Michigan
Detroit demo program plagued by toxic dirt
The Affect of Devastating Dwelling Removals in Detroit
Detroiters are speaking in regards to the affect on their group when blighted houses are eliminated.
Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press
Contaminated filth is as soon as once more an issue in Detroit’s demolition program, with testing being carried out at greater than 500 websites tied to a demolition contractor and a city-licensed filth provider. Gayanga is a Detroit demo contractor as soon as praised by ex-Mayor Mike Duggan because the form of firm town ought to award contracts to, and filth provider Iron Horse is owned by a person convicted years earlier of bid rigging throughout Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s period.
The Free Press reporting reveals that arsenic and lead are among the many contaminants discovered at dozens of websites examined to date, and questions stay about whether or not Detroit officers ordered satisfactory testing and adequately communicated the chance to residents.
That story is on the market right here.
Beneath is a timeline detailing the 12-year historical past of the poisonous waste demolition program.
2014: Mayor Mike Duggan takes workplace, the Detroit Blight Removing Process Power recommends town quickly demolish approximately 40,000 dilapidated buildings Left behind by a decades-long inhabitants decline, Detroit is embarking on the nation’s largest demolition program.
The primary section of this system, by means of 2020, could be funded primarily with $265 million from the federal Hardest Hit Fund (HHF), established by then-President Barack Obama. “to provide targeted assistance to families in states hit hard by the economic and housing crisis.” Whereas most HHF applications targeted on serving to owners who had been unemployed or underwater on their mortgages, in Detroit the funds had been primarily used for blight elimination. Federally funded demolition work could be overseen by the quasi-public Detroit Land Financial institution Authority till 2020.
This system included new security measures to forestall filth contamination in Detroit neighborhoods. Contractors had been required to doc the supply of their fill filth, together with amassing loading slips from filth suppliers. They had been additionally allowed to solely use filth from suppliers pre-approved by town.
2018: Detroit officers, together with Duggan and then-Metropolis Council President professional tempore Mary Sheffield, have begun to advocate for extra demolition contracts for minority-owned companies primarily based in Detroit. Metropolis contracts for Gayanga, a Detroit-based firm owned by Brian McKinney, who’s Black, will rise from $417,000 in 2017 to $7.8 million in 2018 and finally develop to $28.5 million in 2022, in line with a Free Press overview of metropolis demolition information and municipal paperwork obtainable on-line.
February 11, 2019: The Free Press stories {that a} federal prison investigation into Detroit’s demolition program additionally includes some contractors’ potential use of free contaminated filth from unverified sources, together with an Interstate 96 freeway development mission.
February 26, 2019: The Free Press stories that the Detroit Land Financial institution Authority is individually investigating one other demolition contractor who allegedly demolished a number of houses and buried the rubble underneath layers of fill filth as a substitute of correctly disposing of the supplies. Town was alerted to the state of affairs by a former worker of the corporate, Chicago-based McDonagh Demolition Inc. Town responded with an inside investigation into all 90 demolitions carried out by the corporate.
August 2020: Federal HHF funding is working out and the Land Financial institution has accomplished roughly 18,700 demolitions since 2014. Through the first seven years of the demo program, contaminated soil was suspected at 377 places, in line with Duggan. All had been examined and the soil was discovered to be 154 contaminated. Town eliminated and changed the soil at every location and was in the end reimbursed for the prices by the businesses, Duggan mentioned.
November 2020: Detroit voters overwhelmingly approve Prop N, a bond subject to direct $250 million in metropolis funds towards one other 8,000 demolitions and extra residence rehabilitations. The demolition program shall be positioned underneath the Metropolis of Detroit’s Building and Demolition Division, giving the Metropolis Council extra oversight.
March 2021: The Detroit Workplace of the Inspector Basic proclaims findings from an investigation exhibiting that demolition contractors Adamo Group, Rickman Enterprise Group, Dore & Associates Inc. and Blue Star Inc. used unapproved dirt from a construction project on Interstate 94 to fill a total of five home demolition sites in 2018.
2023: Town approves Iron Horse, an organization owned by a person convicted of rigging bids to assist Kwame Kilpatrick worker Bobby Ferguson, as a provider of demolition particles.
June 2025: The Detroit Workplace of the Inspector Basic (OIG) is opening an investigation into Gayanga after receiving a tip that it used contaminated fill in demolition work between January and June 2024.
June 2024: Town banned Den-Man Contractors from doing enterprise in Detroit for 20 years after the Warren-based demolition firm’s proprietor and an worker had been every sentenced to a yr of probation and ordered to pay practically $5 million in restitution for billing the then-federally funded program for filth they cleared from unauthorized sources in 2018. OIG says the corporate has used contaminated fill at 90 demolition websites in Detroit.
September 2025: Detroit police are opening a fraud investigation into Gayanga at Duggan’s request, the ex-mayor will announce later, investigating whether or not she misrepresented the supply of the land in her freight receipts.
September 2025: Metropolis begins testing Iron Horse websites and says OIG has knowledgeable it of potential contamination at demolition websites it used as a dust provider.
September 12, 2025: OIG suspended Gayanga for 90 days after discovering that the corporate used filth that didn’t meet “state residential requirements” at 33 of the 44 properties the place it ordered soil testing.
November 2, 2025: The Free Press stories that then-council president professional tempore Mary Sheffield had a romantic relationship with Gayanga CEO Brian McKinney and voted to approve $4.4 million in contracts for him with out disclosure the yr her workplace confirmed they had been collectively.
November 3, 2025: Detroit’s Building and Demolition Division is suspending Iron Horse after city-ordered testing discovered contamination at websites that used the backfill.
November 18, 2025: Town council, the place Sheffield is at the moment president and awaiting his appointment as mayor, votes unanimously to uphold Gayanga’s suspension.
December 22, 2025: With 9 days left in workplace, Duggan proclaims that demolition contractor Gayanga and filth provider Iron Horse may very well be collectively chargeable for the contamination of not less than 500 vacant tons in Detroit. Town is testing 424 places the place Iron Horse delivered filth to 4 contractors between July 2024 and November 2025. Duggan says 94 of these demolitions had been carried out by Gayanga. Town can be testing one other 87 Gayanga-specific places unrelated to Iron Horse, he mentioned.
December 29, 2025: On the request of the Free Press, town is releasing 59 check outcomes exhibiting that arsenic, lead and different hazardous chemical compounds exceeded state environmental requirements throughout demolition fill at websites the place soil has already been eliminated. All testing of doubtless contaminated websites must be accomplished by March 2026, Duggan mentioned.
January 1, 2026: Duggan is leaving workplace to marketing campaign full-time for governor, touting the nation’s largest demolition program that he chaired as a significant success in ridding Detroit of housing blight. Greater than 30,000 houses have been demolished to date, in line with town’s demolition database. Duggan says 240 extra shall be demolished over the following six months.
This story has been up to date to appropriate the date Mayor Mike Duggan left workplace to marketing campaign for governor full-time.
Violet Ikonomova is an investigative journalist on the Free Press specializing in authorities and police accountability in Detroit. Contact her at vikonomova@freepresss.com.