Quarterly Newsletter | April 2025

April 23, 2025

Detroit Future City Newsletter | April 2025

What’s Inside:

Efforts to Address Heirs’ Properties in Detroit Get Boost
New Program Aims to Improve Environmental Justice in Two Lower Eastside Neighborhoods
New Brief Lays Out Opportunities for Next Mayor
Get Involved – Upcoming Activities
DFC Out and About

Efforts to Address Heirs’ Properties in Detroit Get Boost

Detroit Future City has entered into an agreement with LISC Detroit to undertake coalition building activities for the Detroit Heirs’ Property Program. This program, developed through a partnership between LISC Detroit and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, was created in January 2025 to help resolve and prevent ongoing heirs’ property issues in the city of Detroit.

“Detroit has more than 5,500 likely heirs’ properties – worth an estimated $268 million – which have no living property owner,” said Detroit Future City President and CEO, Anika Goss. “Families and neighborhoods in Detroit require support to ensure these properties transition smoothly to the next generation of property owners.”

Heirs’ properties often result when a property owner passes on without a will, leaving their heirs to resolve questions of legal ownership. Without a definitive and clear resolution, these issues can have negative effects on families, wealth building, and neighborhood development for years or even decades to come.

“It is so important to our citizens and our community that property owners do what they can to ensure a smooth transfer of ownership to subsequent generations,” noted Goss. “In the meantime, Detroit Future City is committed to organizing individuals and groups that can effectively help this city address its backlog of heirs’ properties.”

The Detroit Heirs’ Property Program was created by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis and LISC Detroit in direct response to Detroit Future City’s February 2024 report, Keeping Your Family Home, which analyzed the state of heirs’ properties in Detroit. The report found thousands of heirs’ properties in neighborhoods across the city, representing a little discussed, but enormously sizable risk to the city’s residents and neighborhoods.

Read Keeping Your Family Home

New Program Aims to Improve Environmental Justice in Two Eastside Neighborhoods

New community green spaces with walking paths and landscaping are in store for two Eastside neighborhoods of Detroit after the recent announcement of a nearly $500,000 grant to Detroit Future City by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).

Funding for these projects in the McDougall Hunt and East Poletown neighborhoods is coming from EGLE’s Environmental Justice Impact Grant program. That program is providing $20 million for projects across Michigan that will improve public health, monitor pollution, clean up contamination, enhance indoor air quality for children, and more.

“We are so thankful for this investment from the State of Michigan,” said Kimberly Faison, Vice President of Thriving and Resilient Neighborhoods at Detroit future City. “These funds will help us and our neighborhood partners to carry out a range of activities, like vacant land clean up, tree planting and pathway installation, which will encourage more residents to enjoy natural areas in these Detroit neighborhoods.”

Detroit Future City is partnering on this project with community-based organizations, Arboretum Detroit and Bailey Park Neighborhood Development Corporation, to plan and implement these projects. Design work and site preparation with occur this year, with construction and landscaping to follow in 2026.

Planning and engagement for a number of these green space sites began in 2024 though the McDougall Hunt Climate Resiliency Initiative with the support of the Gilbert Family Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and GLISA, NOAA’s Great Lakes Climate Adaptation Partnership (CAP) team.

Learn More About Environmental Justice Impact Grants Here

DFC Releases Brief on Opportunities for Next Mayor

As Detroit prepares for its next mayoral administration, the decisions made today will shape the city’s future for generations.

The new brief, “Opportunities for the Next Mayoral Administration to Grow Detroit’s Middle Class,” lays out a bold, actionable roadmap centered on one of the most critical challenges and opportunities facing Detroit: growing and sustaining a strong middle class. This publication was created as a resource, offering a vision for what’s possible when public policy is aligned with equity, economic mobility, and long-term sustainability.

“Opportunities for the Next Mayoral Administration to Grow Detroit’s Middle Class” focuses on three key priorities essential to building an inclusive and resilient Detroit: strengthening middle-class neighborhoods, expanding wealth generation for Detroiters, and investing in climate-resilient infrastructure. These priorities are not just about economic development, but about ensuring that all Detroiters, especially those historically marginalized, have access to opportunity, stability, and a high quality of life.

Grounded in findings from the “Making the Middle Class” and “Growing Detroit’s African American Middle Class” reports, the brief highlights how the city can raise incomes, increase local wealth, and attract new middle-class households, while also putting Detroiters at the center of growth.

Click to Read Brief

Get Involved – Upcoming Activities

Bailey Park Neighborhood Development Community Event – April 26th
Detroit Neighborhood Housing Compact – May 20th at 2 pm. Contact Dwayne Barnes at dbarnes@detroitfuturecity.com for meeting details.
Earth Fest with Bailey Park NDC and Sustainable Community Farms – April 26, 2-5pm Details and registration here.
Volunteer Workdays with Arboretum Detroit, multiple dates. Details and registration here.

DFC Out and About

Staff from Detroit Future City were well represented at the recent Michigan Chronicle Awards. President and CEO Anika Goss was recognized at the event as a Standout Black Nonprofit Leader; Vice President Ashley Williams Clark was recognized as a Woman of Excellence; and DFC Board Chair Wendy Lewis Jackson was named the 2025 Woman of the Year. Congrats to all!

Ms. Goss and Mrs. Williams Clark were only recently back from the 2025 Festival of the Diaspora Conference in Medellín, Columbia, where they spoke about their experience building inclusive communities and organizations. Learn more about the conference here.

Rounding out a busy month together, Ms. Goss and Mrs. Williams Clark also made an appearance on Detroit’s Fox2 Morning show, where they highlighted the findings of a recent report on mortgages in Detroit. Watch here.

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