Nearly 38,000 households in Detroit estimated to be living in inadequate housing

Lydia Wileden - The scale of Detroit's home repair need is even greater than previously estimated, according to new findings from the University of Michigan, which underscores residents' desire to make home repair a top priority for spending the city's American Rescue Plan Act funds. Nearly 38,000 households in Detroit-which equates to more than 1 in 7 occupied homes-have faced major issues with exposed wires or electrical problems, broken furnace or heating problems, or lack of hot or running water in their homes in the past year, according to the representative survey of Detroiters conducted by U-M's Detroit Metro Area Communities Study , or DMACS. Notably, significant home repair needs were not confined to residents with low incomes, but were a major issue for both lowand middle-income Detroiters. Sixteen percent of residents making under $30,000 per year and 15% of those earning between $30,000 and $60,000 per year were living in inadequate housing. While the city of Detroit recently announced a home repair program- Renew Detroit -that will distribute $30 million in American Rescue Plan funds as home repair grants to seniors with low incomes and homeowners with disabilities, gaps in home repair resources remain. Existing home repair programs are often oversubscribed, are out of financial reach for many homeowners with low incomes, provide too little funding to cover major repairs or are generally inaccessible for renter households. While the vast majority of higher-income individuals living in inadequate housing undertook home repairs, only 33% of low-income individuals did.