New ‘evolution’ for Detroit Department of Neighborhoods

The Department of Neighborhoods is finalizing a plan to bring municipal services closer to where residents live.

It’s not quite a return to the network of neighborhood city halls that closed a decade ago as part of pre-bankruptcy cost-cutting measures. But Department of Neighborhoods Director Bryan Peckinpaugh said the goal is similar: Save people from a trip downtown to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center.

“(Mayor Mary Sheffield) heard a lot of feedback about in-person services, and barriers to coming downtown,” Peckinpaugh said in a February interview. “We’re meeting with all service delivery departments and coming up with a plan for how we bring services to the neighborhoods. They may be at recreation centers, they may be at a community partner, at a faith based organization, whatever makes sense for that neighborhood or that district.”

Peckinpaugh said the city is also determining what types of services are needed in different areas, based on data collected by the Department of Neighborhoods. A plan will be rolled out within the next few months, he said.

Residents used to visit neighborhood city halls to obtain licenses and permits, file tax exemptions, register to vote, notarize documents, report blight, seek job opportunities and organize volunteer activities.

The first four neighborhood city halls were established in 1971 under former Mayor Roman Gribbs, an attempt “to bring government closer to the people.” It expanded to 11 sites under Mayor Coleman Young and later declined until the final five were closed in 2012 under Mayor Dave Bing.

Sheffield’s father was director of a neighborhood city hall during the Archer administration. On the campaign trail, she pledged to create a “bring neighborhood city halls back” in a “new version.”

Peckinpaugh said it’s an evolution of the Department of Neighborhoods created by Mayor Mike Duggan in 2013. It was a consolidation of more than a dozen city departments that dealt with code enforcement and blight, located in district offices within each City Council district.

“These Department of Neighborhoods staff were more intended to identify areas of service improvement and gaps in services as the city was rebuilding after bankruptcy,” Peckinpaugh said. “One of the major feats they’ve done is identifying blight.”

Department of Neighborhoods Deputy Director Joshua Roberson said district managers serve as liaisons between residents and the city, helping to put special attention on neighborhood issues like dangerous buildings, tall grass, illegal dumping and other blight issues. They also respond to issues reported through the Improve Detroit app.

Each council district has two liaisons who answer calls from residents and help them navigate issues with the city. There’s also two city-wide resource managers. Sheffield added two senior citizen advocates and a faith-based director.

Peckinpaugh said his main goal is to advance outreach so residents are aware of all the services Detroit offers and improve the customer experience so residents can take advantage of them.

The prior administration tested a free artificial intelligence tool that automated calls to district managers in two City Council districts. Roberson said they’re still reviewing the data to determine if city-wide implementation is a good idea. Regardless, he said the Department of Neighborhoods is not interested in removing human interaction.

“We never want to lose the person to person effect,” Roberson said. “Our district managers are still making phone calls, answering text messages and email. We’re still combing through that data and getting feedback from our neighbors. District 3 and 4 were chosen basically because we see some heightened blight complaints. We wanted to see what that call volume looks like and how it was addressed.”

Calls to the “Emily” AI tool recorded and transcribed. Roberson said residents always received a follow up call from a district manager.