Known as “Mother Perry,” she keeps candy in her pocket for strangers, and says she has struggled since her husband died several years ago. She lives on Social Security. Taxes are $1,400 per year, about a tenth of her income.

Perry said she has gone into bankruptcy, in part because of a tax debt county records show has grown to $4,566. More than a quarter of that, $1,208, is from interest and fees.

“Oh Jesus, I’ve been going through this for so long,” Perry sighed.

Her face brightened when she discussed her home near Fenkell and Greenfield. When she and her auto worker husband bought it in 1970, they were one of the first black families on the block, Perry said.

They raised three children. There was a finished basement, a big kitchen and plenty of sweet potato pie, Perry said.

“It was a palace. It was paradise,” Perry said. “But I’ve been paying taxes so many years and I just fell short. And I just don’t have it.”

By the end of the workshop, she was on another payment plan. Perry acknowledged she’d probably not live long enough to repay the county.

‘Just pay your taxes’

Wayne County officials have argued for years about what to do with the tax surplus.

At one point, a few years ago, Wojtowicz controlled a fund that was worth nearly a quarter billion dollars. The money could have cushioned a county-wide financial emergency, argued Ficano, who lost re-election after fiscal and corruption scandals.

“We had one hand tied behind our back financially because we never had complete access to that fund,” Ficano said. “I always had to go hat-in-hand to ask for more.”

After Ficano lost re-election, Wojtowicz transferred more than $80 million to the county’s general fund.

Money from delinquent fees initially funded basic county operations. Now, the money is only earmarked for one-time purchases, said Saunders, the county’s chief financial officer. And though the county anticipates getting more than $35 million this year from the surplus, the county expects the revenues to decline as foreclosures continue to decline.

Saunders rejected the idea that the money “benefits” the county. The ripple effect of tax delinquencies have slashed overall property values in hard-hit neighborhoods and lowered overall tax collections, Saunders said.

“If people were able to pay, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” he said.

Current Wayne County Treasurer Eric Sabree said the county does significant outreach to prevent foreclosures. He said he and the city worked with lawmakers to extend a recent program that lowers interest rates on back taxes to 6 percent for homeowners.

Wojtowicz noted the county’s tax foreclosure crisis began roughly three years after the mortgage meltdown – indicating that a good percentage of county foreclosures were from banks that took possession of property and failed to pay taxes.

“We did the best we could,” Wojtowicz said.

He and Sabree said the treasurer's options are limited: They can hold on to the surplus or send it to the county general fund.

“We can’t use that money to pay people’s taxes,” said Sabree, a former deputy of Wojtowicz.

Wojtowicz has another suggestion: “Just pay your taxes on time.”

Genesee County offers another way

About an hour north on I-75, Genesee County Treasurer Deb Cherry has taken a different tack.

She transfers about $5 million a year in surplus from the delinquent tax revolving fund to the county general fund. But she said she’s also made sure another $1 million goes toward demolishing blighted properties in the county, mainly in Flint.

Her own county commission sued – and lost – when she spent another $800,000 on securing foreclosed properties that ended up with the county land bank after going through tax foreclosure.

By taking some of the money generated by the foreclosure process on stabilizing neighborhoods, the money could help avert future abandonment and foreclosures, she said.

“If we can use some of the money to improve the community and make the neighborhoods better then we should do that,” Cherry told Bridge.

Playing catch-up

Back at the Detroit community center, Chears signed a plan to repay her back taxes and avoid losing her home to auction. It’s a routine she knows well. She’s done it before.

She bought the home in the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit for $5,000 a few years ago. It came with back taxes that she inherited.

Chears has a good job now, working on the line at a Ford Motor Co. assembly plant in Dearborn. But she’s not yet a full-time employee and the hours vary. Every time she thinks she’s about to get ahead, something else happens, Chears said.

“It meant a lot buying my house. I was one of the first in the family (to become a homeowner) and to not pay rent, that’s a good feeling,” Chears said.

“Hopefully, I can keep it, but it’s a lot of playing catch-up.”