The Neighbor to Neighbor program continues! In an ongoing effort to reach out to tax delinquent households and better understand Detroit's tax foreclosure program, canvassers returned to the streets and collected more data - including information about how new policies like Pay As You Stay (implemented in part because of the first Neighbor to Neighbor study's data) are affecting those households most at risk.
This report builds on the findings of the Blight Removal Task Force and the 2018 Neighbor to Neighbor report. Those findings illustrated how Detroit's struggle with vacancy and blight is linked to the tax foreclosure and sale of hundreds of distressed Detroit properties every year.
As part of ongoing efforts to address the tax foreclosure crisis, the Quicken Loans Community Fund partnered with 20+ organizations to build Neighbor to Neighbor, a citywide door-to-door canvassing effort that provides information and resources to Detroit residents at risk of losing their homes to tax foreclosure. 2019 marked the second year of Neighbor to Neighbor tax foreclosure prevention canvassing.
Using grants provided by the Quicken Loans Community Fund, Neighbor to Neighbor partner organizations hired more than 150 Detroit residents to canvass Detroit neighborhoods. These residents were paid $15 an hour to knock on the doors of nearly 60,000 Detroit homes that owe delinquent taxes. Canvassers delivered critical information to help residents avoid tax foreclosure and collected data to inform the tax foreclosure prevention efforts of the Quicken Loans Community Fund, the United Community Housing Coalition, and other organizations united in our efforts.
Presented in this report are the findings of the 2019 Neighbor to Neighbor Tax Foreclosure Census. The information collected through Neighbor to Neighbor is supporting tax foreclosure prevention investments from the Quicken Loans Community Fund and has contributed to reducing tax foreclosures in 2019 to their lowest level in more than a decade.