Detroit Giveaway…..

Pardon me if I sound brash, but why is it that Detroit citizens’ homes are being foreclosed but there are organizations and projects giving away houses in Detroit to non-Detroit residents? What I have read is -there’s a program for writers in an attempt to stabilize the community and start literacy programs. I suppose there aren’t any writers in Detroit that are worthy of living in free homes in the city in which they currently reside. You know what? Don’t pardon me because I am disgruntled about what’s going on around me and affecting my community. I read an article about a woman that lived in the same house for 60 years and is now being put on the streets at the age of 68 because she’s 15k behind in property taxes. Did I mention she was a music teacher in the area’s grade schools? Detroit isn’t exactly the land of opportunity for teachers. Especially since they laid off the most experienced teachers and closed countless amounts of schools.

I immediately began to think about how you never really own property. You’ll always have taxes on the property and if you can’t pay them you’ll be thrown out by rude Sheriff’s with entitlement issues. Where’s the help for the people that are behind in taxes? I know there are some organizations out there that recognize this is just another way to displace people in the city of Detroit. If vacant homes are being remodeled how about turning homes into small shelters. Detroit has about 20,000 people that are homeless and about 1,900 shelter beds. There are lots of people just on the streets; Sleeping under freeway under passes; on the side of buildings; and just on the street. Last year Mayor Duggan requested that the “Tent-Town”(a group of homeless people that set up tents in a Downtown Detroit area to build a safe haven to protect one another and to sleep) move their tents. My question to the Mayor then and now , is where did you want the homeless people to go? My elementary school (McColl) was closed and then turned into a church. You know what it is now? It’s an abandoned building sitting in the middle of occupied homes. Where’s the funding for people that would love to make that school , or any dilapidated school for that matter, a recreational center?

Show some respect to the citizens of Detroit: The citizens that have been here and survived each recession because there has certainly been more than one. Let’s not be so quick to throw people out of their homes that they have lived in for years. How about placing some of the citizens that have been displaced in a newly remodeled home? Help the people that really need help. In my opinion it doesn’t make you look good by saying you’re trying to stabilize the neighborhood with people that don’t know the neighborhood or the culture of that neighborhood and/or DETROIT. If increasing literacy and stabilization of neighborhoods is the goal, why not turn an abandoned school like McColl into a free learning center and hire the teachers that have been laid-off due to school closings and budget cuts.

I’m curious to know what is the real goal overall for the city of Detroit and it’s citizens. It feels like a take over and a continuation of displacement of the locals. These are just my feelings,views, and opinions. I’m just a Detroit city girl with a pen and paper…