Why the Federal Government Is Demolishing Michigan's Empty Buildings

A steady rise in housing prices nationwide has made analysts and investors hopeful about the future of the U.S. housing market overall. But in Michigan, one of the states most battered by the financial downturn, officials are still grappling with the grim remains of years of unemployment, population loss, and plunging property values.

Those remains are not figurative. They can be seen in the form of abandoned houses — tens of thousands of them — in neighborhoods around the state. Detroit alone has more than 30,000 such buildings.

That's why the Michigan State Housing Development Authority has been seeking permission to use federal funds aimed at keeping people in their homes to instead tear down derelict structures where no one will ever live again, and which often attract drug dealers, prostitutes, or arsonists. 

This week the feds finally agreed. Treasury officials released $100 million in money from the Troubled Asset Recovery Program, or TARP, to pay for a pilot demolition program in five Michigan cities: Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Pontiac, and Saginaw.

Read the full story at TheAtlanticCities.com.