From 2011 to 2015, one in four Detroit homes went into foreclosure because of failure to pay property tax, according to a 2018 study.
Sonja Bonnett and her family built their lives in a home a few blocks south of Eight Mile in northeastern Detroit. The family spent years dreaming of owning the property, but then a letter arrived that quickly tore that life apart.Sonja Bonnett of Detroit, Michigan.In 2011, Bonnett and her family entered a contract to become full owners and made monthly payments that they thought were covering property tax. The Bonnett family soon discovered multiple years of unpaid property taxes.
Bonnett and her husband could not afford to pay those back taxes and, in 2017, the couple, along with their seven children, were forced out of their home. “The trauma of losing the house, and the way I lost it, killed a lot of how I felt about the neighborhood and the house,” said Bonnett. “But I still care about the people.”
City records showed that the unpaid taxes owed on Bonnett’s home from 2012 and 2013 added up to less than $5,000. ABased oninvestigation, Bonnett’s former home was overtaxed by more than $1,500 in 2012 and 2013. For years the city of Detroit greatly over-assessed the value of Bonnett's home and many others like it. From 2011 to 2015, one in four Detroit homes went into foreclosure because of failure to pay property tax,
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