{"id":432049,"date":"2026-08-13T20:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/432049\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T20:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:20:08","slug":"nessel-sues-oakland-county-nonprofit-for-deceptive-housing-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/432049\/","title":{"rendered":"Nessel sues Oakland County nonprofit for \u2018deceptive\u2019 housing practices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">WATERFORD, Mich. \u2013 A lawsuit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/ag\/-\/media\/Project\/Websites\/AG\/releases\/2026\/August\/Filed-Summons-and-Complaint---Chosen-Kingdom-Builders.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/ag\/-\/media\/Project\/Websites\/AG\/releases\/2026\/August\/Filed-Summons-and-Complaint---Chosen-Kingdom-Builders.pdf\">filed Tuesday<\/a> by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel seeks to dissolve a Waterford-based nonprofit for misrepresenting its housing assistance services to consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The complaint, filed in the 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County, names both Chosen Kingdom Builders and its president, Kwanzel Revon Howerton, for allegedly luring Southeast Michigan property owners and tenants into leases by omitting material facts about the nonprofit\u2019s available funding and housing assistance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Nessel says the nonprofit\u2019s \u201cdeceptive practices\u201d resulted in tenant evictions and property owners losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cTo the extent some assistance was theoretically available, Defendant CKB\u2019s assistance was speculative and conditioned on events to occur in the future, such as finding assistance from third parties \u2014 facts not made clear to the tenants or property owners,\u201d the complaint read.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The lawsuit further alleges that the nonprofit failed to correct prospective tenants\u2019 misunderstandings based on its representations of said facts, and instead, \u201cactively concealed them by representing assistance would be forthcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Chosen Kingdom Builders was also operating without a real estate license, Nessel says, adding that the nonprofit negligently rented out homes to tenants without conducting proper inspections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cCKB would incur a large debt with a property owner in the form of unpaid rent, and when that arrangement began to fall apart, it would seek residential properties from new property owners to continue its program,\u201d according to the complaint, which claims the nonprofit appears to have done this to at least four property owners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Nessel says the lawsuit is seeking injunctive relief under the Michigan Consumer Protection Act, the dissolution of the nonprofit, and the removal of Howerton from the nonprofit\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cWhile it is noble to try to help those in need, these alleged deceptive practices harmed vulnerable people in our communities searching for secure housing,\u201d Nessel said in a statement. \u201cOur laws exist to protect Michigan residents from conduct that jeopardizes their stability, and my office will continue to pursue entities that threaten public safety and welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WATERFORD, Mich. \u2013 A lawsuit filed Tuesday by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel seeks to dissolve a Waterford-based&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[380,171644,1016,143,145,144,30022],"class_list":["post-432049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-affordable-housing","tag-dana-nessel","tag-lawsuits","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-waterford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}