No. If they buy the properties that’s a different story.
I know there have been cases where neighborhoods have been declared “blighted” and the property was bought out (not at what owners would call fair market value), but money was paid.
Outright seizure without compensation is wrong in my opinion. However, the problem of Section 8 rentals is bad and no good comes from it.
That’s what I’m saying. The idiots on the city council are trying to remake a blue collar town into a little Ann Arbor. They’re finding any reason they can to shut down rental properties and if at all possible, tear them down. That forces the renters to go elsewhere and drives housing costs up. It also brings a call for section 8 housing.
Its not just rentals either.
There is a case in Jackson where a family bought an abandoned home from the city, paid the back taxes, and fixed it up enough to live in while they work on it. The city then shut off the water and condemned it as uninhabitable due to a lack of water and is going to tear it down at the family’s expense. The city also says they can’t sell the property as residential because the area is zoned industrial but a single lot is utterly useless as industrial property.
The neighbors are also in a precarious situation. Their properties have also been zoned industrial. Those who rent rooms or apartments out can’t rent them again if the current renters leave and they can’t sell the homes.
Its a combination of social engineering and “greening”. They don’t want anything built there, they just want people to own and pay taxes on the properties.