More than a third of Detroit residents in tax-delinquent properties are in homes that require substantial repair, Quicken Loans' philanthropic arm found in a recent survey.
The Quicken Loans Community Fund's 2019 Neighbor to Neighbor survey swept Detroit homes behind on taxes for the second time, aiming to slow the foreclosure crisis that has haunted the city. It released its findings Monday.
Some 87 percent of homeowners surveyed last year would be eligible for tax exemptions under the Homeowners Property Tax Assistance Program, the survey found. But just more than half were not aware it existed. Of the nearly 14,000 occupant owners surveyed, 38 percent said their homes were in need of "critical maintenance."
Neighbor to Neighbor stopped at nearly 60,000 tax-delinquent properties, returning a second time to those that didn't answer, according to the report. Fifty-nine percent spoke with Neighbor to Neighbor representatives, 55 percent of whom were owners, 25 percent renters and 20 percent other.
This year is no regular year for foreclosures. The Wayne County Treasurer's Office suspended them for all of 2020. That also means the annual tax foreclosure auction that results is canceled.
But the amount of foreclosures next year remains to be seen, with the pandemic-induced recession seemingly not going anywhere soon and bills still owed. It could reach up to 7,500 in Wayne County next year, Crain's reported in May.
In 2019, 521 Detroit properties entered the Wayne County auction, with 250 of those occupied by their owners, according to data provided by Quicken Loans Community Fund. In 2015, 9,111 properties in Detroit went to auction and 6,408 owner-occupied homes.
As for Wayne County as a whole, there were 3,960 foreclosures last year, compared with 4,178 in 2018, according to the treasurer's office.
The Quicken Loans fund is also giving $1 million for Detroit's 0 percent interest home repair loan program that sells 10-year loans of $5,000-$25,000.
Tax foreclosure is a leading cause of abandonment and blight in Detroit neighborhoods. Home repair assistance is among the tools used to prevent it, and a lack of preventative measures like help with costly home repairs was among advocates' concerns last fall when Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan floated a $250 million bond proposal to largely fund demolition of homes. An updated version of that proposal will go before voters on the November ballot.
Tax foreclosure is another place where the Quicken Loans Community Fund has taken on an, arguably, governmental role. It also stepped in to streamline Detroit's business permitting and inspection processes — not as a paid contractor but under what the city called a partnership.
The fund is also working with Detroit's Property Assessment Board of Review, which hears property tax appeals, to send 25,000 of the city's households property tax exemption applications.
The 2020 deadline for the Homeowners Property Tax Assistance Program is Dec. 14, according to the city's website. Those approved get either full, half or quarter tax exemptions, and still pay other fees. Eligibility is judged on ownership, income and assets. The United Community Housing Coalition calls the tax assistance program a toll that can "improve housing affordability and prevent tax foreclosure among owners with low and fixed incomes."
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in March signed a bill starting "Pay As You Stay," a program designed to prevent foreclosures and ease the burden of back taxes.
The Quicken Loans Community Fund held in-person workshops to educate homeowners on the exemption application, but stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So it created a long, detailed foreclosure prevention guide with the Detroit College for Creative Studies, according to the news release.
The Quicken Loans Community Fund is a vessel for philanthropic spending by billionaire Dan Gilbert and his organization that employs 18,000 in downtown Detroit (though many are now working from home due to the pandemic). It got $5.3 million in 2019 for operations, donations and other investments, according to federal documents filed ahead of the initial public offering for Rocket Companies Inc., the Detroit-based parent company of Quicken Loans. The company, now public, began trading Thursday morning.
The fund received $7.5 million from Gilbert's organization in 2018 and $27.8 million in 2017. It didn't receive any funds in the first part of 2020 (through March 31), according to the federal filing.
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August 10, 2020 at 08:00PM
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Many tax-delinquent homes in Detroit need major repairs, Quicken Loans fund survey finds - Crain's Detroit Business
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