What would happen if the Detroit Land Bank were dissolved? CEO explains

It took the Detroit Land Bank Authority about a decade to sell 50,000 properties, and amid debate over its relevance in future years, the DLBA’s leader says, “we’re not close to the end.”

Land bank CEO Tammy Daniels discussed the DLBA’S function and future plans as some residents and City Council members debate its value in the years to come. 

“We still have over 60,000 parcels of property in our inventory. We’re not close to the end. We’re a little less than halfway to the goal,” said Daniels, noting that due to the cycle of foreclosure, the land bank “may never be completely structureless. 

“But, a much more scaled-down version where maybe, it operates as a skeleton crew, absolutely in 10 to 15 years,” she said. 

The dueling views have become more prominent as council members negotiate the terms of a new agreement with the land bank, while Detroit voters prepare to elect the next council and mayor. 

Some council members are vocal in their support for the authority, which acts as the holder of all publicly-owned residential properties in the city and offers a suite of programs designed to make it easier for residents to obtain lots and discounted homes. Others disagree, citing transparency concerns, eligibility hurdles and land holds that prevent certain purchases, and believe it’s time to dissolve the land bank and move some services back in-house.

The land bank has been working under the terms of an expired Memorandum of Understanding for over a year and a half. Daniels is hopeful that the council will approve a new agreement soon. In the meantime, its 125-member workforce remains committed to serving Detroiters and facilitating the sale of neighborhood lots, side lots, and below-market homes under programs Daniels said would likely disappear without the land bank. 

“We stand ready to continue our work,” she said.

The land bank ramped up its staffing and efforts in the spring of 2014 with an infusion of federal Hardest Hit funding to launch an unprecedented $265 million demolition program, a cornerstone initiative of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s tenure. The city demolished more than 15,000 blighted homes over multiple rounds of the program through August 2020. But the effort, which, at that time, was jointly run by the land bank and Detroit Building Authority, wasn’t without controversy. It came under scrutiny in early 2015 over bidding practices and costs, prompting federal, state and city reviews and investigations. In 2020, the city established a municipally-controlled Demolition Department to oversee demolition work and the $250 million blight elimination program, Proposal N.

During budget deliberations this spring, the council voted to eliminate the land bank’s entire $5 million recommended subsidy, further dropping from $10.5 million last year. Council members said that they felt comfortable with the cut because the land bank has $52 million in reserves.

Daniels said the council’s decision to cut the subsidy is “disappointing,” but the land bank has been “fiscally responsible.” 

“We will dip into (our reserve) in order to continue our programming and actually to develop new programming,” she said. “Our goal is to continue our existing programs and grow new programs to help us replace that lost revenue.”

Daniels spoke with BridgeDetroit about the land bank’s programs, its five-year plan and what’s at stake if moves are made to reduce its role.

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Editor’s note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

BridgeDetroit: What are the key functions of the land bank? 

Daniels: The land bank is the holder of all publicly owned residential property. At one point, we had an inventory in excess of 100,000 pieces of property. 

We have sold over 20,000 structures and sold over 30,000 lots, so now our inventory is hovering a little over 60,000 – 58,000 of those pieces of property are vacant land. Of the 58,000 pieces of vacant land, 26,000 are currently for sale on our website as either a side lot or a neighborhood lot. Those are programs that are specifically directed toward Detroit residents and for which no one other than a Detroit resident can take advantage of with preferred pricing that comes with those programs. So, half of our vacant land is for sale right now to Detroiters. 

Our structure inventory is at an all-time low. We have about 1,700 or 1,800 structures that are salvageable and we are actively trying to sell. Those are placed up for sale on our auction and Own it Now sites. Those have always been the four programs that are key drivers, which we know Detroiters have taken advantage of. Our data shows that over 82% of our buyers in 2024 were Detroiters. 

I want to highlight that those (buying) opportunities still remain for Detroiters, but we also undertook an effort over the last couple of years to do a five-year plan. That plan was born out of over 60 community events, several meetings and focus groups with stakeholders, including previous purchasers, community partners, infill housing developers as well as surveying – we did two rounds of surveying Detroit residents. We got almost 800 responses asking them what they want to see, what direction we should go? 

What was born out of that was the focus that we need to place on the other 22,000 parcels of vacant land that don’t fall in the side lot or neighborhood lot bucket. How do we activate that land in a way that is thoughtful and to the benefit of residents? Our new efforts and our attention will be turning toward that. How do we work with urban farmers and people who want to beautify their neighborhoods and use the lots for that? How do we work with developers who want to do infill housing, who want to build? 

We want to keep our core programming but we also will be focused on ways that we can work on new programming with the goal toward disposing of our property in a way that is in line with what the community has indicated that they want.

BridgeDetroit: Can you discuss the conflicting views among council members about the future and value of the land bank?

Daniels: I understand they (City Council) serve the residents of the city. The residents are frustrated. They want to see the city come back as quickly as possible. They are oftentimes living next to these neglected, dilapidated properties, and I understand the frustration that residents feel. 

When we talk about, ‘is there still a use for the land bank?’ Absolutely, because we still have over 60,000 pieces of property in our inventory that need to be returned to productive use. So I feel like the land bank’s value and the land bank’s place and role in the city will continue as long as there are thousands of pieces of property in public ownership that should be privately held. 

BridgeDetroit: Can you give an update on the status of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)? What do people need to know about that and why does it matter?

Daniels: We have been working under the terms of the expired MOU for over a year and a half now. The land bank remains committed to executing our commitment to the residents; we view it as a commitment to the residents, whether we have an MOU or not. We’re committed to doing those things that we have been doing and providing the services that we have been providing. 

The MOU is an agreement between the city and the land bank on what services they want us to provide. We will continue to engage in dialogue, and once we come to an agreement on what those things are, then a new MOU will be executed. 

BridgeDetroit: You don’t have control over alterations council members might make to the MOU. Do you feel that the previous MOU should be reauthorized without any changes or are you open to making any changes? If so, what have some of those conversations been?

Daniels: I have no control over amendments that they may want to make, but we have actively engaged in conversations with the council. 

Prior to the MOU expiring in December 2023, we began conversations with the council and in council member offices in May or June of 2023 to say, ‘OK, but it’s expiring. What do you want to see?’ We had very fruitful and productive conversations. There were ideas around things like maintenance of land bank properties because we own so many properties that there are not enough funds to properly maintain the lots. How do we direct the limited funds we do have in a way that’s most impactful? There was conversation about coordinated maintenance around parks and schools and places of worship to ensure the limited funds were most impactful in the neighborhood.

We have also formed a very strong partnership with GSD (the city’s General Services Department) around maintenance. They have been great partners in helping us to maintain the lots as best we could. There’s also language we talked about partnering with HRD (the city’s Housing and Revitalization Department) to help our occupied pipeline of properties, help individuals get resources who are in dire need. Making sure that they get funneled to HRD and if there are resources available to assist them, they are one, educated on those options and, two, that they put themselves in line to receive those resources. 

Those were some of the really impactful and positive changes that we have contemplated with the MOU.

BridgeDetroit: In the council’s closing (budget) resolution, there were a number of recommendations made to the mayor to look at shifting land bank programs over to city departments, including the Occupied Buy Back Program. Are you open to that?

Daniels: I am open to whatever is best for the residents in the city of Detroit. We follow the lead of the city and work in partnership with the city.

There’s always talk of certain things moving away from the land bank. I just want to remind people that the land bank is a tool – a very powerful tool – that has been effectively directed at problems to try to address them.

With a new administration coming in, we look forward to working with them and working with them to see some of their initiatives and their ideas of how the tool can be used to address issues, working with them to see that come to pass. 

BridgeDetroit: What would an end to the land bank mean? What would it entail, and how would it affect the city and its communities?

Daniels: Logistically, it would require a transfer of all those parcels back to the city. But, the impact, I think, on the residents that they might not recognize – all the programs that we offer, those would likely go away.

The land bank again has special powers, the ability to sell property below market or some greatly depreciated number, quiet title (legal action to determine the owner of a property). 

The reason we’ve been able to scale is we have all those tools. All those tools go away and you go back to the pre-2013 sales numbers, where you sold 200 properties in a year as opposed to 3,500 or 4,000 properties. It would slow down tremendously. Some tools are better and more robust and geared toward solving a problem.

BridgeDetroit: The main complaint we hear from people is just the difficulty that they seem to face in acquiring property in their area. Can you address that? 

Daniels: There are a host of reasons that people may or may not be able to purchase. Some of them are outside the land bank’s control. Our policy requires certain things: you have to be paid up on your taxes, can’t have a blight ticket, you have to live in the city – certain eligibility requirements.

I’ll say, people oftentimes are upset because they don’t meet the eligibility requirements. It’s not that we’ve necessarily done something wrong. They have back taxes they haven’t taken care of or they have a blight ticket from 2007 that’s still sitting on the books. I understand all of that frustration, I understand all of that, but we have to operate by a set of board-approved policies. It provides some level of predictability and fairness in how we transact. 

There’s also times when people complain about not being able to buy something because it’s on hold. Those holds, we’re working with our partners with the city. The DWSD/Brightmoor hold, that was for years but they are trying to create infrastructure that’s going to make that neighborhood better. Now that hold is being released, and people in the Brightmoor area are going to be able to purchase. They were very upset about that for years, and they blamed the land bank because we owned the property and we couldn’t sell it to them.

There are a whole bunch of stories behind why people are upset, but oftentimes it’s not within our control to handle.