Say you’ve lived in your neighborhood for ten years and suddenly it’s become the place to live.
Rents are rising, and you’re looking at having to move. What then?
Stay Midtown might have the answer. The program aims to help working people in Detroit’s up-and-coming Midtown area stay there.
Elizabeth Luther is senior project manager for Capital Impact Partners, one of the groups working on Stay Midtown.
She says the goal is to provide inclusive housing for Midtown’s “critical workforce households” – households in the area at the highest risk of being displaced due to rising costs.
Affordable housing is a challenge for cities across the country. Initially, residents can afford to live in their homes. Then, as the area becomes more popular, they get priced out.
“I mean, it’s a trend that high-cost cities around the country are seeing and have been seeing,” Luther said. “Detroit has seen such disinvestment over the past 50-60 years that it’s kind of a new trend here, and really only happening in a few concentrated areas of the city that have been seeing a lot of investment over the past few years.”
To learn how this privately-funded program works, including an explanation of the rental subsidy the program provides to landlords, listen above.
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