Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve a Waterford-based nonprofit accused of misrepresenting its housing assistance services to consumers, leaving tenants facing eviction and property owners out hundreds of thousands of dollars. The complaint targets Chosen Kingdom Builders and its president, Kwanzel Revon Howerton, alleging the organization negligently rented out homes to tenants while misrepresenting key facts about the assistance it claimed to provide.
According to ClickOnDetroit, Nessel filed the suit on August 11 in the 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County, the venue where the attorney general's office typically initiates state-level enforcement actions. Per the complaint, Chosen Kingdom Builders allegedly lured Southeast Michigan property owners and tenants into leases by omitting material facts about available funding and housing assistance, then failed to correct prospective tenants' misunderstandings based on those representations.
The complaint alleges the nonprofit concealed that its promised assistance was speculative and conditioned on future events, such as securing help from third parties, while representing to tenants and landlords that the assistance would be forthcoming. The station's report states that the arrangement appears to have repeated itself with at least four property owners, with the nonprofit incurring large debts through unpaid rent before allegedly seeking out new residential properties from other owners once earlier arrangements began to fall apart.
State Cites Unlicensed Operations and Skipped Inspections
In an August 13 press release, Nessel alleged that Chosen Kingdom Builders operated without a required Michigan real estate license and negligently rented or attempted to rent homes without conducting proper property inspections, according to the State of Michigan. Nessel said the alleged deceptive practices harmed vulnerable people searching for secure housing, and per the attorney general, the nonprofit's conduct caused tenant evictions and left property owners short hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“My office will always work to protect Michiganders and pursue entities that threaten public safety and welfare,” Nessel's office said, per the same account. The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief under the Michigan Consumer Protection Act, the dissolution of Chosen Kingdom Builders, and the formal judicial removal of Howerton from the nonprofit's board of directors.
Legal Basis for Seeking Dissolution
The state is relying on its authority under the Michigan Nonprofit Corporations Act, specifically MCL 450.2821, which allows the attorney general to petition a circuit court to dissolve a nonprofit corporation that repeatedly or willfully exceeds or abuses its legal authority. It is a legal remedy Nessel's office has used before: the state pursued dissolution alongside consumer protection claims against Detroit-area landscaping LLCs in January 2024 and a Kalamazoo air duct cleaning company in October 2023, according to Regulatory Oversight.
Michiganders who believe they were harmed by deceptive housing or business practices can contact the attorney general's Consumer Protection Team through its hotlines at 517-335-7599 or toll-free at 877-765-8388, or by filing a complaint online, per the state's press release.
A High-Profile Pontiac Project Preceded the Lawsuit
Chosen Kingdom Builders had built a public profile around ambitious housing plans for some of Michigan's most vulnerable young residents. In May 2025, the nonprofit announced a partnership with Creek Valley Properties to build 22 furnished manufactured homes in Pontiac intended to provide free housing and financial literacy training for young adults aging out of foster care, as reported by ClickOnDetroit at the time.
The stakes behind that promise are significant: roughly 1,600 young adults age out of Michigan's foster care system each year, facing elevated risks of homelessness in their mid-twenties due to a lack of stable housing and financial literacy training. Nationally, federal data cited in that same report shows more than 365,000 children were in foster care on any given day in 2022, waiting an average of three years for adoption.
Financial records offer a glimpse into the nonprofit's scale before the lawsuit. Chosen Kingdom Builders Inc. reported $175,000 in total revenue and $175,000 in total expenses in its 2024 IRS Form 990-EZ filing, according to ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, with founder Kwanzel Howerton receiving $15,000 in director compensation that year.
Several questions remain unresolved as the case moves forward. It is not yet clear what has become of the 22-unit Pontiac housing project, whether criminal charges or additional civil penalties could follow, or how property owners owed rent and tenants facing eviction might pursue financial restitution.
