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Dean said she was scammed by a local repairman who took a deposit for the work and then ran off and, in a separate financial challenge, Dean said her federal stimulus check was stolen. A DMC construction crew hired by the City of Detroit replaces the roof of a homeowner who qualified for the Renew Detroit Home Repair program on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. Victor Williams joined Local 4 News in October of 2019 after working for WOIO in Cleveland, OH, WLOX News in Biloxi, MS, and WBBJ in Jackson, TN. Victor developed a love for journalism after realizing he was a great speaker and writer at an early age. Take this short survey to find out if you have any health or safety risks in your home and learn how to fix them. There were more than 24,000 moderately or severely inadequate homes in Detroit,according to the 2020 University of Michigan study, which analyzed 2017 American Housing Survey data. These could be homes with broken toilets, no working cooking equipment, rats in the unit and exposed wiring and water leaks.
These meetings allowed the participating Detroiters the opportunity to voice their preferences on how to spend the ARPA funds. Mayor Duggan began an extensive community feedback process to discuss how the American Rescue Plan Act funds allocated to the City of Detroit could be utilized. Throughout May and June 2021, 65 community meetings were hosted that included close to 4,000 participants. They help people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and more -- even giving away cars and homes. "This is a program that we decided we wanted to do for people who are over 90 years old," Chad Audi said. Miss Evelyn is 96 years old and still lives in the same Detroit home she shared for decades with her family.
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Those who previously qualified for the Detroit Tax Relief Fund in 2022 will also be eligible for the Detroit home repair fund. Part of the campaign is to make sure homes within the city thrive and not end up condemned like so many others. Approved applicants of the new program are slated to be notified by Feb. 1, 2022, and repairs are expected to begin in the spring of that year and completed within two years. Regardless of income, homeowners in HUD designated areas in each city council district can still apply.See the map.
Vanessa Taylor lives less than five miles west from Dean in a home she’s owned for 40 years. Taylor also applied to the Renew Detroit program, but said she hasn’t yet heard whether she qualifies. Taylor, who is also disabled, estimates it will cost between $20,000 and $40,000 for the home repairs she needs.
Benefits will start as early as June
Home repairs were among the top issues Detroiters raised when askedhow they would like their city government to spend federal dollars. Researchers and community leadershave said the breadth of repair needs in Detroit are vast and available programs are difficult to tap into or have long wait lists. Home repair programs are making the difference for some Detroit residents who can’t afford to fix leaky roofs and other major problems, but thousands more still need help. Officials urged Detroiters to also apply for apoverty tax exemption, which is a requirement to qualify for the roof repairs. The Biden administration will restart its program to send free COVID-19 tests to Americans during the winter months when another coronavirus spike is expected.
"We know that that's like the hardest thing for them to achieve," she said. The city is urging homeowners to apply for the property tax exemption and is hostingseveral drive-thru events for application help, along with nonprofit partners. Detroit’s Chief of Special Housing Programs Heather Zygmontowicz said the city directed federal ARPA funds to roof repairs because it’s often the most expensive maintenance issue affecting residents.
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The Gilbert Family Foundation is working with Wayne Metro Community Action Agency to administer a $15 million program helping Detroiters facing the risk of tax foreclosure pay their overdue property taxes. To qualify, homeowners must first be approved to receive a property tax exemption from the City of Detroit. The first phase of the program, which will take applications Friday through Oct. 31, is expected to replace 1,000 roofs. Eighty percent of requests the city gets through its senior home repair program are for new roofs, Duggan said, and 50% of Detroiters are turned down for home weatherization grants because they have bad roofs. This year, the city has received 1,624 property tax exemption applications and had approved 1,281 as of Thursday. Applicants approved in 2019 and 2020 will also receive an exemption in 2021 because of changes in state law last year.
“We are about to break a cycle that has trapped thousands of Detroit residents over the last two decades. They either live in unsafe homes because they can’t afford critical home repair resources, or they leave their properties,” Grannemann said. Residents in Detroit's Islandview neighborhood and East Davison Village have even taken matters into their own hands recently, by raising money online for critical home repairs. Across the country, 51% of households live in homes built before 1980, compared with 90% in Detroit and 68% in metro Detroit, a recent report from the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute found.
Detroit home repair programs only chip away at crisis
The city is working with community development organizations to find other solutions. The Gilbert Foundation also launched a $20 million Detroit Home Repair Fund this spring for 1,000 low-income homeowners over the next three years. That fund helps homeowners identified through DTE’s Energy Efficiency Assistance Program who are at 200% of the federal poverty line and applied for a property tax exemption through the City of Detroit.
It can take a long time to save that kind of money, especially for someone living on a fixed income. Jackson was part of a group of about 90 people who briefly shut down Woodward Avenue at Grand Circus Park on Oct. 8 protesting the way the city of Detroit plans to spend its American Rescue Plan Act dollars, Bridge Detroit reported. "If we can tackle roofs, that's going to uncork a whole lot of other sort of federal money around weatherization to make homes, healthy, safe and secure for residents," Elling said. After that, residents will be chosen based on how long they've owned their home, their level of poverty exemption , the number of people in the house, and whether they are already on a wait list for home repairs or weatherization. Ford said tax relief has had a direct impact on the ability of residents to keep up their homes. One woman that she helped apply for the Gilbert Foundation program was paying $782 per month toward back taxes, more than her mortgage, before having her debt fully wiped out.
"So often, we've seen that many people who are behind on their property taxes are investing critical dollars into their back taxes, instead of their repairs," said Laura Grannemann, vice president of the Rocket Community Fund. "We have to remember that we still have homeowners, besides the home repairs that they need, are still struggling with the payment of their back taxes," said Willie Donwell, administrator for the property assessment board of review. No more names will be added to an existing home repair program that has a waitlist of 1,961 seniors, Duggan said. Those who are on that list will keep their place but are encouraged to apply for the new program, too. A new program aims to replace 1,000 roofs for low-income seniors and homeowners with disabilities in Detroit, city officials announced Thursday.
Dean was one of the first Detroiters to receive a new roof at no cost through Renew Detroit, a program funded with a portion of Detroit’s federal American Rescue Plan Act pandemic aid. If not for the program, Dean said she wouldn’t have been able to save enough money to replace the leaky roof. In the newest phase of the repair program, new window replacement is available to further assist home owners, said Joy. The new funding will be used for windows and roof replacement in the next three years. "This grant program will be transformative for homeowners residing within the city of Detroit. They will be able to make much-needed repairs to roofs, or windows that they otherwise may not be able to afford," Joy said.
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