City of Detroit Targets 61 Apartment Buildings With Health and Safety Issues

Mayor Mary Sheffield announces crackdown (Photo: City of Detroit)

These days it's easy to look online and find horrible reviews of apartment buildings in Detroit. Complaints range from unresponsive management, black mold, lack of hot water, leaks, bed bugs, and vermin.

Mayor Mary Sheffield's administration announced Wednesday that it is cracking down on 61 apartment buildings to address the city’s most significant “tipping point” rental properties at risk of becoming uninhabitable and causing displacement due to health and safety violations.

“Detroiters who are renters deserve to live in safe, quality housing. Anything else is unacceptable,” said Sheffield in a statement. “We have too many properties in the city where landlords have let the property decline without addressing critical health and safety issues. Starting today, the city of Detroit will be taking a much more aggressive and proactive approach on behalf of our residents.”

The city says it will use the Building Safety, Engineering, and Environmental Department (BSEED) and the Detroit Health Department to inspect properties, legally enforce agreements, and place liens on properties with multiple unpaid blight and code violation tickets.

“Mayor Sheffield has made it clear that housing quality is a priority issue that must be addressed immediately and aggressively, and I appreciate her personal commitment to this,” BSEED Director Dave Bell said in a statement. “At her direction, working with our partners in the Law Department, Health Department, and Department of Appeals and Hearings will send a clear message to our most problematic landlords that there will be accountability and very real consequences if they continue to leave their properties in disrepair.”