Dead bodies, wild dogs, squatters in government-owned Detroit houses

At one end of Alpine Street, near Joy Road on Detroit's west side, Georgeia Elder and a friend live in a leaky trailer, their yard cluttered with a boat and a Cadillac Escalade with four ladders on the roof, a shopping cart and a lawn mower, a folding chair and a metal headboard. A pit bull, Lady, laps up spaghetti and gravy from a takeout container. At the other end of this short stretch of Alpine, near Tireman Avenue, a woman known as Spankie lives in a house with a dog she calls "my baby." A heart-shaped sign hangs from the front door that says "Bless Our Home." A handwritten sign instructs the postal carrier to put her mail in a box tucked into a milk crate next to the porch stairs. A scent of straw and animals hangs in the air. -- More...