HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (AP) – A Detroit-area community that targeted blacks by demolishing poor neighborhoods is scrambling to come up with money to finally end the case – 44 years after a federal judge found clear evidence of discrimination.
The judge, Damon Keith, is now 93 years old and still overseeing what’s considered the longest-running housing bias case in the U.S. But during a recent meeting in his office, he delivered another tough verdict: Finish this soon or another judge will take over.
“This thing can’t go on. … I’m not a quitter,” Keith told lawyers around a conference table, “but I just get tired.”
Hamtramck, a small city surrounded by Detroit, agreed to offer 200 family housing units, as well as 150 units for senior citizens, to make up for violating the civil rights of blacks whose neighborhoods were wiped out for urban renewal projects in the 1960s. That remedy wasn’t settled until a decade after the 1971 trial. And construction still didn’t start until years later, due to political opposition and a lack of money, among other obstacles.
Today, three houses still need to be developed, but a special fund doesn’t hold enough cash to complete the job. As a result, at least $600,000 will be collected through Hamtramck’s winter property tax bills, according to a July 24 order from the judge.