Bank Of America Will Help Demolish Detroit's Abandoned Homes

[RandySF]

Inspired by Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s plan to reshape the city, Bank of America officials today pledged to donate 10 homes for police officers who move to the city, demolish 100 abandoned houses and open two service centers to help residents hold onto their homes.

“We are trying to be creative and see how we can be part of the solution,” said Kieth Cockrell, marketing president for Bank of American in Detroit. “I am inspired by what Mayor Bing is doing in the city.”

Attracting 200 Detroit police officers to the city is one of the first initiatives of Bing’s Detroit Works Project, a bold plan to encourage residents to move out of sparsely populated neighborhoods and into ones where services will be enhanced.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110323/NEWS01/110323012/0/ENT04/Bank-America-donate-10-homes-relocating-Detroit-officers-tear-down-100-more?odyssey=nav|head

[itsrobert]

1. How about teachers

too?

[JDPriestly]

2. They should provide the homes to homeless people from around the

country and fund small (very small) businesses for the people to work in at minimum wage. It is horrible to destroy houses when so many people don't have places to live.

[SoCalDem]

3. The sad thing is that so many of those once fine houses have pretty much been destroyed already

Decades of vandalism ,fires & squatters has reduced many of them to barely-standing rubble:(

[david13]

4. Unfortunately, age has also been a big factor with those houses.

Weather conditions in south east Michigan are such that houses do not last forever. They deteriorate quite rapidly, and most of them in any case would need major rebuilding. Not to mention new wiring, new plumbing, etc.
How many of them are plagued by mold, or radon? And other issues.
Nothing lasts forever. In many of the cases, it would make far more economic sense to build new houses. But then the issue would be where?
At the same location? Why?
dc

[Hannah Bell]

6. ....

The report, a joint effort of the Detroit Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Response, Data Driven Detroit, Community Legal Resources, Living Cities, and the Edward Ginsberg Center at the University of Michigan, found that occupied housing in Detroit is well-maintained and thriving in spite of the overwhelming percent of vacancies. 93 percent of occupied housing in Detroit is in good condition, 7 percent is in fair condition, and a mere 1 percent is in poor condition.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:L-PINRqiSnQJ:www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php%3Faz%3Dview_all%26address%3D219x23166+detroit+housing+stock+good+condition&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com


Detroit's occupied housing stock is actually in better shape than that of many large cities is the report i've heard. Because a large proportion built of brick & similar more durable materials v. wood, if i recall correctly.

Of course, any building deteriorates when unoccupied, unmaintained & subject to vandalism & arson.

[david13]

10. Well, of course that could be the case. But I will only believe it

when I see it.
I have seen quite a few brick houses that have deteriorated very fast. The mortar crumbles out from between the bricks and leaves a mess.
And, a brick house usually has a frame within, made of wood. They are not brick all the way thru' and thru', like a baked potato (all one material).
But brick over wood frame.
And the roofs, they start to leak, then the snow, ice and water starts to get in and rot the wood, and in that humid climate with so much rainfall and snow the structure rots from the inside out. Floors start to sag, etc.
And as any house ages, it sometimes gets into the deferred maintenance syndrome, which starts one problem, then another, etc.
dc

[lpbk2713]

5. It's BoA.

What's in it for them? What's the tradeoff?

[rucky]

7. It raises the value of the other forclosures they have on the books.

:shrug:

[Rage for Order]

8. They will no longer have to pay upkeep for the homes...

And they remove the legal liability of someone getting hurt on property that they own. They're doing the right thing for the wrong reasons but as the saying goes, never look a gift horse in the mouth.

[grasswire]

9. lipstick on the pig

[Shagbark Hickory]

11. Wouldn't it be easier if they just made some small business loans?