Settlement reached for Detroit's Leland House tenants who were displaced

What started as a power outage last December turned into months of displacement for Leland House residents in Detroit.

Now, a settlement of more than $500,000, approved by a bankruptcy judge, could help them continue rebuilding their lives.

"I think this will make a huge, a huge difference in their lives. A lot of residents are still managing, trying to survive, making payments and adapting to their new lifestyles, now being displaced across the city of Detroit," said Steven Rimmer, director of the Detroit Tenants Union.

The money comes from the sale of the building, with compensation going to each eligible resident, rather than each household.

For the attorneys representing the residents, the case was about more than a payday.

"We collectively, as a group of attorneys, did this, for the good of the people that were in the Leland. We are not taking a single penny from this case," said Donovan McCarty, director of the MSU Housing Justice Clinic.

The city also had a claim to the proceeds from the building's sale. Detroit corporation counsel Conrad Mallett says the city agreed to direct some of that money toward compensating the former tenants.

"The compensation that they received was because the city of Detroit determined that we wanted these tenants to be able to start fresh and start anew," said Mallett.

But even with the settlement approved, some residents still hope to return to the building one day.

"I think the folks who were displaced from that property should be able to move back in. They made sure that building stayed open, stayed alive, they kept paying their rent there, and they deserve to have a future in their property as well," said Rimmer.

As for the money, Mallett expects payments to go out in mid-December, once the list of eligible residents is verified.