Some politicians and social justice groups are demanding that the City of Detroit and Mayor Mike Duggan end tax foreclosures and pay people for the homes they’ve lost.A University of Chicago study found that Detroit foreclosed on 100-thousand homes over the past decade. Many of them because the properties were over-assessed, and people could not afford to pay the higher amount.
At a news conference on the city’s East side, Professor Bernadette Atuahene worked on the study and is with the Coalition for Property Tax Justice. She says Detroiters who lost their homes should be reimbursed.
“Because you can't just be illegally inflating people's property taxes, taking people's houses telling ‘em ‘Oops, I'm sorry. We don't need no oops, we need compensation.”
The Duggan Administration counters that a 2017 city-wide reassessment fixed the problem.
Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib wants Duggan to take another look at the over assessment issue that has cost Detroit residents about 600-million dollars over a decade.
Earlier this year, a judge’s order halted all foreclosures of occupied properties in Wayne County.