Detroit selling vacant lots for 100 dollars | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

will be interesting to see what detroit looks like in 10 years

Detroit  — Linda Gadsden spent years living next door to an overgrown and weed-filled dumping ground.

By next summer, the 63-year-old Detroiter says it will be a lush garden with pumpkins, watermelon, tomatoes, lettuce and greens.

It cost Gadsden less than two hours and $100 to snap up the property next to her corner lot home on Indiana Avenue during a Detroit Land Bank Authority side lot sale fair last month.

Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration launched the program last year to make it easier for residents to purchase vacant lots. Formerly, the process of gaining ownership had often been tedious and spanned years.

“There were times that I would go out and attempt to stop people from dumping things, but (the lot) wasn’t mine. Therefore, my voice didn’t carry a lot of weight,” Gadsden said. “It’s exciting to finally be able to maintain something that belongs to me.”

Duggan announced the pilot effort last winter to accelerate the sale of side lots through targeted fairs serving residents within specific City Council districts.

Just eight months in, officials say the program is a success, with Detroit on pace to get 3,000 vacant lots into the hands of residents by the end of the year. Officials said between online and neighborhood fairs, side lot sales mark a 10-fold increase from the previous maximum of about 300 side lot sales each year.

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