This is unfortunate, but not entirely surprising. On a side note, when I saw the Spaulding Courts buildings a few weeks ago, it did not seem like the buildings were being rehabbed yet. Perhaps the person cited in the article just obtained the buildings recently.


Wayne County cuts hamper blight battle

Program enforcing upkeep abandoned


Detroit --Budget cuts have forced Wayne County to eliminate a blight-fighting program that forces absentee owners to fix properties or risk losing them in court.
"That's the worst news I've heard ... in three months," said Jon Koller, a Corktown resident who is rehabbing two derelict buildings seized late last year by the Wayne County Nuisance Abatement Program. "It's a really incredible tool for communities to get a hold of a resource."

The program was lauded as the only one of its kind in the state to consistently sue owners for nuisance violations. It focused on Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park and Westland -- and officials at one point hoped it could be a statewide model. Instead, county officials announced its immediate end Wednesday to save $1.3 million.

"The program has been fighting blight in many neighborhoods for more than 10 years and has been able to make a positive difference," according to a written statement from Eric Sabree, the program's supervisor. "Unfortunately, [[it) is not immune to the severe budget issues facing all of Wayne County."

The program featured a hotline for neighbors to complain about vacant homes or dilapidated properties. If owners didn't fix the property, lawyers would sue to declare it a nuisance and assume ownership.

The county then sold properties to those who signed pledges to repair them.
In the past 12 months, county lawyers filed more than 800 suits through the program.

Detroit launched a similar effort more than five years ago, but it doesn't sue to seize buildings. The Department of Administrative Hearings, known as the blight court, issues thousands of fines a year for code violations. But it costs about $2 million annually to operate, brings in about $900,000 and is owed about $41 million in fines.

Koller's nonprofit, Friends of Spaulding Court, bought two buildings in the complex on Rosa Parks near Interstate 75 for $1,000. The run-down buildings, which contain 20 townhouses, had attracted squatters, said Tim McKay, a Corktown resident who was formerly the director of Greater Corktown Development Corp.

"This is really disappointing," McKay said. "It was very effective."
Commissioner Ilona Varga, D-Lincoln Park, said she is researching a way to fund the program based on assessing fines to the owners of blighted properties.
"I am just sick about having to not continue it," Varga said. "The program must continue."