03/21/2022
To Detroit City Council:
Detroit’s budget must reflect the needs and priorities of Detroiters. Detroiters have repeatedly and consistently expressed their concerns for years - most recently in public meetings about the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act and the current City Budget Meetings. People talked about the dire need in this city for home repairs, affordable housing, eviction relief, neighborhood investments, water and flood infrastructure, and mental health resources. For years, Charlevoix Village Association (CVA) has been making our priorities clear: home repair grants, truly affordable housing, and reparations for overtaxation. The undersigned support our priorities and demand that the appropriation of Detroiters’ tax dollars reflect the needs of Detroiters, not Duggan’s pet projects.
We insist the City Council, who were elected to serve Detroiters, reject any budget proposed by the Mayor that does not reflect these stated priorities of Detroiters. We call on all our neighbors to come to the City Council Budget Meetings in March and April to make their voices heard and our priorities clear!
The Mayor’s office made it clear they will ignore input from long-term Detroiters. The Budget Priorities Forum meeting for District 5 on January 18th was an insult and disrespect to the people. The attitude of the meeting was to tell long-term Detroiters not to expect too much from the City, to tell us how broke the city is. But with the introduction of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) $826 million, this year’s budget is almost double last year’s. Framing the ARPA money as a slush fund for Duggan’s priorities while telling Detroiters that there is no money for their needs is a slap in the face. We need home repairs, public housing, and reparations for overtaxation.
In 2021 the University of Michigan confirmed what Detroiters have been saying for years: the cost required to address home repairs in Detroit is at least $570 million! The Renew Detroit Program has just $30 million in it and a waitlist as long as 7 Mile. The ARPA funds are enough to address this crisis, but the Duggan administration is committed to tearing down homes instead of helping people stay in them.
The affordability crisis in the City of Detroit is staggering. Detroit’s median income is approximately $30k, whereas most “affordable” units are priced for people making closer to $50k. Detroit’s budget needs to address the housing crisis by allocating money for subsidized housing that is priced at a level average Detroiters can afford.
Further investigation about overtaxation is not necessary to start addressing the problem. There is no ambiguity - Detroiters were overtaxed and their houses were stolen. It’s time to act: if we can give tax abatements to developers, we can give tax credits to overtaxed Detroiters. We can sell Land Bank houses for $1 back to those who lost their houses. We can make Detroiters whole.
THIS IS OUR MONEY. Enough is enough. The Duggan administration would rather sell off the city and dismantle what legacy Detroiters have built. City Council must provide a check and balance against the Mayor by exercising their power of the purse. Council must amend or reject any budget that doesn’t have Detroiters’ interest front and center.
Signed,
Charlevoix Village Association
District 5 Community Advisory Council
Parker Street Block Club
References:
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2021/06/28/detroit-home-repairs-neighborhood-investment-federal-money/5303492001/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CU7qzB9rKhO/
https://pacdc.org/2017/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Measuring-and-Understanding-Home-Repair-Costs.pdf
https://poverty.umich.edu/files/2020/10/The-Status-of-Home-Repair-in-Detroit-October-2020.pdf
cc:
Detroit City Council
Mary Sheffield
Councilman James Tate
Scott Benson
Latisha Johnson Davis
Gabriela Santiago-Romero
Councilwoman Angela Whitfield Calloway, JD - Detroit, District 2
Detroit City Council Member, Fred Durhal III
Mary Waters
Coleman Young
