Latest news with #housinginstability
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Detroit's next mayor can do these 3 things to support neighborhoods beyond downtown
Susan J. Demas Detroit stands at a pivotal moment. Mayor Mike Duggan is preparing to leave office after 11 years at the end of 2025. The city's next leader will inherit not only a revitalizing downtown but also neighborhoods like Belmont, Petosky-Otsego and Van Steuban that are grappling with housing instability and decades of neglect and disinvestment. My research on housing insecurity, homelessness and urban governance, along with broader scholarship on equitable development, suggests that Detroit's future depends on more than marquee developments like the Michigan Central Station Development. It depends on strengthening neighborhoods from the ground up. Here are three strategies that could help Detroit's next mayor build a just and resilient city by focusing on transitional neighborhoods: Stable housing is the foundation of thriving communities. Yet, housing instability in Detroit is both widespread and deeply entrenched. Before the pandemic, roughly 13% of Detroiters, or about 88,000 people, had been evicted or forced to move within the previous year. Families with children faced the highest risk. Many Detroiters had little choice but to remain in deteriorating housing, crowd into shared living arrangements or relocate elsewhere because of an estimated shortfall of 24,000 habitable housing units. While building more housing is essential, preventing displacement requires more than new construction. It also demands policies that preserve affordability and protect tenants. Researchers have found that household stabilization policies, such as legal representation in eviction court, rent control and property tax relief, have the most immediate impact. In Detroit, addressing the wave of expiring Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, or LIHTC, units remains an urgent priority. When units reach the end of their compliance period in this federal program, typically 15 years, owners are no longer required to maintain affordable rents and can raise prices. This 'conversion to market rate' often results in the loss of affordable housing for low-income residents. In response to a projected loss of 10,000 units by 2023, Detroit launched the Preservation Partnership that secured affordability commitments for about 4,000 units. However, it remains difficult to determine exactly how many of the at-risk units were ultimately lost, and when, due to reporting lags, inconsistencies and overlapping affordability programs. Despite the city's efforts, a 2023 analysis found that a substantial affordability gap persists, with many households unable to comfortably afford market-rate housing without spending more than 30% of their income, which is the standard set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for affordability. The Michigan State Housing Development Authority continues to support affordable housing through tax credit allocations. However, a growing number of LIHTC properties in areas experiencing redevelopment are reaching the end of their affordability periods, putting them at risk of converting to market rate. National estimates suggest that nearly 350,000 units could lose affordability by 2030 and over 1 million by 2040 without sustained local and regional preservation efforts. Stabilizing Detroit's housing market means ensuring that those who stayed during the hardest times are not pushed out as reinvestment takes hold. To achieve this, the next mayor could expand rental assistance and support tenant organizing efforts. This is particularly needed in transitional neighborhoods where renters come together to fight unfair evictions, improve housing conditions and push for more stable rents. Many view Detroit's vast tracks of vacant land, estimated in the hundreds of thousands of parcels, as blight. But they could also be seen as a public asset and a generational opportunity if brought together with the right public strategies. Land trusts can turn empty lots into valuable neighborhood spaces. A land trust is a nonprofit that holds land for the community and keeps housing affordable over the long term, a key to preventing displacement. Research also shows that greening strategies can improve community health, cohesion and equity. Cities like Philadelphia and Cleveland have launched urban greening initiatives that transform vacant lots into community gardens, small parks and tree-filled spaces. Research shows that these projects can help stabilize property values and strengthen neighborhoods by reducing blight, encouraging investment and creating safer, more attractive environments. Detroit has a land bank, a public agency that manages vacant and foreclosed properties. The city has also invested in some green infrastructure. But experts say that these efforts require stronger city leadership, teamwork across departments and real input from residents. These are areas where Detroit still has room to grow. By collaborating with residents to cocreate a land use vision, the next mayor could prioritize community ownership and ecological restoration instead of speculative redevelopment. Neighborhood strength is about more than buildings — it's about people. As the Brookings Institution notes, economic opportunity is key to long-term safety, and investing in youth is a proven violence reduction strategy. Detroit's neighborhoods have long faced a lack of investment in schools, recreation centers and social services. This leaves families vulnerable and fuels cycles of poverty and criminalization. Under these conditions, young people, especially Black and brown youth, are more likely to be policed, punished and pushed into the criminal justice system. A 2021 study found that the Detroit Public Schools Community District reported 2% of its students experienced homelessness, despite 16% of households with children reporting recent eviction or forced moves. This gap reveals major service and awareness gaps. And when families fall through those gaps, it's often children who suffer the most. Addressing these gaps requires investing in mental health services, youth development programs and violence prevention, rather than relying solely on policing or incarceration. These approaches recognize that true public safety comes from access to stable jobs, quality education and supportive services that meet people's health, housing and social needs. Some of the most effective strategies include restorative justice in schools and outreach to older adults and residents experiencing homelessness. These are not luxuries. They are essential infrastructure for neighborhood vitality. Detroit is often held up as a cautionary tale of urban decline, or more recently, as a comeback story driven by downtown revitalization. But in my opinion, its true test lies in what comes next: whether the city can translate momentum into equity for the communities that have long been left behind. The next mayor has the chance to shift the narrative by centering housing justice, reclaiming land for public good and investing in the people who make Detroit a city worth fighting for. Read more of our stories about Detroit. Deyanira Nevárez Martínez, Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Michigan State University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
ABC News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Victorian worker makes plea to housing inquiry while living in tent
Anthony Rowse loves the feeling of working with his hands. The 25-year-old spends his days making skip bins for trailers and harvesting equipment near Ballarat in Victoria's west. But that sense of achievement can quickly evaporate when he goes back to Lake Burumbeet and prepares for a cold night in his tent. "The other night I caught a rat making its way into the tent," Mr Rowse said. Mr Rowse said his best mate, Ghost, a three-year-old husky-ridgeback cross, was his only companion. "I caught it [the rat] but Ghost wanted to play with it and she let it go," he said. Mr Rowse spent most of his adult life living in his family home in Ballarat, an hour and a half north-west of Melbourne. But he faced housing instability for the first time after the death of his mother and the end of a long-term relationship. Mr Rowse took advice from a coworker and began camping at the lake. He has been there on and off for the past couple of years, despite efforts to secure more permanent housing. "I'm just getting knocked back and back," he said. "They say I've got no rental history. And it's expensive. "I'd love a house." Long-term camping grounds are becoming a place to call "home" for an increasing number of the homeless. One homelessness worker told the ABC he had seen a "200 per cent increase" in temporary residents at camping spots across the state. A state government parliamentary inquiry is underway across regional Victoria seeking input on ways to address the country's housing and homelessness crisis. Members have asked where the most urgent need for housing is, the workforce challenges in constructing homes and the need for accommodation for regional workers in key sectors. Damian Stock, chief executive of ARC Justice, a service that provides legal help and tenancy advocacy support to people in Central and Northern Victoria, told the inquiry the gap between rental prices and income had increased significantly in regional Victoria. "It's the worst it's ever been," Mr Stock told the inquiry during a hearing in Ballarat. He discussed the need for tax incentives for investors who provided long-term rentals and investment in crisis, transitional and social housing. "There's a real role for the government to directly invest in public housing … it's been a decline over the past three decades of any investments directly into public housing." The state government released an ambitious target in 2024 to create 2.2 million new homes by 2051, 47,000 of which would be in Ballarat. Committee member Martha Haylett, the Labor MP for Ripon, said developers were concerned about meeting those targets. "There's worry that our Victorian government targets about how much we need to build in our more populated areas, like central Ballarat, versus out in paddocks where there is nothing," Ms Haylett said. In 2020, western Victorian company AME Systems bought a hotel in Ararat in a last-ditch effort to fill a chronic labour and housing shortage. The company is still struggling to find worker accommodation. Bauenort Management director, Anton Pound, has developed large-scale sites in Ballarat over the past decade. He told the inquiry he had built about 90 per cent of homes on greenfield sites, including the established areas of Ballarat. Mr Pound told the inquiry the government's target to boost Ballarat's infill developments to 60 per cent was not achievable. Mr Pound said he supported a transition, but it needed to be slow. "It's too big a step," he said. "In the meantime we just need to find a way to house these people." Ada Watson is an outreach worker who checks in with Anthony Rowse on a weekly basis, providing him with vouchers, food and support. She said something needed to be done. "I'd love to see a huge stockpile of achievable and affordable housing without it being so hard for people to get a home," Ms Watson said. She said she had seen a rise in the number of families sleeping rough. If there's no houses for them to move into, we just have to come out and give food to make life a little easier for them." Mr Rowse said there needed to be more homes available for those sleeping rough. "You've got a warm home, safe at night, no animals coming in, you've got a place where you actually belong, a place that feels like home," he said.
