Project to freeze vacant Detroit home to highlight foreclosure crisis moves forward, expands

Plans to encase Detroit home in ice move forward

DETROIT — A project to encase one of Detroit’s thousands of abandoned homes in ice this winter to draw attention to foreclosures that have battered the region is moving forward and expanding.

Photographer Gregory Holm said this week that the state’s land bank agreed to donate a home on the city’s east side for the Ice House Detroit project.

The scope of the project by Holm and freelance architect Matthew Radune is growing. They plan to use some money they’ve raised to help a Detroit family get a home by paying back taxes on a foreclosure.

Holm also said early-release prisoners will help take apart and recycle materials from the frozen home.

The Detroit area’s foreclosure rate is among the nation’s highest.