Photo courtesy Tricycle Collective
Now imagine excessive fees being piled on to your tax bill until, regardless of your ownership, you are in jeopardy of losing your house.
A terrible story, and one many families in Michigan now face. Unable to afford rising costs of living, taxes, an liens, families are having their homes foreclosed on the one possession they owned free and clear.
The Tricycle Collective is part of the movement to keep Detroit at home. They work to raise money that they then donate to families so that they, in turn, are able to bid for their houses in foreclosure auction. A campaign is going on right now, in the month of September to raise no less than $30,000 for families in Detroit.
Where does this tax-deductible money go? Each family is given a $500 donation that they can then use at the Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction. Some families have been able to repurchase their homes for as little as this amount. And even if the $500 doesn’t cover the full price of the home, it still allows families to keep bidding past what they might have saved themselves.
And this money doesn’t just benefit families by keeping them at home. One out of six occupied homes that will be subject to auction will be vacant within a year. Without families to live in them, these houses will no longer be kept up, succumbing to blight, rot, and other dilapidation, and thus will become completely unlivable without serious renovations.
As the Patronicity video below explains: “Detroit is experiencing a period of economic growth and revitalization, but many of the residents that have lived there the longest are at the greatest risk of displacement. Supporting families to stay in their homes not only contribute to the stability of the individual family, but to the stability of the entire city.”
My Movie from Margo Dalal on Vimeo.
To learn more, see thetricyclecollective.com. To donate, see patronicity.com/tricycle.
