DETROIT BLIGHT

For decades, people living in Detroit neighborhoods have been forced to live next to vacant and abandoned homes.

Crews are cleaning up a mess around a blighted home on Detroit’s west side after Local 4 reached out to the mayor’s office.

The city of Detroit is ramping up its Demolition Projects and getting rid of more abandoned homes throughout its neighborhoods.

Several members of Michigan’s congressional delegation are backing a bill that would help neighborhoods rebound from the current financial crisis. The bill, introduced Thursday by Rep. Marcy Kaptur and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, is large and sweeping. It would be one of the largest bills aimed at fixing blight and keeping low-income neighborhoods together. “We don’t want to tear down our neighborhoods anymore, we want to invest in them,” Tlaib said. The only GOP official to co-sponsor the bill is also from Michigan, Rep. Fred Upton.

Proposal N -- on the Nov. General Election ballot for Detroit voters -- aims to eradicate blight and dilapidation across the city. Proposal N would allow the city of Detroit to sell $250 million in “Neighborhood Improvement Bonds” that will be used to save 8,000 vacant homes and demolish 8,000 others that can’t be saved. Those behind Proposal N are hoping to make real headway without hurting Detroiters. The fight against Prop N isn’t about money, but rather how the city has previously spent money. Election Day for the U.S. presidential election is on Nov. 3.