Matt Helms

Detroit Free Press

Detroit on Friday launched an online mapping program that shows residents the location and dates of when blighted homes will be demolished.

The Demolition Tracker program — at www.detroitmi.gov/demolition — pinpoints where more than 9,500 structures have been taken down in Detroit since January 2014. But is also shows the locations of more than 700 addresses set for demolition over the next few months. City officials said the map is updated daily as houses are demolished and others put on the list to be torn down, up to 90 days in advance.

Detroit is running the largest blight removal program of its kind in the nation, with the federal government having awarded the city — hit hard by loss of population, the recession and the subprime mortgage foreclosure crisis — more than $250 million in recent years.

Mayor Mike Duggan’s office said the city tore down 4,000 vacant homes in 2014 and is on target for 5,000 this year and 6,000 in 2017.

Residents and others can search for homes by address at the website. Blue dots on a map of the city show where blighted houses have been torn down since 2014; clicking those dots brings up addresses, demolition dates and costs of each tear down.

Yellow dots indicate houses that are under contract to be demolished. Clicking on those dots shows the address, projected demolition date and the name of the contractor and bid amount for the work.

The announcement of the Demolition Tracker app, which the city described as a bid toward more transparency, came amid revelations that the city had for years awarded demolition contracts for more than $25,000 without getting required approval from the City Council.

Detroit’s demolition program is under federal scrutiny from the Office of the Special Investigator for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the federal bailout program created by the Obama administration, over rising costs and questionable bidding practices. The FBI is assisting the investigation.

Contact Matt Helms: 313-222-1450 or mhelms@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @matthelms.