The Dignity Restoration Project is a racial justice initiative that aims to compensate and seeks to restore the dignity of Detroiters who lost their homes due to unlawful property tax assessments that disproportionately affected Black homeowners.

Context

Since 2009, 1 in 3 Detroit homes have completed the tax foreclosure process, which is more than any other city since the Great Depression. Between 2009 and 2015, the city overvalued between 55-85% of all homes, disproportionately affecting black homeowners. While this was in violation of the Michigan Constitution, affected residents have received no compensation. (Read more in this NYT op-ed).

Detroit’s property tax foreclosure crisis is a case in point of the persistent racial injustice that underlies America’s wealth inequality. The 10x racial wealth gap in the US hasn’t changed since 1968. In 2016, the median net worth of a white family was ~$180,000; the median net worth of a Black family was ~$18,000. A robust body of research has documented how structural racism in the housing and financial sectors has contributed to that persistent gap.

Vision

The Dignity Restoration Project (DRP) aims to mobilize resources to compensate the hardest hit households in Detroit. While the majority of Detroit homeowners faced property over assessment, DRP focuses on the hardest hit Detroiters - low income households who would have been exempt from paying property taxes. DRP’s goals are:

1.

Compensate households who were foreclosed on, starting with the hardest hit

2.

Change the narrative about the foreclosure crisis, acknowledging the trauma and restoring dignity

3.

Halt discriminatory property tax administration, by drawing attention to this local and national issue

4.

Establish a roadmap for kindred initiatives across the country focused on repair

Team

DRP was founded by Bernadette Atuahene. She is the visionary force and lead activist behind DRP, having mobilized the community-based coalition and major donors. She is a law professor at USC’s Gould School of Law and lives in Detroit. Her scholarship focuses on land stolen from people of the African Diaspora. She coined the term dignity restoration.

Sarida Scott is leading the initial work for the organization. She is a born-and-bred Detroiter and professor of community development at University of Detroit Mercy. She was previously a program officer at the Kellogg Foundation and ED of Community Development Advocates of Detroit. She has a JD from UC Berkeley.

DRP’s board includes Detroiters who lost their homes to foreclosure; executives of four leading community-based organizations, an ACLU attorney involved in the class action lawsuit; the law professor whose research inspired DRP; a program officer from the Ford Foundation, Detroit’s Council President, and representation from Wayne County. DRP is incubated at the Global Development Incubator.

The team has been working on developing a fundraising strategy to set up the potential compensation fund, an operational model for managing funds and data, compensation options for beneficiaries, a communications and risk management strategy, and a framework to assess impact. This phase of work will culminate in a decision whether to launch the fund in 2024. The exploratory work is funded by the Ford Foundation, Hudson Webber Foundation, Compton Foundation, and the Global Development Incubator.

Where we are and where we are going

FAQs

  • Between 2009 and 2015, the City of Detroit assessed the property value of 53 to 84 percent of homes in violation of the Michigan Constitution (which prohibits assessing property at more than 50 percent of its market value).

    Source: California Law Review, p. 109.

  • The Dignity Restoration Project (DRP) is a racial justice initiative that aims to compensate and seeks to restore the dignity of Detroiters who lost their homes due to unlawful property tax assessments that disproportionately affected Black homeowners.

  • A home is more than just a home and losing it impacts all aspects of your life, including personal dignity.

    Dignity restoration seeks to address both compensation and dignity by placing individuals who have lost a home in the driver’s seat, allowing them to determine how they are made whole.

    You can learn more about dignity restoration through the following link.

    Source: Law & Social Inquiry.

    DRP has been exploring symbolic compensation options that best offer autonomy.

  • We're in the process of defining eligibility criteria.

    Our intent is to identify homeowners who lost their homes unjustly (homeowners who were overassessed and would have qualified for the property tax exemption) and phase compensation, starting with Detroiters who demonstrate the greatest financial need.

    To implement this approach, we will likely look at the following criteria:

    Individual owned a home in Detroit which was foreclosed upon due to unpaid taxes between 2009 and 2019 before moratoriums beginning in 2020.

    The homeowner occupied the foreclosed property as their primary residence.

    The homeowner is currently alive and lives in Detroit.

    Eligibility will be limited in the initial fund. We will be working in phases to potentially expand eligibility with future funds.

  • No form of compensation can replace a person’s home and what they lost. The compensation provided is only symbolic for those who lost their homes for property taxes they should not have been paying in the first place because they qualified for the property tax exemption.

    We are in the process of exploring cash payment compensation with the amount to be determined.

    We are also exploring providing resource navigation for existing programs in Detroit.

    This symbolic compensation is not in lieu of other benefits, and individuals should still continue applying for other city-based programs that are targeted towards populations that lost their homes to property tax foreclosures.

  • Currently we aim to focus our efforts on those hardest hit from unlawful property foreclosure in Detroit: homeowners who the City over assessed and they lost their home for property taxes they were not supposed to be paying in the first place because they qualified for the property tax exemption.

    Through this work, there will also be an opportunity for other cities and programs to learn.

  • Help us spread the word within the community to those who may have been affected to receive the latest, accurate information.

    If you have questions or feedback, please reach out using the “Contact” link.

  • We are currently in an initial phase determining whether we can raise the funds and establish the mechanisms to distribute them. We hope to announce whether we’re able to move forward soon.

  • If we don’t reach a minimum fundraising goal, we will not be able to provide anyone compensation.

    If successful in meeting these goals, we intend to have a few rounds of fundraising and compensation, starting with the hardest hit Detroiters.

    Our approach is intentionally phased to offer rounds of compensation, allowing for continuous fundraising and expanding groups of eligible beneficiaries.

  • The number of property tax foreclosures coupled with the state Constitution’s mandate regarding property taxation makes for an unprecedented situation.

    Detroit also has a legacy of organizing and activism in resistance to grave injustices.

  • The current focus is only on the City of Detroit.

  • Since 2009, the City of Detroit has illegally over assessed property values and inflated its property tax bills. When homeowners cannot afford to pay, Wayne County forecloses on their homes. Despite efforts to address the problem, the City continues to illegally and inequitably tax Detroiters, especially those who own lower-valued homes.

    Source: California Law Review, p. 113.

    This property tax foreclosure crisis is an example of structural injustice in the United States which has resulted in a 10x racial wealth gap. In 2016, the median net worth of a white family was ~$180,000, while it was ~$18,000 for a Black family. This inequality can be accounted for by the racial injustices in the housing and financial sectors.

    Source: Federal Reserve.

    This effort intends to compensate and restore the dignity of the hardest hit Detroiters.

    We hope that success in Detroit can embolden kindred efforts across the United States.

  • Yes. Sarida Scott, our project lead, is a born-and-bred Detroiter, who is also a leader in community development and housing-related issues.

    Our Board Members are long-term Detroiters who care deeply about the community and have been involved in resolving this issue over the years. They include affected Detroiters and community leaders:

    Phyllis Edwards, Bridging Communities

    Antoine Jackson, MACC Development

    Bonsitu Kitaba, ACLU

    Donna Givens Davidson, Eastside Community Network

    Hector Hernandez, Southwest Solutions

    Mary Sheffield, Detroit City Council

    Kevin Ryan, Ford Foundation

    Tahira Ahmad, Directly impacted citizen

    Stephen Grady, Wayne County

    Chintan Maru, Global Development Incubator

    Additionally, the development of the Dignity Restoration Project’s approach and design continues to be informed by the community, work of the Coalition for Property Tax Justice, feedback from the People's Forum, and data gathered from affected Detroiters.

  • DRP is not directly working with the City. However, we are in continuous conversation and would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with our local leaders in ways that create more opportunities for Detroiters. Currently, City Council President Mary Sheffield is a DRP board member. Additionally, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans has expressed his support.

  • The Global Development Incubator (GDI) is an incubator for transformational development ventures, where we deploy our teams to incubate social impact solutions.

    Since August 2022, GDI has been working closely with Professor Bernadette Atuahene, Sarida Scott, and the Board members to prepare the launch of DRP.

    GDI is also a fiscal sponsor of DRP.

  • “A fiscal sponsor is a nonprofit organization that (may) provide fiduciary oversight, financial management, and other administrative services to help build the capacity of charitable projects.” National Council of Nonprofits

  • Our initial work is being funded by the Compton Foundation, Ford Foundation, Hudson Webber Foundation, and the Global Development Incubator.

Donate

Interested in donating to DRP?

You will be redirected to a third-party site to make your donation. The funds will be collected by the Global Development Incubator (GDI), the fiscal sponsor and incubation partner for DRP. 100% of the donations made to GDI will be transferred to DRP. The funds will be used to compensate Detroiters for the harm they faced.

Learn more

For more detail on our work, please read our frequently asked questions. If you have more questions or feedback, contact us.