skills and experience to mete out justice on city streets for capital offenses such as jaywalking or speeding. More and more Americans being shot or beaten into submission every year.

A small sampling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._United_States

They spend a number of years being programmed. Maybe they should spend at least as many years being de-programmed.

[Hermod]

Plenty of trained killers errrr, ex-military working as cops around the country using their government supplied skills and experience to mete out justice on city streets for capital offenses such as jaywalking or speeding. More and more Americans being shot or beaten into submission every year.

A small sampling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._United_States

They spend a number of years being programmed. Maybe they should spend at least as many years being de-programmed.

I don't think that having a military background makes a cop a bad cop. I think you get just as bad a cops out of the criminal justice schools and the wannabes.

I "followed the flag" from 1961 to 1989 and the last time I shot at somebody was in 1968 in Vietnam and my last physical altercation was in high school in the 50s.

The fellow Vietnam vets I served with over the years had no traces of PTSD. I think the vets that get in trouble in civilian life are the ones that had problems in the military as well.

[davewindsor]

This has to be one of the most ignorant things I've ever read on the internet. I am an OEF/OIF vet, have a graduate degree, and run a division in corporate America. There are many like me, we aren't all drinking our pensions away with the one arm we have left. HTH

It's the most ignorant? Really? I say your answer is the one of the most ignorant. So if it's as perfect as you say, we don't even don't even need to have this discussion, and we don't even need to be mentioning VA guarantee loans because most of them should already be getting these loans in Detroit because these issues don't exist.

I've met a lot of vets that were messed up, so it would be most ignorant of me to pretend these issues don't exist. Notice I didn't say everybody. Not everybody is like that and not everybody isn't like that. Sure, you've made it and you know others who have and you should be proud of what you accomplished with yourself in life, but to act like it doesn't exist in a group is ignorance. Everything is not sugar coated. It's just like if there's a school shooting and we get into a discussion about gun violence and you're saying no we shouldn't talk about it because you know a lot of gun owners who handle their guns safely and it's offensive to gun owners. Talking about the issue is ignorance, right?

[Detroit Stylin]

This has to be one of the most ignorant things I've ever read on the internet. I am an OEF/OIF vet, have a graduate degree, and run a division in corporate America. There are many like me, we aren't all drinking our pensions away with the one arm we have left. HTH

Exactly. I've got my own share of issues but that hasnt caused me to be a drain on society, not only being a combat vet, but since then a college grad as well as small business owner. So I don't know how many vets this guy knows but I'm assuming the only ones he does are the ones in the Cass Corridor....

[Lombaowski]

It's the most ignorant? Really? I say your answer is the one of the most ignorant. So if it's as perfect as you say, we don't even don't even need to have this discussion, and we don't even need to be mentioning VA guarantee loans because most of them should already be getting these loans in Detroit because these issues don't exist.

I've met a lot of vets that were messed up, so it would be most ignorant of me to pretend these issues don't exist. Notice I didn't say everybody. Not everybody is like that and not everybody isn't like that. Sure, you've made it and you know others who have and you should be proud of what you accomplished with yourself in life, but to act like it doesn't exist in a group is ignorance. Everything is not sugar coated. It's just like if there's a school shooting and we get into a discussion about gun violence and you're saying no we shouldn't talk about it because you know a lot of gun owners who handle their guns safely and it's offensive to gun owners. Talking about the issue is ignorance, right?

I'm not even sure what any of this means. You are the one that made the moronic statements basically painting the average veteran as limbless, crazy, and homeless. Then somehow you make the logical leap to equating what I said to school shootings and gun control.

There are "messed up" veterans, and there are a lot more "messed up" non veterans, guy. I would suggest you spend a little more time trying to formulate cogent thoughts to support your beliefs, not using anecdotal evidence based on a handful of people you've met.

[Meddle]

When it goes all the way to the top and have Generals getting their hands slapped for things they should go to prison for and high ranking naval officials getting caught in bribery cases using hookers, we have a problem that needs to be addressed in more severe ways.

You also have problems with sexual issues in the Naval Academy, West Point, the Air Force Academy, the training facilities at Lackland and several other places. The Japanese want to throw us out of bases there due to misconduct.

And let's not forget about the guys in the missile silos who have almost nothing to do but study their jobs and practice over and over again, but still need to cheat on tests.