Situating Tax Foreclosure in Detroit into the Broader Matrix of Racialized, Structural Inequality

• In Event: 1451 - Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 17. Structural Inequalities

Abstract

Since 2008, Wayne County, MI has issued more than 255,000 foreclosure notices to Detroit homeowners for falling three years behind on property taxes, resulting in the yearly January bloom of yellow-bagged notices stapled to wooden stakes pounded into the frozen ground. Detroit’s sizable Black population living near poverty has felt the greatest impact of the resulting yearly auction. The purpose of this paper is to situate the state of Michigan’s tax foreclosure regime, as administered by Wayne County, into the broader matrix of structural inequality for people of color, particularly African Americans. This paper argues that the Wayne County tax foreclosures should not be considered as a mundane state process, but rather as a continuation of the struggle for black land ownership and belonging in the city. The constellation of issues under consideration include racialized dispossession, the draining of wealth from black communities, and the vanishing of neighborhoods. By drawing on the fields of sociology, history, law, and critical geography, this paper contributes to understandings of wealth extraction from communities of color, the legacy housing discrimination, and community belonging. The findings will have particular relevance for policy makers, housing advocates, and urban planners that wish to make Detroit’s much heralded revitalization more equitable for long-time city residents.

Author

• Michael Lee Sabbagh, Wayne State University