The Legal Defense Fund, 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 (Vision). The lawsuit was filed on behalf of financially challenged Detroit- and Flint-area residents to whom Vision promised a path to homeownership but are now trapped in contracts structured to fail. Vision primarily targeted Black consumers for its home purchase scheme, the lawsuit argues.
LDF’s 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. 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 detailed in the lawsuit’s 110-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. The high-interest land contracts to Black, low income people. 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. Ultimately, those who signed contracts were saddled with all the repairs, upkeep, insurance and taxes – all the responsibilities that come with homeownership – with none of the rights.
There is a long history of housing and credit discrimination in Detroit and surrounding areas. 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. 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.
Read the filed complaint here.
