<p>DETROIT — A $500 million fund aimed at improving Detroit neighborhoods over the next decade is kicking off its efforts by spending $15 million to pay off the property tax debt of 20,000 of the city’s poorest homeowners.</p>
<p>Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert announced the Detroit Tax Relief Fund on Thursday, with the money coming from two philanthropic organizations connected to him.</p>
<p>The fund leverages existing state and local programs that eliminate or reduce property tax bills, then pays off the remaining tax bill. It will be administered by a local nonprofit that also will provide counseling to homeowners to keep them out of future property tax debt.</p>
<p>“No person should have to make the decision of keeping their home or feeding their families,” Gilbert, a Detroit native, said at a news conference.</p>
<p>In addition to starting Quicken Loans, now known as Rocket Mortgage, Gilbert founded the Rock family of companies and owns the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. The Gilbert Family Foundation is providing $350 million of the $500 million Detroit Tax Relief Fund, and the the rest will come from the Rock Community Fund. Other potential uses of the funding were not announced Tuesday.</p>
<p>“The money is there and it’s ready to be freed and targeted to any issue,” Gilbert said.</p>
<p>Wayne County, home to Detroit, also will invest $5 million in future foreclosure prevention. </p>
<p>County Executive Warren Evans said that during the Great Recession one in four of all properties in Detroit went into foreclosure.</p>
<p>“Make no mistake, the gift will keep families in their homes,” Evans said Thursday. </p>
