The $7.6 billion Hardest Hit Fund of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was intended to help troubled property owners avoid foreclosure and keep their homes, Bloomberg News reported today. As foreclosures fall in most parts of the country, the fund is using the unspent $3.2 billion to remedy the crisis of abandoned homes. Detroit, which filed the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy last year, is getting about $52 million from the Hardest Hit Fund. The city plans to use money for demolition of houses in stronger markets where the land could be redeveloped, according to the Detroit Land Bank Authority, a government group that acquires, manages and disposes of tax-foreclosed and vacant properties. Newly elected Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has centralized the city’s efforts to tear down buildings and fight blight with a new Department of Neighborhoods, a plan that he outlined in a Feb. 26 state of the city speech.
