The city’s leadership has received a booster shot of $21.25 million to help keep the flurry of demolitions rolling in Detroit through April of 2016.
The money should be able to pull down about 1,300 homes at the current rate.
As part of the national “Hardest Hit” program created in 2010 that provides $7.6 billion to the 18 hardest hit states and the District of Columbia due to the housing crisis, Michigan was able to move another $32.7 million into play – with two thirds going to Detroit and one third going to Flint.
This is the third time the U.S. Treasury has allowed the state of Michigan, through MSHDA (Michigan State Housing and Development Authority) to move money from other home-ownership protection efforts under the program and into demolition programs.
So far, Detroit has received or has been promised up to $107 million in reimbursements from the fund for tearing down blighted, abandoned and decrepit buildings.
Recently, the city of Detroit’s demolition program has faced scrutiny due to increasing costs and allegations of collusion. However, the Federal Government and the State of Michigan seem to be giving Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration a vote of confidence in providing this additional money.
MSHDA did a two-day review of the bidding procedures at the Detroit Land Bank and made recommendations, that the mayor says he is going to implement. In November, the mayor says there will be recommendations to improve the bidding process – and hopefully, bring the cost down from the current $14,000 a house, or the 2014 average of $16,400.
Here’s something interesting to note, though – and not advocating for crazy spending but a factoid that has only been mentioned in passing – both of those higher costs are still significantly below the $25,000-per-property cap in the guidelines for demolitions under the Hardest Hit Fund.
In a letter to Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones, Mayor Duggan revealed that the Land Bank and the Building Authority will be publicly posting the results of each awarded bid pack within a week of the award so that “everyone will be able to see which way the prices are trending, providing full transparency to the expenditures.”
“By the end of April, I expect that we will have demolished more than 8,000 vacant houses and 150 abandoned commercial buildings in a two-year period,” said Duggan.
However, it looks like this is the end of this source of money for demolitions. This last award is all that is left of the funds in the state’s Hardest Hit Fund award, unless Congress makes some changes to free up more money for the state, which isn’t very likely under the current political climate.