Detroit house meant to be rehabbed for deserving family demolished without warning

It's happened a few times in recent years: demolition contractors tearing down the wrong Detroit house. It's usually a mistake involving the wrong address, but this situation is more of a mystery.

The house was owned by Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo and was in the process of being fixed up by a nonprofit to be given to a deserving family during Christmastime.

UPDATEDetroit police investigating after house meant for deserving family is illegally demolished

The house sat on the edge of the Brightmoore community. There were two houses there, but one burned down earlier this summer, and part of the fire spread to the rehab house. The house was boarded up, and the nonprofit was going through the permit process to continue the rehab.

Gay-Dagnogo got a call Thursday night that the house had been demolished. An investigation has been launched to find out who demolished the house as proper protocol was not followed.

"The demolition of this property was not ordered, directed or funded by the City. There also was no permit pulled by any private party for demolition at this address. At this time we are actively investigating to see if we can help determine who was responsible." a statement from the city stated.

Watch the full report in the video above.


About the Authors:

Paula Tutman is an Emmy award-winning journalist who came to Local 4 in 1992. She's married and the stepmother of three beautiful and brilliant daughters. Her personal philosophy in life, love and community is, "Do as much as you can possibly do, not as little as you can possibly get away with".

Kayla is a Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer.