'I'm livid': Detroit woman battles with city for years to get blighted house demolished

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A Detroit woman who has lived next to a blighted vacant house for 10 years hopes something will soon be done about it.

Maxine Jones, who has lived in her home for 47 years, has been fighting with the city for years to get the Seymour Street house torn down.

FOX 2 did a story about the house five years ago. At the time, the city said it wasn't part of a program to be demolished, but they boarded it up. It then went to the Land Bank, with records showing it sold for $1,000.

"The Land Bank is just selling these places to any damn body that they can in order to get the money and get it off the demolition list, knowing full well that this person cannot afford to rehab this house," Jones said.

She said she has spoken to the owner of the house, but she seemed a bit naive.

"I said, 'And what about your tenants?' She said, 'What tenants?' I said, 'Raccoons and squirrels and possums, OK,'" Jones said.

The phone number listed for the owner is disconnected.

The Land Bank said a third and final warning has been issued to the owner to clean up the house. When buyers purchase from the Land Bank, there is an agreement they must abide by. If the owner does not respond to the city by Thursday, they will begin the process of taking back the house.

"It needs to be gone," Jones said.

The Land Bank said most of the homes it sells are in a state of despair because they have been vacant for so long. However, there have been 5,300 completed renovations since 2014.