Affordable Housing
Redesigning the Machine
Economic justice in Detroit isn't about fixing a broken machine; it’s about acknowledging the machine was built to produce displacement and choosing to build a new one. We are moving beyond navigating a "rigged" housing market and starting to redesign it from the ground up.
The Radical Vision:
Publicly Owned Housing & Radical Affordability
Housing is a human right, not a speculative asset. Our goal is a city where "affordable" actually matches the incomes of the East Side, Hamtramck, Highland Park, and the Livernois 6-Mile area.
A New Era of
Publicly Owned Housing
We are bringing back the "Public" in public housing. We will lead an aggressive investment in publicly owned, high-quality residential developments.
-
Non-Market Housing
By keeping ownership in the public trust, we create housing that is permanently shielded from the speculative market.
-
Community-Led Design
Building modern, sustainable, and dignified homes held as a collective asset for the people of Detroit.
Driving Costs Down: Detroit Manufactured Housing Factory
To build fast and affordably, we must control the means of production.
We are advocating for a state-of-the-art housing factory located here in Detroit.
-
Employing Our People
A local factory creates a pipeline for Detroiters to build Detroit, providing stable, skilled labor opportunities in the 21st-century construction trades.
-
Radical Cost Reduction
By eliminating shipping costs & building at scale within city limits,
we drive the price of high-quality housing lower.
-
Empower Our Black Developers
This factory will serve as a primary resource for local Black developers, giving them the tools and inventory to lead the revitalization of our neighborhoods without being held hostage by soaring material costs.
Rebalancing
the Tax Burden:
A State-Led Solution
Our high property tax rates make us less competitive with costs being too high for the average family to bear. To promote growth, we must equip the Mayor & City Council with similar tools used by thriving U.S. cities to balance the tax burden.
-
State-Enabled Empowerment
This is a state issue. We will fight in Lansing to give Detroit’s leadership the legislative authority to implement innovative tax structures—like land value taxation or local-option excise taxes—to balance the budget without leaning on the backs of homeowners.
-
Eliminate the Ownership Burden Our ultimate goal is eliminating residential property taxes for primary residences. No Detroiter should lose their family home due to rising assessments in a neighborhood they helped stabilize.
-
Tax Speculators, Not Neighbors We will redesign the tax code to shift the burden away from residents and toward the speculative entities that treat our land like a stock market.
By giving the Mayor & Council the power to tax land value rather than improvements, we incentivize development & penalize those who leave lots to rot.