Detroit homeowner forced to share place with squatter

Heidi Peterson is now embroiled in a battle for control of her own home. After living away for a year, she returned to find a previous tenant, who says the home was abandoned, had moved back in, changed the locks and installed new appliances. Peterson is taking her fight to evict the woman to court, but for now, it’s a problem she’ll just have to live with.

A surprise squatter turned into an unintended houseguest for a woman who returned to her Detroit home last week after a year away.
But while the homeowner wants to boot the tenacious tenant, she legally can’t, and now they’re sleeping under the same roof,
At the heart of the bizarre living arrangement is whether the house was truly abandoned for so long, as the squatter claims, or if it still rightfully belongs to the original homeowner.
Heidi Peterson said she bought the house in the Motor City’s Boston-Edison Historic District for a bargain basement price of $23,000 in 2010.
According to Fox 2, she was leasing the home to tenants, including a woman named Missionary-Tracey Elaine Blair. But the house needed repairs, and Peterson was forced to evict the tenants when it was found to be uninhabitable.
“In February 2011, we had to vacate because the boiler was damaged,” Blair told Fox 2. “I took all my books and my writings, but my (furniture was) still left in (there).”

Squatter Missionary-Tracey Elaine Blair isn’t going without a fight. She says Heidi Peterson’s Detroit home is now hers, alleging it was abandoned. Blair, a write-in presidential candidate, said her decision to live in Peterson’s home was rooted in part in her belief in affordable housing.

Apparently, although Peterson moved out, Blair at some point decided to move back in.
It’s unclear why Peterson left the house and only returned last week, but Blair filed paperwork with the city saying it was abandoned, according to Fox 2.
In the meantime, she made herself at home: She allegedly changed the locks, put in new appliances and even managed to place an $8,500 construction lien on the house for all the repairs she had made.
“Someone had (broken) into the house on July the fourth, and they stripped the radiators. And I made a report,” Blair said.
Peterson said Blair thinks there’s a program in Detroit, which is riddled with abandoned properties, allowing a person to fix up a house and then claim it.
When asked why she was staying in the home, Blair gave a rambling answer to Fox 2 that she is an “advocate for affordable housing” and has a political campaign.
According to federal campaign finance records, Blair is a write-in candidate for President this year and is running as an independent.
The latest filing shows she started with just $500 cash on hand in January and ended with $100 in April.
Meanwhile, Peterson has had to file a civil action in court to show that she is still the house’s owner. For now, she can’t legally evict a squatter.
She has decided to stay in the house with her 1-year-old daughter because she can’t afford to go elsewhere, she said.
“I thought if the house is not safe, how can I come here with my child? There’s an issue with that,” Peterson said. “But should I lose my house to a squatter because I don’t have rights to my property, or should I fight to get it back?”