A Detroit house owned by a Michigan state representative was mysteriously demolished, and city officials don’t have any record of who knocked it down.
Michigan sate Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo told the Detroit Free Press that the house she was renovating was torn down two weeks ago. Gay-Dagnogo did not reside in the house but was intending to give the house to a needy family or change it to affordable housing.
“I have a lot of questions,” Gay-Dagnogo told the Detroit Free Press. “There’s no record at all at the city, from what they can find so far, that has anything about my house being torn down. They have no idea. It’s a mystery. I’m just taken aback and trying to process this.”
The Detroit Free Press looked at the city’s Open Data Portal that’s supposed to include all planned city or Detroit Land Bank Authority-contracted demolitions and found no record for the property.
Detroit Building Authority Director Tyrone Clifton told the newspaper in a statement that the demolition “was not ordered, directed or funded by the city.”
“There also was no permit pulled by any private party for demolition at this address,” Clifton said. “At this time, we are actively investigating to see if we can help determine who was responsible.”
The house next door to Gay-Dagnogo that was damaged in a fire was knocked down in July by the contracting company Adamo Group, Inc. Adamo had previously been suspended for demolishing the wrong home in May 2018, according to the Free Press.
Adamo’s attorney Christian Hauser told the newspaper the company “had absolutely nothing to do with the demolition.”
The Hill reached out to Gay-Dagnogo, the Detroit government and Adamo for comment.
