August 31, 2015
DFC Implementation Office Welcomes Shari Williams to the Shari Williams is a Detroit Revitalization Fellow serving as the Neighborhoods and Operations Program Manager at DFC. Shari comes to DFC with extensive community development experience. Prior to becoming a part of the team, Shari spent the last four years working for Focus:HOPE where in her most recent role as Family and Community Partnerships Manager she developed relationships between parents, the community, and administration, while also cultivating parent leadership and managing the parent engagement fund. We are excited for Shari to contribute her strong knowledge of community development to the team.
Learn more about Shari here.
DFC’s HUD Resilience Technical Assistance and its Impact on Detroit’s The Detroit Future City (DFC) Implementation Office was proud to support the City of Detroit being granted $9 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Mayor Duggan’s announcement of this groundbreaking initiative happened on August 7 alongside HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters and Councilmember Gabe Leland. Here’s a story that appeared in the Detroit News about HUD’s investment in Detroit’s infrastructure.
The critical need for these funds was sparked in August 2014, when tens of thousands of metro Detroit residents were impacted by the great storm that flooded basements and roadways. These incidents also contributed to the discharge of millions of gallons of untreated stormwater and sanitary waste to the Detroit River and highlighted the need to think differently about our systems. Read Detroit Free Press’ editorial “Re-envision infrastructure in wake of historic rainfall” to refresh your memory of the August 2014 storm here.
This HUD investment comes after nearly eight months of planning, strategy and preparation. Through this initiative, DFC and the City of Detroit will work to fulfill significant facets of the DFC Strategic Framework, particularly regarding city systems and neighborhood stabilization, by establishing more resilient, cost effective and innovative infrastructure systems that can improve quality of life in Detroit. This will help the city’s ability to withstand the impacts of severe rain events as they grow more frequent.
Check out the DFC’s HUD Resilience Technical Assistance charter for more information on our role in the City securing this funding here.
Read the full August 2015 e-newsletter here.