Facing some of the most staggering foreclosure rates in the nation, the city of Detroit has a new program to keep people in homes after they’ve been foreclosed upon — at least temporarily. Tom Walsh of the Detroit Free Press has the details:

The so-called ROOF (for Retaining Occupancy On Foreclosure) program is aimed at stemming the tide of evictions, home vacancies, vandalism and decay that have hammered the selling prices of houses in Detroit and sent values of entire neighborhoods into freefall…

The key guidelines of the ROOF agreement, drawn up by local real estate attorneys, are:

• After foreclosure, but pending resale of the property, the occupant may remain in the home for three months, with options to renew beyond that.

• The occupant pays for utilities — heat, water, electric, etc. — and a monthly fee depending on ability to pay.

• When homes are eventually sold, occupants can receive refunds of up to 50% of the monthly fees they have paid, provided they have maintained the property and moved out on time.

While this program may keep houses from sitting empty during the resale process, it doesn’t look like a serious solution to the foreclosure problem. Any such solution would focus not on allowing residents to stay for a few extra months but on rewriting mortgages and preventing foreclosure in the first place.