Dive Brief:
- Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield today signed an executive order to dedicate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of city-owned commercial properties to the city’s affordable housing development and preservation trust fund.
- The fund currently receives 40% of those proceeds, bringing in around $2 million per year, the order states. The new measure, which takes effect July 1, is expected to double that to $4 million annually.
- Detroit faces an estimated affordable housing gap of 46,000 units, according to a Detroit Justice Center report. The city’s 2025-2030 affordable housing strategy calls for preserving 10,000 affordable units and building 3,000 more.
Dive Insight:
Facing tightening budgets and affordable housing shortages, municipal leaders around the country are looking for more ways to fund housing development.
Some cities have turned to dedicated bonds to boost affordable housing or to public land contributions.
Detroit’s trust fund provides gap financing, low-interest loans and grants to affordable housing developers. At least 70% of the funding in a three-year period goes toward housing projects that support residents making 30% or less than the area median income, with the remainder supporting households making 50% or below the AMI.
“The Affordable Housing Trust Fund has been a great tool that has helped several important projects get past the planning stage and eventually built to provide deeply affordable and permanent supportive housing for our most vulnerable residents,” Sheffield stated.
Housing units that receive funding from the trust must remain affordable for a minimum of 30 years after completion.
