“They sell you off to the highest bidder and that just sucks,” she said. “The house has been in my family for forty years. Why can’t they buy a vacant home instead of putting someone out on the street?” There’s a perverse answer to Bryant’s question, an activist from Detroit Eviction Defense explained to me one day: Detroit may have tens of thousands of vacant homes, but the ones that have been lived in have usually been maintained lovingly by the people living in them. The roof repairs, flooring, lighting, and yard upkeep have already been paid for by the existing tenants. Kicking people out
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