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Detroit Residents Fight For Restitution After Overassessed Homes Caused Foreclosures - YouTube
Channel: NBC News
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these houses were owned by families
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this block was live with children and
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community and now i'm seeing boarded up
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windows boarded up windows
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vacant lots i mean you see for yourself
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it looks terrible sonia bonnette used to
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own this home but she lost it her house
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and others like it foreclosed to the
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city of detroit
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the reason you're not in this home
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anymore in part
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is because
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you say you were over assessed correct
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local governments assess property values
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in order to charge homeowners taxes when
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a property is over assessed many
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homeowners face a tax bill they cannot
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pay sonia bonnet and other homeowners
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say detroit has and still is over
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assessing property taxes leading to
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widespread foreclosures now an advocacy
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group is filing a complaint with the u.s
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department of housing and urban
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development to investigate
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overassessments in detroit the city was
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assessing my house at about
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23 thousand dollars the house was
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roughly worth maybe 5 thousand dollars
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the city has acknowledged over
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assessments took place from 2010 to 2013
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detroit tentatively agreeing to six
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million dollars in funding for relief
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programs in response but that six
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million is only about one percent of the
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estimated 600 million overassessed from
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2010 to 2016. just what should be done
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to reconcile these over assessments
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remains heated debate that is what they
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did they robbed us havana robinson says
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she too was over assessed i went down to
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the city tax office and i inquired about
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the taxes the city did reassess her home
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but havana says it did not change her
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bill this property isn't even
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worth ten thousand dollars robinson
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managed to keep her home but many who
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were over assessed did not what's the
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emotional toll for you i've had
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breakdowns i lost my hair sonia who
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identifies as low income says she
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purchased her home from what the city
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would later call an unscrupulous
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investor she inherited their unpaid
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property taxes on the home and then
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accrued her own between 2005 and 2018
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about one in three homes in detroit were
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taken by the government through property
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tax foreclosure many due to
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overassessments according to a 2020
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study the rate of overassessments in
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detroit has fallen a lot of the problem
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was fixed but not for the lowest valued
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homes bernadette atuahene is a professor
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and member of the coalition for property
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tax justice in detroit a group demanding
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in part that detroit provide fiscal
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compensation to over-assessed homeowners
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when you're talking about this over
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assessing again it's a racial justice
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issue and it's not just detroit across
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the country black and latinx residents
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face over-assessed property taxes 10 to
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13 percent higher we asked the city of
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detroit if it would pay back the
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homeowners for overpaid taxes what
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happens for those folks who did
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get over assessed in that period is
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there some form of reparation the city
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said since the state closed its books on
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those tax years legally it can't go back
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and write a check for that money it's an
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argument that's fueled an ongoing legal
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fight between the city and non-profit
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advocacy groups the detroit mayor's
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office said in a statement it has
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revamped the assessment process adding
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staff and new technology the city also
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says it offers up to 100 percent
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exemption on property taxes based on
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household income saying these reforms
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brought down foreclosures of occupied
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homes 94
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between 2015 and 2019. still homeowners
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want restitution so we don't want you to
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give us a grant to fix our home we want
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the cash with interest that you stole
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from us or we want a credit on future
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tax bills until they pay detroiters back
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the money that they stole from us and
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the homes that they stole from us we we
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can't say we won
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all right zinc clay essenwi joins us now
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so zinc i think the only question is
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what's going to happen to those former
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homeowners will they get their homes
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back will they get some type of
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financial restitution back i mean it
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seems at this point they just need a
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lawyer to try to get something back
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yeah tom that's spot on and it's a hot
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button contested legal issue right
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because people lost their homes and
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actually michigan's state constitution
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says it's illegal to assess a property
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at more than 50 percent of its value now
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advocates are saying that is what
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happened and as a result last year
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representative rashida talib actually
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sent a layer a letter excuse me to
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detroit's mayor asking for more data on
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over assessments from the city the city
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did provide part of that information but
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advocates want more and they're willing
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to go to court for it there have been
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some legal filings so tom this is
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definitely an issue and a story we're
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going to have to continue to follow
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thanks for watching our youtube channel
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follow today's top stories and breaking
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news by downloading the nbc news app
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