The Blight Authority

In 2013, Bill Pulte along with his grandfather, Bill Pulte the founder of Pulte Homes, approached Mayor Dave Bing in the City of Detroit with a concept of eliminating blight completely from an area.   Bill’s concept involved taking a specific block area and removing the dangerous and abandoned structures as well as the brush, debris, trash and dead trees to completely clear the area.  The first pilot project was a 10 block area, composed of 218 lots, on the eastside of Detroit near Eastern Market.

This began the creation of the Blight Authority, a public – private initiative whose mission is to remove and eliminate all blight elements in a community.  After his successful pilot in near Eastern Market, Bill’s efforts lead him to the northwest side of Detroit to a community called Brightmoor.  The Brightmoor Project was to eliminate 700 lots of brush, derbis, trash and dangerous and vacant structures within a 24 block area.  Bill met and organized with the Brightmoor community and set off to remove blight.  He also hired local residents as part of this initiative.  Later that year, Bill worked with the City of Pontiac, a City located 12 miles north of Detroit, to assist the City with their blight removal efforts of 550 structures.