UCHC Detroit Affordable Housing Report

"Alternative Spring Break Gives Participating SLS Students a Week of Pro Bono Experience in a City Plagued by Foreclosures"

"A comprehensive new study released today by the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions concluded that Black homeowner-occupants in Detroit amassed $2.8 billion in added home value between 2014 and 2022, which represents an 80% increase during that time. The study analyzed changes in Detroit’s housing values for the nine-year period following the city’s municipal bankruptcy to understand how much growth there has been and whether that growth has been equitably distributed across neighborhoods and racial/ethnic populations."

"A review of Detroit residents fully represented under the City of Detroit Right to Counsel Program and the demographics, outcomes, and overall impact,"

"Today, Mayor Mike Duggan, City Council members joined with Detroit residents and real estate agents to celebrate a major milestone for Detroit’s Black homeowners: nearly $3 billion in added home wealth since 2014 for those who stayed in the City."

“While it’s deeply troubling that these individuals are alleged to have misused our company emails and computers, the charges confirm that the integrity of UCHC’s programs are not being called into question. We take this matter very seriously. The individuals identified in the complaint have been suspended, we are cooperating fully with the investigation, and we are also conducting an internal review. Meanwhile, the United Community Housing Coalition will continue its unwavering advocacy work for Detroiters as it has done for the last 50 years.”

"In October, the Rocket Community Fund, a partner company, along with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and the United Community Housing Coalition announced that 104 Detroit families were able to become homeowners through the Make It Home program in 2023, bringing the program's total to 1,500 families that have avoided tax foreclosure-related displacement since the program's launch in 2017. Make It Home enables eligible Detroiters occupying tax-foreclosed houses to become homeowners, rather than face eviction."

"We know there are people struggling across metro Detroit, but we want you to know you are not alone."

"Once upon a time in Detroit, the city’s eviction crisis was seen not as an issue of homelessness but as an issue of 'litter'..." writes Ted Phillips, Executive Director of United Community Housing Coalition.

Since its inception in 2017, the Make It Home program has helped more than 1,500 Detroit families stay in homes facing tax-related foreclosure.

This year, over 100 families are participating in the program, including the family of Demetrius Brown.

“It’s important because I have three girls,” Brown says. “It’s important that they have somewhere safe and stable to live.”

UCHC executive director Ted Phillips joined reporter Zach Clark this week on Clark's podcast "The Daily J" to discuss housing affordability in downtown Detroit and how some downtown office space is being repurposed for residential use.

"Part of the problem with ... mixed-income housing," Phillips says, "is that the mix is, like, 90-10 or 95-5 ... and sometimes that can be problematic for low-income persons that are living there, in terms of police enforcement being a little bit overly aggressive towards that population and other kinds of things like that."

UCHC firmly believes that Detroit needs more deeply affordable housing, both downtown and in the neighborhoods.