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'Why I Bought A House In Detroit For $500'

'Why I Bought A House In Detroit For $500'
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Detroit, UNITED STATES: SHRINKING DETROIT HAS 12,000 ABANDONED HOMES Houses along Detroit streets have become derelict abandoned buildings 15 June, 2005, in what was once a thriving middle class area. There are more than 12,000 abandoned homes in the Detroit area, a byproduct of decades of layoffs at the city's auto plants and people leaving for the suburbs. And despite scores of attempts by government and civic leaders to set the city straight, the automobile capital of the world seems trapped in a vicious cycle of urban decay. Detroit has lost more than half its population since its heyday in the 1950's. The people who remain are mostly African-American, 83 percent, and mostly working class, with 30 percent of the population living below the poverty line according to the US Census Bureau. AFP PHOTO/JEFF HAYNES (Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP/Getty Images)
Detroit, UNITED STATES: SHRINKING DETROIT HAS 12,000 ABANDONED HOMES Houses along Detroit streets have become derelict abandoned buildings 15 June, 2005, in what was once a thriving middle class area. There are more than 12,000 abandoned homes in the Detroit area, a byproduct of decades of layoffs at the city's auto plants and people leaving for the suburbs. And despite scores of attempts by government and civic leaders to set the city straight, the automobile capital of the world seems trapped in a vicious cycle of urban decay. Detroit has lost more than half its population since its heyday in the 1950's. The people who remain are mostly African-American, 83 percent, and mostly working class, with 30 percent of the population living below the poverty line according to the US Census Bureau. AFP PHOTO/JEFF HAYNES (Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP/Getty Images)

After college, as my friends left Michigan for better opportunities, I was determined to help fix this broken, chaotic city by building my own home in the middle of it. I was 23 years old. My first job out of college was working for a construction company in Detroit. “We’re an all-black company and I need a clean-cut white boy,” my boss told me over drinks in a downtown bar when he hired me. “Customers in the suburbs don’t want to hire a black man.”

When a service call would come in, we would ask, “Does he sound white or black?” If it was the former, I would bid the job. If the latter, my boss would. Detroit is one of the most segregated metro areas in the nation, and for the first time I was getting what it felt like to be on the other side of that line. In contrast to the abstract verbal yoga students at the University of Michigan would perform when speaking about race, this was refreshing. And terrifying. I couldn’t hide behind fancy words any longer.

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