Brown moved into her Tiny Home in January of 2020. She said she raised more than $2 million from foundations and private donors for the initial 25 homes, including the one at 1553 Monterey Street where Ms. Ms. Brown said in an interview that the eviction was in retaliation after she began speaking up on behalf of residents about her concerns, like slow repairs, and because she was critical of the program and Ms. Fowler. Brown offered to pay rent, but the agency declined, telling her they wanted her gone to make way for someone who would make it their primary residence. Cass Community Social Services initially didn’t renew her annual lease, but she refused to move, so the nonprofit moved to evict. The agency said Ms. Brown’s name was on the lease at her boyfriend’s $2,000-plus a month apartment on the Detroit riverfront. “I’m not anti-Miss Brown,” she said, adding later, “I just want someone living in the house full time, that’s all.” Brown, signed agreements in December 2020 that the houses would be their primary residences. Fowler contends the eviction was triggered by Ms. Brown living elsewhere more than 50 percent of the time, contrary to the intent of the program, which requires tenants to make the homes their primary residence. Faith Fowler, who is white and runs the program, as a “poverty pimp,” and displayed a sign attacking Ms. Brown, who is Black, repeatedly referred publicly to the Rev. Brown from the house.Īs she fought the eviction, Ms. The group was trying to prevent court bailiffs from carrying out the final eviction order to remove Ms. With TV cameras rolling, more than two dozen community activists from a group called Detroit Eviction Defense defended the resident, Taura Brown, 45, locking arms, putting up barriers of discarded tires, chicken wire, and barrels, and blocking the front door of her house on Monterey Street, near the John C. In this case, the founder of the program, who is white, was accused of racism. It also was a reminder that benevolent, low-income programs often come with rules and restrictions that can result in conflicts and ugly disputes. It pitted well-intentioned community activists against a well-established do-gooder. The project, which is owned and operated by Cass Community Social Services of Detroit, has been built through fund-raising from foundations and private donors, including rocker Jon Bon Jovi.īut in early April, the first-ever eviction of a Tiny Homes resident underscored what a hot-button issue affordable housing has become in places like Detroit, one of the country’s poorest big cities. The first set opened in 2017, and construction is slated to begin this fall on a half dozen or so houses on a patch of empty land nearby. To date, there are 25 in a three-block area, occupied by residents that include seniors and people formerly homeless and incarcerated, and who earn as little as $7,000 annually. They are intended for low-income residents who pay monthly rent of $1 per square foot, plus electricity, with the option to own the home outright after seven years. The Tiny Homes, as they’re known, were built by a nonprofit group and have marble shower stalls, granite kitchen countertops and solar panels. On Detroit’s west side, near a commercial strip lined with vacant lots, empty shops, storefront churches and motorcycle clubs, sits a cluster of relatively new, micro-size houses - 225 to 470 square feet - residences that look more like seasonal cottages in a resort town.
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