DETROIT–The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (ACLU), the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), and the Michigan Poverty Law Program filed a federal class action lawsuit against Vision Property Management alleging financially challenged Detroit- and Flint-area residents to whom Vision promised a path to homeownership are “now trapped in contracts structured to fail.”
Vision primarily targeted Black consumers for its home purchase scheme, the lawsuit alleges.
“Our complaint includes detailed allegations about how Vision operated almost exclusively in Black neighborhoods, profiting from communities that were hit hardest in the housing crisis and thwarting attempts to build wealth in the Black community,” said Jennifer A. Holmes, assistant counsel at LDF. “Our lawsuit seeks to remedy the damages caused to communities of color throughout the Greater Detroit region as a result of Vision’s practices.”
As alleged in the lawsuit’s 109-page complaint, Vision purchased approximately 1,000 foreclosed homes in Black neighborhoods, “many of them dilapidated, and failed to invest in making those homes livable. Vision then sold many of these homes under contracts that obscured the true cost of buying and repairing the home. The terms of the contracts made it difficult for buyers to achieve homeownership while also allowing Vision to avoid responsibility for upkeep while would-be homeowners poured their money into making the homes livable.”
Low-Income Neighborhoods Targeted
“From Inkster to Flint to Ann Arbor to Detroit, Vision marketed to primarily Black, low-income people with high-interest land contracts for homes that were over-priced and in poor condition,” said Bonsitu Kitaba, ACLU of Michigan deputy legal director. “People who signed contracts with Vision were saddled with all the repairs, upkeep, insurance and taxes – all the responsibilities that come with homeownership – with none of the rights.”
According to the organizations, there is a long history of housing and credit discrimination in Detroit and surrounding areas and that for years housing companies have targeted Black communities for predatory lending schemes using deceptive terms.
“The long-term consequences have proven devastating, a massive reversal in minority homeownership rates and an erosion in Black wealth accumulation,” the organizations said. “These schemes, combined with the deeply concerning recent rollback of civil rights protections in the housing and financial sectors, have unjustly prevented many people of color from achieving long-term economic security.”
The full complaint can be found here.