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Committee amends Detroit Land Bank MOU, adds CLT discounts and backs $10M HUD 108 homeownership pilot
Summary
The committee approved a package of amendments to the Detroit Land Bank Authority MOU including explicit Community Land Trust (CLT) discount language (including an 80% off‑market reference in the draft screen language) and supported a pilot to transfer 100 occupied DLBA homes using $10 million in HUD 108 loans; the amended MOU (line item 10.32) was moved to formal as amended.
The Planning and Economic Development Committee agreed to a set of amendments to the Detroit Land Bank Authority (DLBA) memorandum of understanding and moved the amended MOU (line item 10.32) to formal as amended for full‑body consideration.
Council Member Mary Waters outlined a proposal to develop a new homeownership program that would use Detroit Land Bank Authority properties and be supported by $10,000,000 in HUD 108 loans. Waters said the pilot would prioritize rehabilitation of occupied homes, launch initially in District 4 targeting 100 homes, and rely on partnerships with nonprofits, faith‑based groups and the Detroit Housing Commission to support owner‑occupancy and voucher integration. "This is a significant opportunity to increase homeownership...and to reduce blight in our neighborhoods," Waters said.
Committee members spent substantial time negotiating Community Land Trust language to be added to the DLBA MOU. Revised text shown on the screen would require the Detroit Land Bank to provide applicable discounts on land sold to a CLT and included a drafting example that set an 80% off‑market reference for affordable housing developments in which at least 25% of units are reserved for households at or below 50% of area median income. DLBA staff and counsel said the proposed subsection tracks a CLT policy the DLBA board adopted at its most recent meeting. "We do have a CLT policy and...it actually tracks the formal policy that has been adopted by our board," DLBA legal staff said.
Committee members also negotiated alternate language on nuisance abatement coordination, clarifying that properties selected for DLBA nuisance abatement efforts would be identified in coordination with Buildings and Safety and other city departments rather than exclusively by a single referral source. DLBA staff said the agency had completed citywide surveys funded by the city to identify properties for acquisition and abatement.
Several procedural motions were approved without recorded objection: duplicate agenda items were removed, substituted CLT language and nuisance‑abatement language were added to the draft MOU, and the committee moved the amended DLBA MOU (line item 10.32) to formal as amended. Members asked Legislative Policy Division and Law Department staff to prepare a memo and draft resolution capturing the agreed amendments for full‑body consideration.
The committee also scheduled multiple related items for follow‑up and referred selected items (including drafts of CLT ordinance language and implementation details) to LPD, HRD and the Law Department for written responses and a formal resolution.
