NEIGHBORS DELIGHT IN SEIZURE OF DRUG HOUSE

A year ago, the home on Redfern was riddled with bullet holes, full of drug
dealers and a beacon of fear for neighbors and their children.

On Monday, Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Duggan stood in front of the
remodeled property and hugged neighbors on the 19400 block of Redfern in
northwest Detroit, promoting his drug house unit and its 100th seizure.

"The neighborhood we're sitting in right now is exactly the kind of
neighborhood we've seen turned over to drug dealers," Duggan said. "It's
near Telegraph, Southfield Freeway and Grand River, where there's good
access to suburban buyers who can get into the neighborhood, buy the drugs
and get out."

After that, the blight spreads, the drug dealers move in, the property
values decline, and people flee, Duggan said.

"Drug dealers start renting cheap, and they take over," Duggan said.

Since initiating its Drug House Program in August 2001, the Wayne County
Prosecutor's Office has filed lawsuits on 650 properties in Detroit. Of
that, about 231 have been resolved by a consent decree, where the owner
faces immediate loss of the property if drugs are found on the premises in
the future. Additionally, the prosecutor's office has shut down 331 drug
houses in the last year, Duggan said.

After the prosecutor seizes the house, it is listed for auction at
www.waynecounty.com .

In the case of the Redfern house, Steve Sundberg of Metro Homebuyers and
Dave Gaspard of Evergreen Residential Management, bought it for $56,000 and
fixed it up. The two-bedroom house is now for sale for $119,000.

"Most of the patchwork we did was from bullet holes going through this
house," Sundberg said.

Essie Thornton, 82, has lived across the street from the house for 30 years
and said she was afraid to go outside, especially at night. "I'm glad this
problem is gone. I feel a lot safer."

Keith Brooks, who has two children, said he had to watch them at all times
when they played outside five houses down from the former drug house.

"I was very excited to see what happened to this house over the last year,"
Brooks said.

Deputy Detroit Police Chief Harold Cureton lives several blocks from the
Redfern property. "I remember how I felt the first time I drove by the house
and realized it was a drug house," Cureton said. "I don't think anyone needs
to live around drug houses."