Detroit groups can get $15K for beautification projects: What to know

Community organizations can now apply for funding to clean up and improve their neighborhoods. 

The Neighborhood Beautification Program provides grants between $500 and $15,000 for registered block clubs, neighborhood associations, nonprofit organizations and faith-based groups that own vacant land. The deadline to apply is Feb. 23. The city is also helping organizations buy or lease lots from the Detroit Land Bank Authority. 

Funding can be used to create community gardens, fund clean up efforts and improve public spaces. Since launching in 2022, the program has awarded 99 grants totaling $1.2 million. Another $3.5 million remains available through 2025. The city expects to release 180 grants overall.

“You can hire contractors, you can hire designers. You don’t have to do this all yourself,” Detroit Program Analyst Samuel Coons said during a virtual January meeting. “This funding is a big opportunity to bring out professionals to do work that may be too intensive for your block club to do with volunteer labor.”

Organizations seeking more details can view a recorded information session or attend upcoming meetings on Jan. 24 and Jan. 31. Residents can attend virtual office hours with program staff on Wednesdays from 9-11 a.m. or Fridays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

City staff are available to answer questions through email at Samuel.Coons@detroitmi.gov and Karmel.Reeves@detroitmi.gov.

The program is available to block clubs or neighborhood associations that are registered with the Department of Neighborhoods. Nonprofit organizations and faith-based groups can partner with a block club registered with the city to receive funding. 

All organizations seeking funding must be a 501(c)(3) or LLC legal entity, which prevented some groups from being eligible in the first round of funding. The city partnered with Wayne Metro Community Action Agency to help register organizations for free. 

Sites must be owned in the name of the organization seeking funding. Proof of ownership must be provided to the city. Funding will only be granted to projects on three types of residentially zoned parcels. Parcels zoned R1 single-family, R2 two-family and R3 low-density districts are eligible. 

Funding can go toward public space improvements like community gardens, fruit trees, landscaping, art installations and seating. The grants can also pay for alley cleanup, seeding and grading lots, graffiti removal and collection of illegal dumping and litter. 

Coons said fencing and boulders emerged as a strongly desired use of the funding to prevent illegal dumping. 

“It has to be publicly available, this cannot just be private space for your organization or block club,” Coons said. “This is public money so it does need to go toward making a public space.” 

Grants can’t be used to create structures, irrigation systems or to develop programs. 

Organizations that want to clean up properties owned by the land bank can also use grant funding. The land bank will license its lots to block clubs for a few months through a separate application, Coons said. Contact the land bank at inventorycap@detroilandbank.org.  

Grant dollars come from a federal pandemic relief funding and tax revenue collected from Detroit Pistons home games. City Council President Mary Sheffield pushed for the tax capture as part of a development deal for upgrades to Little Caesars Arena. 

The council signed off on $34.5 million in taxpayer-funded bonds in 2017 to fund arena modifications that helped bring NBA games to Detroit. In exchange, the city collects income taxes from Pistons players, employees and visiting NBA players during home games at Little Caesars Arena.

At the time, city officials estimated the tax would generate $1.3 million in annual revenue. 

The Neighborhood Beautification Program started in 2022 with $1.25 million from the American Rescue Plan Act and $1 million in Pistons tax revenue. An additional $2.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars were allocated to the program in 2023.

The Neighborhood Beautification Program is overseen by the Detroit Housing and Revitalization Department and administered by the Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency. 

Tamra Fountaine Hardy, director of neighborhood services and economic development for Detroit’s Housing and Revitalization Department, said the funding plays an “integral role in the City’s efforts to turn blight into beauty,” in a press release. 

Hardy said residents are investing their time and energy into transforming underused sites into gathering spaces for their community. Thirty-six organizations received $492,228 in grant funding in 2022, followed by 45 grants worth $633,905 in spring 2023. A third round of grants awarded $131,334 last fall to 18 organizations that applied for funding but weren’t selected in the previous rounds.