Detroit mayor Mike Duggan announced a new program that aims to preserve affordable housing on Monday at Conner Creek Senior Apartments.
The city says the "Preservation Partnership" is meant to renovate apartment buildings that already have low rents and reduce the displacement of low-income families by keeping the rent low. The initiative is part of the city’s Multifamily Affordable Housing Strategy intended to preserve low-income housing in areas at risk of gentrification.
Melinda Clemons is vice president of Enterprise Community Partners, one of the groups leading the initiative. She says the team is building a database for eligible housing that should be out within the next six months.
"We're thinking about things like, 'Do they have the building for sale yet? Where is the building located? Is it in a high opportunity area? Is there a certain segment of the population that we should be thinking about?"
Clemons says the program hopes to have 2,000 multi-family units and 700 single family units completed within the next two years. Last March, Detroit’s Housing & Revitalization Department established a goal of preserving 10,000 regulated affordable housing units by 2023.
