- Detroit YMCA before demolition.
DID DUGGAN FORCE TENANTS OUT ILLEGALLY?
By Ron Seigel
Aug. 1, 2013
Ed McNamara, Mike Duggan joined at hip from 1986-2002.
DETROIT – In his campaign for Mayor of Detroit, Michael Duggan has continually urged people to “look at his record.”
Some suggest that voters ought to examine carefully a prominent part of Duggan’s recorrd—his role from 1986 to 2002 as Deputy Executive to Wayne County Executive Edward McNamara in handling the destruction of the downtown YMCA in order to make way for the construction of Comerica Park.
Evangelist Sarella Johnson, founder of Unity in the Community, charges he authorized bullying and vandalism to drive tenants out of the building, many of them senior citizens, so that the Stadium Authority would not have to live up to their obligation of providing them with adequate relocation expenses.
Comerica Park under construction. City of Detroit taxpayers anted up $40 million, along with state and county funds, to Mike Illtich to build the stadium.
Because the tenants were removed partly through government action, they were entitled to a relocation away that provides compensation in line with their ability to pay.
If Duggan becomes Mayor, some wonder whether he might drive scores of people out of house and home and use government to create more homelessness.
During urban renewal cases in the 1960’s, residents claimed that government officials cut services and made conditions so unbearable most people wanted to get out fast.
One of the residents in the building at the time, Minister Craig Dorsey, said there were violations of the law.
Logo for Unity in the Community, founded by Sarella Johnson.
“They broke the faucets and put them in the sink, put the caps off the radiators and shoved them against the wall [shutting off the heat in the winter time, vandalized and toree off the only pay phone in the lobby and took it completely out.”
Johnson said, “We asked them [the people who did this] who sent them. We were told Mike Duggan.”
Dorsey and Johnson also said a fire was set in the building.
Duggan and his campaign officials could not be reached for comment by the time of this writing. However, Johnson said when confronted at the time Duggan blamed the tenants for the destruction of their own building.
She said it was unlikely the tenants would destroy the building they lived in for years. Dorsey said the fire was set in a portion of the building that tenants had no access to.
Many tenants of the downtown YMCA were elderly and poor.
Both Dorsey and Johnson said they did not allow the tenants to get their belongings out of their room.
According to the state Tenant Rights Act, people can stay 30 days before eviction is final,* so they can appeal their case in court. Johnson said this state law was blatantly violated.
Johnson said she paid some of the tenants’ rent, so they could at least take some of their things. Dorsey said some of the money the tenants kept in their rrooms was stolen.
Mike Duggan lures in woman, elderly like the men evicted from the YMCA.
Johnson said the tenants were “devastated.
“Some were unable to speak themselves. I told them there was nothing for them to be ashame of. The older men, who had memories of the Y, were crushed.”
“This is unAmerican,” she said. “It should not be allowed in this city or this country.”
Coming across the people in the Y, she said was one of the things that got her involved in city issues.
*VOD editor: What was done to these tenants, if true, was an illegal lock-out. Since I work part-time as a counselor for potentially homeless people, I have become aware of the following:
1.) You have a right to written notice of eviction, given to you by hand. If you have a lease, it must give you 30 days to move. If you rent month to month, it must give you seven days. However, you do not have to move even then.
2) After that period, the landlord must go to the District Court and have a “Notice and Summons” sent to you by the court, which will set a time and date for a hearing.
3) During the hearing, you will come before a judge. You also have the right to a request a jury trial (for a fee). You have a right to legal representation in court.
4) The judge will issue a Judgment telling you what date you have to move by. It will likely be at least ten days from the date of the hearing.
5) After that date expires, the landlord must go BACK to court to have the judge sign a Writ of Eviction.
6) The landlord must then contact the bailiff’s office for eviction. By city ordinance, he must rent a dumpster to put your belongings in.
Unless and until all these steps are taken, the landlord has no legal right to lock you out, turn off your utilities, change your locks, remove your belongings, or physically force you out. If any of this happens, you have the right to call the police to have them intervene (h0pefully—don’t count on it in Detroit).
For further information and to get free legal representation, contact the United Community Housing Coalition Landlord-Tenant Division at 313-963-3310.
Related::
http://www2.metrotimes.com/arts/story.asp?id=3504: “Executive Decision” re: Ed McNamara’s dominant role in Wayne County politics. By Curt Guyette
