Detroit — Residents of two sprawling, dilapidated, vermin-infested apartment complexes on East Seven Mile said they have been paying rent, sometimes under threat of violence, to men posing as building managers, not knowing that a Wayne County judge last year ordered rent frozen until the properties were improved.
Drug dealers have taken over sections of the two buildings, residents said, including a second-story unit where pushers set up surveillance cameras in the corridor outside the now-vacant apartment, according to a woman who’s lived across the hall for 10 years.
Detroit Police Commissioner Darious Morris said he encountered one of the imposters on Monday, July 13, when he and a community activist went to the buildings to help residents find new housing. Morris said the man pointed a semiautomatic “Draco”-style pistol at him before ducking into a first-floor apartment.
Morris called the Detroit police, with officers quickly arriving and arresting the man, according to the police commissioner. Wayne County prosecutors are reviewing a warrant request seeking charges against the suspect, spokeswoman Maria Miller told The Detroit News.
Audrey Hinkle, a mother of three, said the man whom Morris reportedly encountered last Monday pointed his pistol at her three times, including an incident the prior week that prompted her to flee and take temporary refuge with a friend.
“The first time he pulled a gun on me, I was trying to get in the building, and he said, ‘Nobody’s getting in here,” said Hinkle, whose children are 7, 8 and 9 years old. “He pulled the gun on me two other times, and I said ‘I need somewhere else to go.’ We’re homeless. We’re staying with a friend for now.”
Hinkle said she didn’t call police.
“I didn’t want any extra problems,” she said.
Joanna Underwood, a senior policy analyst for Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters, said she visited the buildings recently to help residents secure new housing and was harassed by a man who was unhappy that she was telling residents they weren’t required to pay rent.
“He was in a white Mercedes-Benz,” Underwood said. “He was mad at me because I was telling people not to pay the rent. He started walking toward me, but rather than confront the guy, I drove off. The residents told me this man has two people in each building with guns to hold down their territory.”
Detroit Police Department spokeswoman Jasmin Barmore said there’s no record of calls from the two buildings reporting armed men collecting rent from residents or drug dealers squatting in units. However, city officials acknowledged there have been multiple complaints about the squalid living conditions in the building, and that men posing as property managers have been illegally collecting rent from residents for about a year.
City officials try to relocate residents elsewhere
The two buildings, 11222 and 11300 East Seven Mile, are among hundreds of Detroit properties owned by Real Token, a Florida-based cryptocurrency real estate company that sells “fractional ownership” of its properties to foreign investors. Detroit officials sued the company last year for failing to maintain their “dilapidated properties that are open to trespassers,” according to a copy of the lawsuit uploaded by Outlier Media.
“The citizens of Detroit are paying the price in the form of their neighborhoods being inundated with dangerous structures that invite squatters and criminal activity,” the lawsuit said.
Real Token didn’t respond to an email request for comment.
Weeks after the city’s lawsuit was filed, in July 2025, Wayne County Circuit Judge Annette Berry issued a temporary restraining order barring Real Token or its agents from collecting rent on more than 400 properties in the city, including the two buildings on Seven Mile, until improvements were made. In April, both sides agreed to cede control of about 700 Real Token properties in Detroit to a special fiduciary, Charles Bullock.
John Roach, spokesman for Mayor Mary Sheffield, said Thursday the city is working to get Bullock full ownership of the Real Token properties. Roach added that city officials are trying to help relocate the residents of the two buildings on Seven Mile, who have been paying rent to people posing as management company representatives.
“Our housing services division and (Buildings, Safety, Engineering and Environmental Department) have been to the buildings three times in the past two weeks, including (Wednesday) to engage with occupants of the building to help them transition into a new housing situation and connect them with supportive services,” Roach said in a statement.
“At this time they have connected with 17 households and will continue outreach to make sure no one is missed,” Roach said. “Over the next couple of days, they will be in contact with each household to develop alternative housing plans. The property will be vacated and secured next week.
“These properties are owned by Real Token, but had been vacant,” he said. “An individual who is not affiliated with Real Token illegally began renting out units in the building. Because part of the reason this was able to happen is the fact that utilities were still active, we the city will be coordinating with the DWSD (Detroit Water and Sewerage Department) and DTE to cut utility service and then to secure the building once it has been cleared of all occupants.”
Bullock did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett said Thursday the city is working with the fiduciary to shore up the Real Token properties.
“First, we want the RealToken houses that can be fixed repaired,” Mallett said in a statement. “Second, we want houses that have certificates to be sold to the tenants if possible. If not, we want to have the houses sold to properly vetted owners who can maintain the properties. Finally, we also want the houses sold to new people who want to live in (them). As far as the apartments, we want them sold and secured to prevent squatters.”
Resident laments deplorable conditions: ‘It’s all bad’
During a visit to the apartments with a Detroit News reporter Wednesday, Police Commissioner Morris nodded toward a man clad in a red baseball jersey and a backward ballcap, who sat on the stoop of 11222 East Seven Mile, his eyes darting back and forth.
“The residents tell me that guy’s part of the same crew that took over one of the apartments, but I can’t prove it yet,” Morris said. “Look at him — he’s watching everything we’re doing. They’ve been doing that since me and some other people from the city started coming by to try to help these people.”
Underwood, who works for Councilwoman Waters, said she visited the buildings during the week of July 6 after getting resident complaints “and saw completely heartbreaking conditions.”
“I’ve been doing this work for 10 years, and it’s one of the worst cases I’ve seen,” Underwood said. “When I got there, people were scared to talk. Those who did talk said gangbangers had taken over parts of the building and were forcing people to pay rent at gunpoint. If they refused to pay because of the lack of repair, they said they’d threaten them with guns.”
Underwood said she put up flyers that listed where residents could get help and explained that they didn’t have to pay rent.
Morris said when he visited the buildings a day later, “all the flyers were taken down. These people don’t want the residents to leave and find new housing. They want to keep running their scam and keep those residents living there as long as possible.”
Karla Williams, who has lived in the building for 10 years, said living conditions are deplorable, although the 65-year-old woman said she can’t afford to move. She said she only found out during Underwood’s recent visit that she wasn’t required to pay rent to live in the unsanitary, decrepit building.
“You have to see it to believe it,” Williams said. “Water damage. Mold. Ceilings falling down. It’s infested with mice, roaches. It’s all bad.”
Multiple windows and doors of the two buildings are broken, allowing unrestricted access. The roof at 11222 East Seven Mile is partially caved in, while corridor floors were strewn with rotting garbage and human feces that produced a putrid stench during a recent afternoon with the temperatures in the 90s.
Despite the buildings’ condition and the court order freezing rent payments, Williams and other residents said they paid thousands of dollars to the men posing as property managers.
“There was a guy that was renting apartments, people was paying him to move into the apartments,” resident Eric Hazard said. “It was just some random guy. They took $1,500 from a woman to move in; took $1,500 from her daughter to move in; and took $1,500 from her son.”
After levying the initial move-in fee, the man and his crew charged $700 monthly rent, multiple residents told The News.
“The people who were able to move out have left already,” Morris said. “The ones who are left behind don’t have a choice. We went there to try to help them, and we found out how bad it was. It was shocking.”
Detroit police commissioner recounts an armed encounter
Morris said he and community activist JahDante Smith went to the buildings on July 13 to see if the reports of squalor and drug-dealing were true.
“As we’re speaking to the residents, JahDante says, ‘Hey, be careful. I saw a guy walking up and down the hallway wearing all black, with a black ski mask and black gloves.'”
Smith said the man’s attire was suspicious.
“I mean, it’s 95 degrees out, and this guy’s wearing all black with a ski mask,” Smith said. “Plus, he was walking back and forth. … Something about him just didn’t seem right.”
Morris said when he walked onto the stoop to investigate, “the individual moves up and he has a Draco in his hand, pointed in my direction. I’m upset, and I didn’t use common sense right then, because I began trying to pull the door open. As I’m pulling on the door, he runs into the front apartment and closes the door behind him.
“I called the police chief, Todd Bettison,” and 9th Precinct Commander John Svec, Morris said.
“Then I told JahDante to go to the other side of the building to guard that door so the guy couldn’t get out and to tell residents to not go in there because there was an armed man inside,” he said.
Morris said police arrived in minutes and arrested the man while the commissioner shot cellphone footage.
“DPD and the 9th Precinct did a great job,” Morris said. “They showed up in droves within a few minutes.”
Barmore, the DPD spokesperson, advised against citizens engaging armed suspects.
“In the event something like that does occur, the message is: We don’t want anyone to put themselves in harm’s way,” she said.
Morris acknowledged that he acted impetuously.
“I know it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I thought there might be a woman and her kids in that building, so I just acted,” he said.
Underwood, who said her background is in housing, said she didn’t expect what she found when she visited the building.
“I thought I was coming to take complaints about a slumlord,” she said, “and I get there, and I’m in some gang territory.”
ghunter@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2134
@GeorgeHunter_DN
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Posers collect rent illegally from tenants in run-down Detroit complexes
Reporting by George Hunter, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By George Hunter, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
