On February 27th, Detroit Future City released its latest research report, entitled, “Keeping Your Family Home: Addressing the Challenges of Inherited Properties in Detroit.” The report examines challenges around the intergenerational transfer of homes in Detroit and aims to preserve family wealth and stability.

A key focus of Keeping Your Family Home centers around heirs’ properties, which are family-owned properties inherited across generations or passed on to recipients without formal legal proceedings to establish legal ownership. The lack of clear legal ownership puts the ownership and wealth associated with these homes at risk – and the report finds more than 5,500 such properties, worth an estimated $270 million, located in Detroit; nearly 500 of these are at risk for immediate tax foreclosure.

“Homeownership is both an important vehicle for building generational wealth and a place to provide stability for a family,” said Anika Goss, DFC CEO. “As Detroit works to grow the middle class and close economic equity gaps, we need a better understanding of how to preserve and increase homeownership, and ‘Keeping Your Family Home’ contains critical data to help stakeholders develop the programming we need.”

This research was supported by a collaboration of non-profit, philanthropic, and public stakeholders including United Community Housing Coalition, Michigan Legal Services, Lakeshore Legal Aid, the Gilbert Family Foundation, the City of Detroit, and the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office. Funding support was provided by The Gilbert Family Foundation.

To read the full report, click here.

Detroit Future City is now well underway on a research project to explore the feasibility of an open space land conservancy in the city of Detroit. The current focus of the project includes interviewing community stakeholders about open space considerations and learning more about the legal frameworks that allow for a land conservancy to protect open space from encroaching development on scattered plots of land around a neighborhood or city.

This initiative launched in summer 2023, when the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan announced its funding support of the work. Through Fall 2023, the project team gathered background information on various existing open space conservancies from around the country and opened dialogue with community partners about potential open space conservancy models. A focus group was held with community groups working on greenspace projects in Detroit this past December.

This Spring, research and community engagement continues. Initial findings were shared with community partners at the Open Space Working Group meeting on March 12th. A formal recommendation to the community for whether it should and, if so, how to launch an open space land conservancy in Detroit is expected by June 2024.

“Across Detroit, there are so many great community open spaces, developed by residents and community groups over these past years,” noted Sarah Hayosh, DFC’s Director of Land Use and Design. “It’s imperative that we have a long term plan for supporting these efforts and the open space they make possible, particularly in light of the city’s ongoing redevelopment. We believe an open space land trust is one way to make that possible.”

The Elmwood Circle Forest, a community gathering space in the East Ferry Warren Neighborhood, developed by Arboretum Detroit in partnership with Detroit Future City, will host several community activities this Spring. Residents and others are invited and encouraged to attend. Highlights include the following:

Full information about the project, including the space’s address and calendar of upcoming events, is available here.