DETROIT (AP) - Surveys have been completed on about two-thirds of all structures in Detroit as part of a project to eradicate blight in the city.
The Detroit Blight Removal Task Force is on track to complete in February its database of 380,217 structures and vacant parcels.
The project aims to finally put an accurate number on blighted, vacant and deteriorating structures in Detroit, which has been battling the problem for years. Some city blocks have only a few occupied homes. Thousands of lots are empty, filled with trash and overgrown with weeds.
A major reason behind the plethora of abandoned houses is Detroit’s drastic population drop. The city has lost about a quarter-million residents since 2000, leaving thousands of homes empty.
“This particular information … will need to be updated to constantly know where we are,” task force co-chair Glenda Price said of the data collection.
A separate 2009 survey found 219,511 occupied homes, 33,529 vacant homes and 91,488 vacant lots in Detroit. That effort did not count buildings or apartment units.
About 10,000 vacant houses were demolished over the past four years under former Mayor Dave Bing’s administration.
New Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has said tearing down abandoned homes, removing blight and strengthening neighborhoods remain priorities.
Since three-member teams began scouring Detroit’s 139 square miles last month, data on about 270,000 properties have been collected by the task force.
Photos are taken and most descriptions of the properties are gathered from vehicles. The teams do not go onto the properties, said Rock Ventures executive associate Sean Jackson, who is working with Loveland Technologies and Data Driven Detroit on the project.
Details collected include whether structures are occupied, possibly occupied or unoccupied; if they are fire-damaged and open and in need of boarding up.
“We’re doing every home in the city of Detroit,” said Jackson.
Surveyors also look for illegal dumping on the sites.
The $1.5 million survey project is funded by Rock Ventures, the Kresge and Skillman foundations, and the Michigan State Housing and Development Authority. Rock Ventures is the umbrella entity for founder Dan Gilbert’s Quicken Loans family of companies. Gilbert also is one of the task force’s co-chairs.
Once the surveys are done, the task force will pass the information to the city, which will lead the demolition process.
But the cost of tearing down all vacant structures in Detroit and addressing other blighted properties could reach $1 billion and take several years to complete, said Price.
The U.S. government announced in September that it will direct millions of dollars in grants to help Detroit tear down vacant buildings and address the city’s blight.
Detroit was allowed last month into bankruptcy. State-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr has said the city’s debt is at least $18 billion.
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