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Residents press council to increase housing trust fund, change AMI and restore home-repair support
Summary
Multiple public commenters asked Detroit City Council to raise the Housing Trust Fund to the $10 million level requested by advocates, to pursue an area-specific AMI, and to invest in home repair and foreclosure recovery.
Detroit residents urged City Council during public comment to substantially increase the Housing Trust Fund allocation, push for a city-specific Area Median Income (AMI) and prioritize home-repair and foreclosure recovery efforts.
A public commenter speaking without a name in the transcript said the budget update included another $1,000,000 for the Housing Trust Fund, bringing the proposed total to $2,000,000, and noted the fund had requested $10,000,000 under an inclusionary ordinance passed a few years earlier. "That is a good improvement, but I do not think it gets us all the way there," the commenter said, adding the Office of Disability Affairs was fully funded at $1,400,000.
Why it matters: Commenters connected housing funding and repair programs to resident stability, prevention of displacement and public health. Several callers said that without larger investments Detroit risks continued loss of homeownership and worsening housing conditions.
Details and debate: Multiple speakers called for a $10,000,000 allocation to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (referred to in the meeting as the Housing Trust Fund). Veronica Smith and Jocelyn Harris both asked the council to redirect funds away from development agencies and toward community priorities such as participatory budgeting and affordable housing. Harris specifically requested $2,100,000 for participatory budgeting.
Tahira Ahmed and another caller urged the council to "return our $600,000,000" and to restore homeownership lost through alleged unlawful foreclosures; they also called for dissolving the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC) and the land bank and redirecting funds to neighborhoods. One caller said they had structural damage to their home that needed repair and that senior repair programs were insufficient for deep needs.
Mary Waters, responding during the meeting, said she has been "working hard" to lobby at the federal level for a city-specific AMI and that the council is trying to secure engagement from the HUD secretary.
Clarifying figures discussed in public comment include the proposed $2,000,000 Housing Trust Fund allocation (described as an increase of $1,000,000), an advocacy request for $10,000,000, $1,400,000 for the Office of Disability Affairs, and a $2,100,000 request for participatory budgeting. Speakers also referenced lead abatement funds of "$10,000,000 a year" and a $600,000,000 figure tied to foreclosure recovery — all cited by commenters and not presented as council-adopted figures during this session.
No formal council action was taken during the public-comment-only portion of the meeting.
