Residents press Southfield council on basement backups and sewer funding; city explains eligibility limits and grant history

Several residents used the council’s communications period to press the city about recurring basement sewage backups and the lack of large-scale grant funding to pay for sewer connections or private lateral repairs.

Stacy Jackson, a Southfield resident, told council that a neighboring municipality had received “nearly $400,000,000 for basement sewer backups and another $35,000,000 for private sewer connections” and asked why Southfield had not pursued similar funding. She said residents in affected neighborhoods have reported recurrent basement flooding with sewage since 2016 and urged the city to be more “creative and innovative” to help those households.

City Administrator (name on file) responded at length in the meeting, saying his staff had investigated the funding claims and that Detroit had received large federal disaster funds (he cited $346 million) for flooding tied to a declared disaster. Eligibility for those disaster funds requires a specific federal disaster declaration; the administrator said Southfield had not been declared a federal disaster area from the recent rain events and therefore was not eligible for the exact same pool of funds.

The administrator also explained that some large allocations — for example drawn from ARPA or other special carve-outs — vary widely because allocations are either formula-driven or competitively awarded. He said Southfield’s ARPA/CDBG-like allocations historically have been smaller than Detroit’s because of differences in HUD block-grant formulas and community demographics; Southfield’s ARPA allocation described in the presentation was “just under $10 million” while Detroit’s allocations and carve-outs were substantially larger. He added the city regularly seeks grants — noting a recent $18 million EPA submission that was not funded and $7.3 million in recent federal road grants received.

On specific technical questions about Circle Drive and whether a sewer had ever been removed from that street, staff said city records show Circle Drive historically had private septic systems and that no municipal sanitary sewer was installed and then removed. The city’s records and GIS were cited as the authoritative source; staff said an LTU (local technical unit / adjacent institution) had installed a small section in the right-of-way to serve a dorm, which is within that entity’s rights.

City staff also reviewed the city’s past sewer program history: in the late 1990s–early 2000s, the city spent roughly $38 million constructing sanitary sewer infrastructure, but many private homes did not connect promptly to the sewers. An inspection ordinance adopted in 2014 requires private septic systems to be inspected every three years; the number of homes on septic has declined from about 1,800 to roughly 960 under the inspection program, staff said. For eligible low-income homeowners, staff described a deferred-interest, point-of-sale payment option to help with septic replacement or connection.

City staff acknowledged ongoing investigations into reports from a specific neighborhood. The administrator said city crews and inspectors had responded to some calls (including holiday weekend responses) and stressed that in many cases basement flooding stemmed from in-home issues such as a sump pump being turned off or failed equipment rather than a city-owned sewer failure. However, the city said it would continue to work with residents to identify and, where appropriate, pursue solutions.