Detroit to crack down on 61 apartments with maintenance issues

Detroit city officials want dozens of apartment buildings with ongoing problems to get fixed up before they fall into further disrepair and put residents at risk.

The city has identified 61 multi-unit apartment buildings with “chronic” maintenance and compliance issues that have gone unaddressed, city officials from Detroit’s law, health and building safety departments said during a press conference Wednesday, April 8.

Related:

• Mayor Sheffield plans to crack down on senior housing conditions
• Detroit senior apartment tenants plead for support
• Mayor Sheffield wants to build 1,000 homes in Detroit in 4 years

City leaders vowed to enact a coordinated process that includes joint inspections between the city’s Buildings, Safety, Engineering, and Environmental Department (BSEED) and the Detroit Health Department, court-enforced consent agreements and placing liens on properties with multiple unpaid blight and code violation tickets.

Shoddy rental housing conditions have long been a concern for Detroiters. In recent months, the city of Detroit cracked down on Real Token, a blockchain real estate company, for public nuisance violations involving hundreds of residential properties in Detroit. Tenants of the Leland House have also gotten caught in the crosshairs, struggling to move out, as their apartment building went through bankruptcy.

“This is about being proactive and not reactive. It is about preventing displacement, protecting our families and holding landlords accountable before buildings reach a crisis point,” Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield said during a news conference.
”As mayor, I am committed to making sure that every Detroiter has a safe place to call home. And to those who continue to neglect their responsibilities, this administration wants to be very clear that the city of Detroit is stepping in and accountability is here.”

Here’s how the enforcement and legal strategy will work:

• BSEED and health department will perform inspections together, monitoring buildings for structural safety and health risks, leaders said.
• The city’s law department and BSEED have identified 61 multi-unit apartment buildings with ongoing problems that have not been fixed. Thirty-four of the buildings are Real Token and the remaining 27 are Russell Woods Apartments LLC, Chapel Court, Imperial Manor and Pierre Apartment at various addresses, according to city officials and a list provided to the Free Press. A reporter attempted to reach representatives of the apartments Wednesday afternoon. The law department will contact owners of each of the properties over the next several weeks to enter into court-monitored consent agreements. These agreements will include timelines for repairs. If owners fail to comply, the city will pursue legal action, including potentially taking control of the property as a public nuisance, BSEED Director David Bell said.
• The city’s department of appeals and hearings will begin placing liens on properties with “significant” unpaid blight violations, officials said. The liens will stay in place until violations are corrected.

“We know that the conditions that people live in shows up in their outcomes, whether that’s asthma from mold or dampness, whether that’s injuries from unsafe structures or the daily strain that families carry as a result of having that concern on their mind from unsafe structures that they live in,” said Chief Public Health Officer Ali Abazeed.

Sheffield’s strategy is part of a broader push by her field administration to improve housing conditions. BSEED also has a goal of bringing 65 senior buildings into compliance by August 2026, the mayor has said. Detroit seniors have long rang the alarm on poor rental housing conditions, from mold infestation and vermin to lack of heat and inadequate security measures.

In 2024, Detroit City Council approved a proposal to overhaul the city’s rental ordinance, an effort to crack down on negligent landlords and boost inspections. The ordinance increased fines for some violations and allowed the city to file a lien on a property for unpaid fees if a landlord didn’t get into compliance −a provision officials had hoped would give more teeth to the ticketing process.

City officials at the time sought to bring rental compliance up from 10% to 20% to 30% with the change. Currently, 14% of rental properties in Detroit have a certificate of compliance, Bell said on Wednesday.

“We are hoping … to increase that by 25% to 35% in the next year,” he said.

Reach reporter Nushrat Rahman at nrahman@freepress.com.