City Council members pressed for answers on why Leland House tenants have not been able to recover personal items from the building since it was vacated last December.
Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett Jr. said a blown transformer that knocked out power and triggered the evacuation of Leland House must be fixed before anyone can safely be allowed to enter. The building’s owner has since declared bankruptcy, complicating the situation.
Mallett said the city is exploring options to cover the cost of restoring power to the building and arranging escorts, moving assistance and insurance for the retrieval of personal property that tenants were forced to abandon. A federal judge set a Feb. 24 deadline for the city, building owners and tenants’ representatives to create a plan for retrieving belongings.
The council voted unanimously to direct the Law Department to initiate a nuisance abatement lawsuit for the property.
District 6 Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero said tenants have waited “way too long” to obtain property from their apartments, forcing them to rebuild wardrobes and lose jobs or housing opportunities because they lack important documents.
Former tenant Katherine Guyton said the experience has cost her “mentally, physically and emotionally.” She was days away from moving into a new home, but lost the opportunity and her job due to the disruption of losing her address.
Mallett said 20 of 31 tenants gave the city permission to pack their belongings. Others want to do it themselves.
District 5 Council Member Renata Miller said it’s embarrassing to see residents dislocated because the building fell into disrepair. Miller said the city has long been aware of maintenance issues, and the current state reflects a failure of Detroit’s code enforcement regulators to bring the property into compliance.
Mallett said the Law Department entered into a consent agreement with Leland House owners because they did not want to displace tenants. The city prevented DTE Energy from cutting off electricity over late power bills, but the transformer failure last December rendered the efforts moot.
Arthur Rushin, chief enforcement officer for the Buildings Safety Engineering and Environmental Department, said the property was out of compliance with city standards but hadn’t been deemed uninhabitable until the power went out.
WHAT PAGE ARE WE ON?
Today’s newsletter covers the Feb. 17 formal session. Council Member Scott Benson was absent.
Dig into the agenda, read Detroit Documenter notes or watch the recording for more details.
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Last time in the notebook, we covered Mayor Mary Sheffied’s effort to include residents in her transition process. Don’t miss tonight’s meeting on infrastructure and mobility. It’s scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Memorial Episcopal Church.
DETROITERS STILL MISS HIGH-PAYING JOBS IN THE CITY
Detroit is home to high-paying jobs that aren’t going to residents.
Economists released their annual projections for Detroit labor trends and city revenues last week. The economic analysis predicts that a historically wide gap between the wages of jobs located in the city and resident wages will slowly tighten. Jobs located in Detroit paid $86,841 on average in 2025, while residents had an average wage of $45,152.
Estimates show wages for jobs in Detroit grew 3.8% in 2025, while Detroit resident wages grew 5.2%. There’s a lot of ground to be made up. Jobs located in Detroit paid more than double the average wage of Detroit residents over the last decade.
“Jobs in the city pay high wages on average, that’s just an economic fact,” said Gabriel Ehrlich, director of a University of Michigan economic forecast group hired by the city. “We are seeing slow but tangible progress toward some convergence in the wage gap between Detroit residents and the jobs in the city. But at the same time, I don’t want to be naive or oblivious to the reality that the gap is still quite large.”
The income gap between residents and commuters is driven by many factors, including lower rates of bachelor’s degrees and the erosion of high-paying manufacturing jobs that don’t require college degrees.
Detroit households are earning nearly 5% less than they were before the pandemic, thanks to inflation. Household income is expected to increase by 1% annually after 2027 and reach pre-pandemic levels after 2030, when adjusted for inflation.
Detroit’s labor force has reached its highest level since 2010. The city’s unemployment rate increased two years in a row, reaching an average of 9.7% last year. Michigan’s jobless rate was 5.3% last year. Unemployment is expected to keep rising this year.
There were an estimated 234,636 jobs in Detroit for 2025. Most were in service-providing industries, with only 22,441 manufacturing and 7,948 construction jobs.
BARRETT’S BOOKMARKS
Here’s a few other pieces of information I came across this week:
- Tax breaks were issued to 31 development projects in District 6 since 2022, according to a report requested by Santiago-Romero. A list provided by the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation does not include the total amount of tax incentives provided.
- Council Member Latisha Johnson wants to block the opening of a strip club. Johnson said the property is zoned correctly and has a certificate of compliance allowing the owner to open a Covergirls Strip Club, but residents have protested the business because it is two blocks from an elementary school and doesn’t align with a framework plan for the Denby/Whittier Neighborhood.
- The council voiced opposition to a statewide effort requiring voters to provide a birth certificate or passport when registering to vote. The resolution argues a ballot proposal planned for the November 2026 election would create unnecessary barriers to voting.
- Senior homeowners can apply now for a discount on their trash bill. Detroit’s solid waste fee is cut in half for seniors who have a principal residence exemption on file with the city. Residents who are 65 and older can apply online, by calling (313) 224-3560 or visiting the Detroit Taxpayer Service Center in Suite 130 of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building. An early application period is open until April 15. Applications will also be accepted from July 1 through Sept. 15.
- The council will discuss the prospect of creating an entertainment tax or local option taxes on Feb. 19. A special session was scheduled at 2:30 p.m. to discuss reports published by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.
- Detroit community centers will receive private rooms for breastfeeding mothers through a $149,000 contract with Spaceworx. The contract provides for “lactation pods” accessible through a phone app. Locations include Brilliant Detroit, Farwell Recreation Center, Samaritan Center, Henry Ford Medical Center and the Northwest Activities Center.
- Melvin Butch Hollowell was reappointed to the Public Lighting Authority Board of Directors after the other two candidates dropped out. Mayor Mary Sheffield nominated Robert Brown, Keith Williams and Hollowell, who is chair of her transition committee.
- Marijuana industry advocates protested the removal of Kim James as director of Detroit’s Office of Cannabis Affairs. James was called the “godmother of the cannabis industry,” who helped establish the city’s regulations and zoning rules.
