New program helps build wealth while offering affordable housing in Detroit

DETROIT – A new housing program in Detroit is set to help build wealth while offering affordable housing.

The Osborn Neighborhood Alliance is renovating three vacant duplex homes on Mapleridge Avenue near Gratiot Avenue to be sold at a discounted rate.

“We said we were going to buy up every home on Mapleridge and sell them, but we did not want to sell a house just to a family,” said Executive Director of Osborn Neighborhood Alliance Quincy Jones. We wanted to create a wealth-building strategy where a moderate-income family would become an occupied landlord.”

Qualified homebuyers will have an income at or below the 80% median income. While living in one unit, they will rent out the other to someone with Section 8 housing vouchers or an income of around 60% of the median income.

Each of the six fully renovated units features three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Bishop Daryl Harris of Total Life Christian Ministries has lived in the Osborn Neighborhood all his life.

“I was here to see both the good side and, unfortunately, the not-so-good side, which is what makes today so awesome to see the good side finally coming back,” said Harris.

The neighborhood is leading the project and the transformation, but it has become even more prominent, thanks to partners.

“Getting help from the Osborn Neighborhood Alliance, business alliance, and other community organizations, Matrix Human Services, and we just started saying, ‘You know what, we’re going to keep pushing, we’re going to start with some board ups, with some clean ups and we’re going to do that until someone pays attention to what’s going in our neighborhood,’” Harris said.

“The Detroit Land Bank is all about finding innovative ways to restore vacant properties to productive use, and this duplex project is a perfect example of what we can do when we all work together,” said Detroit City Land Bank Authority CEO Tammy Daniels.

The project was awarded $500,000 in Community Development Block grant funding from Detroit’s Housing and Revitalization Department.

An additional $288,000 was awarded from Strategic Neighborhood Fund grants from Invest Detroit. Osborn Neighborhood Alliance also received a construction loan from Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).

Renovations are expected to be done by the end of 2023, but people in the neighborhood told Local 4 they’ve been working to get the project up and running for the last eight years.