DUGGAN SHUTS DOWN DETROIT DRUG HOUSES

Property Fixed Up, Returned To Tax Rolls

DETROIT -- The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office has launched a major effort
to clear the city of drug houses by seizing ownership of the homes and,
with the help of a retired developer, selling them to responsible owners.

Since starting the program in the summer, the office has taken title to 22
properties and is in court for another 140. Forty other homeowners are
under strict contracts to improve the houses immediately or face losing the
properties.

Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan predicts his office will claim 250
drug houses in 2002. His predecessor, John D. O'Hair, seized one house in
the last four years of his administration.

The new effort to tackle the drug-house problem, which has plagued Detroit
for at least three decades, is a welcome change in areas accustomed to
crime and blight, residents said. Last year, The Detroit News reported that
nearly 300 houses in the city had been the scene of three or more drug
arrests since 1996.

"It's like Christmas for the neighborhood," said Jonathan Vaughn, who lives
with his ailing mother on Highland Street in the city's west side.

On Dec. 18, Wayne County officials cleaned out a nearby house that dealt
marijuana and heroin for months.

"I'm looking to buy (a house.) Me and my brother might go in on it," Vaughn
said.

Neighborhoods with drug houses have addicts littering the streets and
stealing from residents to fuel their disease. Dealers enforce their own
rules, often from the end of a gun, as frightened residents leave, one by one.

Results uncertain

It remains to be seen how well buyers under the new program improve the
houses and what type of tenants replace the drug dealers.

"I'm not under the illusion we're going to wipe out the drug trade any time
soon. But the openness of drug sales is destroying Detroit's
neighborhoods," Duggan said. "This is attacking the open operation of drug
houses."

Duggan turned to someone with real estate experience to ensure the
properties didn't languish under the prosecutor's ownership.

Burt Farbman, whose Farbman Group owns the Fisher Building and Wayne County
Office Building, oversees the property auctions and recommends which houses
should be demolished. He assembled a team to evaluate each house they seize.

For his efforts, Farbman is paid $1 annually. While the token salary is a
laughing matter for Farbman ("Next year I want a raise," he says), the job
is serious. "You go into some neighborhoods in Detroit, and they virtually
live in prisons. Look at the bars" on the windows, Farbman said on a recent
drive through the city.

"At the end of the day, we're not going to make any money on this," Duggan
said. "We're just trying to stabilize neighborhoods."

Duggan targets houses that have been raided for drugs twice. Since the
beginning of last summer, his office has warned 1,000 property owners,
after police found drugs in their house. The warning tells the owners, many
of whom do not live in the houses, that the county will take the property
if drugs are found there again.

Duggan's office mails cards to neighbors, urging them to call if they see
drug activity. Now, when police are tipped about more drug sales at a house
they have already hit, the drug team makes that location a priority.

A handful of property owners contest the forfeiture or promise to remove
their drug-using tenants. But the vast majority are unwilling to spend cash
defending themselves to keep houses that are usually in poor condition.
About 20 percent of the houses will be demolished. The remainder are sold.

Sometimes, owners are hard to find. On three occasions, the owner was the
state of Michigan, Duggan said. At any rate, the prosecutor's office seeks
the titles.

Typical seizure The house in the 2000 block of Highland is typical of those
seized under the program. Police made an initial bust there in August.
Despite warnings, police found drugs there again later the same month, and
Duggan's office moved to take the land. A judge awarded the prosecutor the
land on Dec. 5, and on Dec. 18 Wayne County workers cleaned the house. A
notice tells residents the house will be for sale on the Internet.

For now, the houses are either razed or sold on the county's Web site,
www.epaconline.com. Most buyers so far are developers buying houses on the
cheap.

For example, a modest bungalow on Buchanan sold for $10,100 on Monday. A
ramshackle house on Junction went for $1,200 the same day. One house with
bullet holes sold for $56,000 in a neighborhood where homes usually fetch
$100,000.

All buyers must agree to bring the buildings up to code and to keep them
free of drugs.

Looking for impact Duggan and Farbman see different ways to dramatically
expand the program's impact.

Driving through a west side neighborhood near the University of Detroit
Mercy, Farbman points out the four remaining houses on a blighted city block.

It would be better to own them all and tear them down, he said. Then, the
city should seek federal grants to replace the structures with modern
housing or have a developer turn the block into a badly needed shopping
plaza, he said.

For his part, Duggan is working with Wayne County Commissioner Bernard
Parker to pass an ordinance that would allow the county to sell to someone
other than high bidders. Duggan would like to eventually expand the program
to include abandoned buildings.

Duggan's goal would be to sell houses within a certain area to churches,
unions or businesses at a discount rate. Those groups would then fill the
houses with their members.

This would rid the county of the responsibility of holding the properties
and could provide affordable housing for responsible owners. It would also
allow people such as Vaughn, the man who lives with his mother on Highland,
to buy a house near his family.

Ultimately, Detroit could see a drug house transformed into a well-kept
home with a taxpayer living there.

So far, Detroit government has shown only mild support, Duggan said, but he
expects that Mayor-elect Kwame Kilpatrick will ensure greater participation
by agencies such as the lighting and water and sewerage departments. Water
and sewerage, for example, can speed up the sale of the properties by
calculating the outstanding bills or even waiving the large debts that can
be obstacles to selling low-value houses, officials said. "When you mention
community policing, it doesn't just mean putting an officer out on the
corner. It means getting the lighting department out there, too," said Don
Cox, an executive with the prosecutor's Forfeiture Unit.

Neighborhood cancer The effect of a drug house on a neighborhood is
staggering. Residents said they sit in their living rooms with pistols
ready to shoot intruders. Children are confined to back yards. Most
families leave as soon as they can, creating more vacancies.

Farbman likened the problem to cancer spreading in a neighborhood. To mark
the occasion when a house is seized, Duggan's office and the police often
host what Farbman calls "empowerment parties," with doughnuts and drinks
for nearby residents.

"The key to it is the neighborhood. You have to find a healthy area and
grow from it," Farbman said. "You can't go into a diseased area." The
parties remind residents that law enforcers kept the promise to get rid of
the drug house and encourages them to keep drug dealers on the move.

The program gives hope to Tim Myles, who lives near a former drug house
that is being prepared for sale. "This will probably make the neighborhood
a little better," he said.