The city of Detroit has illegally inflated the estimated market value of Detroit homes, overtaxing residents by more than $600 million between 2010 and 2016. While some homeowners overpaid the city, 1 in 3 could not afford to pay the inflated tax rates and thus faced property tax foreclosure. The illegally inflated property taxes have displaced 100,000 Detroit families since 2009.

Though the city tried to fix this problem in 2017, they failed and so illegally inflated property taxes continue even today. A University of Chicago study shows that the city of Detroit is still assessing most lower-valued properties (less than $19,000 sale price) in excess of the legal limit, and regressivity – over-assessment of low-valued properties relative to high-valued properties – has gotten worse after the reappraisal. Bloomberg News and a group of economists confirmed this finding. In addition, further research shows that, in Wayne County, illegally inflated property tax assessments and tax foreclosures occur at a significantly higher rate in predominately African-American cities than in its predominantly white ones.

In order to address this insidious form of institutional racism in Michigan, the City must compensate individuals and communities harmed by illegally inflated property taxes. We demand that:

1. The Mayor and City Council pass a Compensation Fund Ordinance to compensate individuals harmed by unjust property tax administration. An ordinance will allow the City to legally appropriate funds to compensate harmed homeowners.

2. The Mayor and City Council prioritize compensating homeowners overtaxed and foreclosed upon between 2009–2019. Detroit’s Assessment Division performed a state ordered property-by-property reappraisal in 2017, but data shows that it is still illegally assessing most lower valued properties even today.

3. The Compensation Fund prioritizes dignity restoration. An ordinance must center dignity restoration, which addresses deprivations of both property and dignity. Through voice, agency, and compensation, dignity restoration places dispossessed individuals and families in the driver’s seat, allowing them to determine how they are made whole. City Council must incorporate feedback from impacted people and communities when constructing the compensatory options.

4. The Mayor and City Council establish new funding streams to pay for the Compensation Fund. A compensation ordinance must create new funding streams rather than placing its beneficiaries in competition for limited resources within existing city programs. Additionally, the Mayor and City Council should not appropriate funds from other initiatives providing compensation or aid to those impacted by various types of housing abuse or discrimination in order to pay for this Compensation Fund.

5. Wayne County, the State of Michigan, and the Federal Government contribute to the Compensation Fund. The federal government and state of Michigan have drastically reduced funding to Detroit over the years, creating the background conditions necessary for unconstitutional property tax assessments to thrive. Moreover, Wayne County used the profits from tax delinquency and foreclosure in Detroit to save itself from bankruptcy and emergency management in 2016 and continues to use these profits to shore up its general budget. Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, speaking on WDET’s Detroit Today, said that the tens of millions of dollars the property tax auction generates for Wayne County is “blood money” and that “anybody who would want to keep the status quo in order to bring in the revenue shouldn't be in government.”

This re-election year, we're calling on you to prioritize compensation for impacted Detroiters.