DETROIT (WXYZ) — Mayor Mike Duggan wants to end blight across Detroit by 2024.
He announced his plans to demolish 18,000 abandoned homes during his keynote address at the annual Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island.
"We're going to take down 4,000 houses a year," Duggan said. "And in five years, by the end of 2024, we will not have a single abandoned house."
Mayor Duggan will ask voters to support a $200 million blight removal bond. He said the bond issue will not increase taxes. The city is currently using federal funds, however, a city spokesperson said those funds come with restrictions.
Neighbors in Detroit's Candlepark community say vacant properties are a nuisance.
"If it don't take that much to get a bulldozer and knock it down," Krystal Spiral said, "Knock it down!"
Angela Jenkins Rodgers lives next door to a dilapidated home she said has been vacant for three years. She worries about it sinking her property value and she's concerned about school children a block away.
"It just brings the community down," Rodgers said. "And, it's an endangerment."
Some neighbors in the community, like Rod Hester, said that with progress comes panic.
"You can't build businesses over here because of the residential code," Hester said. "They are not putting new houses in."
He added that while the mayor wants a clean slate, the empty lots alone can't revitalize communities.
"Tearing them up is cool," Hester said. "But, if you don't put nothing back it's going to look like a war zone."
The project will also support renovation of houses that can be saved, according to Mayor Duggan. He hopes to have the issue appear on the March 2020 presidential election ballot.
