Forty-one-year-old Eugenia Cissoko proudly showed us through the house she now owns.
She’s been living in it with her children for two years paying rent to her bother. But he let the property taxes slide, and the house was foreclosed on.
When she got the foreclosure notice in the mail she called in and, “So they said, Ms. Cissoko, don't get shaken. You’re good. You’re in good stance with us because you’ve been in the home for a while, so you get first dibs. So I’m really relieved now.”
She is among the newest Detroit homeowners celebrated by the Detroit Land Bank and partner agencies.
They finished a one year program to buy, save up and make improvements on homes they’ve been living in as renters or their family members had owned at one time.
To qualify, the new homeowners had to put down $1,000 a year ago to buy the house and save up to pay ongoing overhead and make home improvements.
Reginald Scott of the DLBA says, “We also provide them access to certain social benefits so that they can be more improved citizens, have access to the benefits that are existing.”
This is an ongoing program, and the DLBA has tens of thousands of these homes available.
