Duggan introduces $250 million bond plan to end blight in Detroit in five years

DETROIT (FOX 2) - "For many years it's been the community residence that have cleared the blight. We have people 60 some-years out with shovels and rakes and cleaning up these areas so that our kids can walk back-and-forth to school, it's right up the street," said Sandra Turner-Handy.

Sandra is fired up. You would be too if you lived at Hazelridge between East 7 Mile and Houston Whittier on the east side. She's not alone. 

"This stuff it's at my heart every time I drive by one of these blocks. I know where the 19,000 houses are that came down, I know where the 19,000 are that are left," said Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.  

Mayor Mike Duggan now has a plan to either tear those homes down or rehab every blighted home in Detroit in the next five years. It's a plan that would take money in part from a $250 million bond.  

"The houses that are left tend to be in the poor neighborhoods right now and we owe an obligation to every single neighborhood to get there," Duggan said.

But getting there isn't up to the mayor -- the city council to approve, then the voters. The council has until December to approve this and then it would be on the ballot for Detroit voters in March of 2020.  
   
"You think that you've been forgotten. You have not," said Duggan with a blighted home behind him. "This proposal is going to get every abandoned house out of your block if we get it passed."

The city has used more than $250 million federal dollars to get rid of 19,000 blighted homes. But there was a catch with money from Washington. The neighborhood has to be 70 percent or more occupied for their money to be spent.  With the bond money, that won't be the case. 

"You've got houses over here that clearly need to come down. You have houses across the street that are beautiful, the folks have been maintaining them and we need now to say to the folks who stayed, we want you to be happy you stayed," said Duggan.  

"I've seen it when it was good, I've seen it when it was coming down. I see it now that it is bad," said Kimberly Marble, of the Happy About Blight Program. "I'm glad they are taking an interest in our neighborhoods. I am not going anywhere. You will see me again."