Thousands of homes owned by the Detroit Land Bank Authority are occupied by squatters, reports Jennifer Dixon of the Detroit Free Press:
Many squatters once were the homeowners, but lost the houses to foreclosure. Others simply broke in and stayed...
The Detroit Land Bank owns nearly 30,000 residential structures in the city, and with as many as 4,300 of them occupied — it's a magnitude unlike any other place.
Squatters are a tricky problem: remove them and add to the city's homeless population and its massive inventory of abandoned buildings. Let them stay, and the land bank is summoned often to investigate what some of its occupants may be up to: dog fighting, prostitution, drug dealing, overdoses, gambling, gun possession or running a chop shop.
Dixon finds:
- The Land Bank has turned only a fraction of its occupants into homeowners, and has only two initiatives to make that happen.
- The agency treats squatters inconsistently. Some stay after being discovered, while others are pushed out.
- The Land Bank can't afford to maintain and secure all residences, so neighbors take on the job of keeping squatters out of some houses.
