This week in the notebook:
- Future of Health tax breaks OK’d
- Who went to bat for developers?
- Civil rights legend joins reparations group
- Major settlement for innocent man
- Gun buyback deemed successful
Welcome back. I’m still Malachi Barrett.
The City Council voted 6-3 to approve nearly $296 million in tax breaks and a community benefits agreement tied to the Future of Health mega-development.
Tuesday’s vote ends the latest iteration of a long-running debate about what Detroiters should receive in exchange for subsidizing development with their tax dollars.
Though this project received approval, the larger conflict is unresolved.
“There is no perfect deal,” said Council President Mary Sheffield. “I do believe the community benefits agreement process should be strengthened.”
“But we were able to make some progress as it relates to what we have before us today.”
Henry Ford Health, the Detroit Pistons and Michigan State University will embark on a $3.2 billion project with the council’s blessing. Tax subsidies were sought for a $773 million portion of the project.
The tax breaks will help finance 662 apartment units, a medical research facility and parking garage. A hospital expansion and improvements to Henry Ford’s New Center campus will not receive tax incentives.
Market-rate housing is anticipated to have rents ranging from $1,340 to $2,830 per month.
Twenty percent of the units (133) will be discounted for residents earning between $19,880 and $46,400 per year.
Arn Tellem, vice chair of the Detroit Pistons Organization, promoted the project as a generational investment that will have “many ripple effects.” He said it continues the Pistons’ efforts to improve the city after moving back to Detroit in 2017.
“It will expand the zone of development and investment out from the urban core toward the neighborhoods,” Tellem said.
Council Member Fred Durhal III grew up in the area and called the project a “beacon of hope for that neighborhood.”
Neighborhood leaders who opposed the project worry the development will increase housing costs in the area. Renters make up a majority of nearby residents.
The concerns spurred council members to reopen a deal negotiated by residents through Detroit’s community benefits ordinance. The council secured investments that Detroiters could not, including:
- $2 million for Detroit’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund
- $1 million to establish a community land trust that will manage 10 parcels of land donated by Henry Ford Health
- $450,000 for college readiness programs at University Prep and Northwestern high schools
- $300,000 in support for students who receive MSU scholarships
- An agreement with the Detroit Area Agency on Aging to provide senior services
- Removed language that allowed developers to offset fines for missing local hiring targets.
Council Member Latisha Johnson pushed for the land trust to help create new affordable housing, which was a top concern for the council.
Johnson and Sheffield said the bonus investments helped them feel comfortable voting yes.
But other requests from council members were left on the table.
Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero didn’t support the “limited” benefits deal.
She sought to add $8 million to a home repair fund, add $2 million to a rental assistance fund and secure $1.5 million for a community investment fund.
“It’s not that much to ask for,” Santiago-Romero said. “I’m grateful for the additional funding we have been able to receive but for me, it’s not enough.”
Council Members Mary Waters and Angela Whitfield-Calloway also voted against the tax breaks. Whitfield-Calloway said the council has no authority to enforce promises in the agreement.
She said construction deadlines were missed for District Detroit, the last major tax break approved by the council.
“Some developers repeatedly promise terms and conditions that are delivered later or completely ignored,” Whitfield-Calloway said.
Though the tax breaks don’t support Henry Ford’s hospital expansion, officials with the nonprofit organization said the projects can’t be separated. Each aspect is needed to be successful, Henry Ford Health officials said.
Council Member Scott Benson supported the project because it will double the number of hospital beds.
Benson said the additional 877 beds help reverse a long history of hospitals leaving Detroit.
What page are we on?
Today’s notebook describes the Feb. 27 formal session.
Dig into the agenda, read Detroit Documenter notes or watch the recording for more details.
Find more information about your City Council representative here. Use this guide to learn more about participating in upcoming budget conversations.
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Balance of power in benefits negotiations
Sheffield told me after the meeting that she’s interested in changing Detroit’s Community Benefits Ordinance.
Council members have often gone back to the drawing table to improve the agreements negotiated by residents. Sheffield said it’s a sign that the process hasn’t empowered Detroiters to maximize potential benefits.
Sheffield said the types of benefits residents can achieve feel “pre-categorized.”
“We’re just so limited in what we can really do,” Sheffield said. “It starts at the top, no shade here, but the administration has to set a tone when projects come here.”
Completed agreements have left residents feeling like they received the minimum in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks and reimbursements from captured tax revenue.
Ruth Johnson, public policy director for Community Development Advocates of Detroit, said residents are at a major disadvantage during negotiations. She argued the balance has shifted further toward developers as more projects come through the community benefits process.
Sheffield said Detroit’s community benefits ordinance is the lesser of two options that voters chose in 2016.
The original version required larger community investments, included stronger enforcement mechanisms and had a lower threshold to trigger a community benefits process.
Unions and city officials framed it as a “jobs killer” that would scare off developers. They proposed an ordinance that was ultimately passed by voters.
“Developers and corporate (entities) were scared of the community having that much power,” Sheffield said. “We’re looking at how we can strengthen it.”
Fancy seeing you here
The last two weeks featured roughly 200 public comments on the Future of Health project.
Many of them focused on the positive impact made by Henry Ford Health and the Pistons as justification for the tax breaks up for a vote.
The project had support from community groups and non-profit organizations that received funding or partnered with the Pistons and Henry Ford Health.
Representatives with the Boys and Girls Club, Urban League, Coleman Young Foundation and Peace Players International promoted the Pistons’ work with Detroit youth.
Demitria Bell said City Year Detroit received nearly $1 million in donations for youth programs from the Pistons, which proves the organization’s commitment to residents.
Former Detroit Pistons power forward Rick Mahorn even showed up to stump for the project.
Labor union representatives advocated for the impact of 2,000 anticipated construction jobs. The Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce promoted its “transformation economic and community benefits.”
Joyce Moore, founder of the Virginia Park Community Coalition, said the jobs are being paid for with resident’s tax dollars.
“I support the project, but I don’t support using public funding,” she said.
Elena Herrada, an activist with the Detroiters for Tax Justice, was removed from the meeting after disrupting the council conversation. Herrada said the conversation was one-sided.
The council received dozens of support letters from Detroit organizations, like the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, Midtown Detroit, Inc., Hope Village Revitalization, Vanguard Community Development, Dreamtroit, WeRun313, the Virginia Park Historic District and Historic Boston-Edison Association.
State Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor, and state Rep. Mike McFall, D-Hazel Park, submitted a letter last December in support of the hospital and campus expansion.
Their letter did not mention the Pistons housing project.
Reparations task force adds longtime activist
Detroit educator, poet and activist Gloria House was unanimously appointed to the reparations task force, leaving two vacancies left to fill.
House has lived in Detroit since 1967 and taught African American studies at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
During an interview last week, House discussed her civil rights activism with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in Lowndes County, Alabama.
House said she helped organize voter registration drives and created an independent political party when Black voters could not trust white supremacist factions within the Democratic Party.
“Many of the voters could not read and were sharecroppers, and so they were vulnerable to the powers there,” House said.
“Lowndes County was known for the level of brutality and the way the powers intimidated and harassed Black people for a century. We were able to inspire the people to take some agency.”
There’s a lot more to her story. Check out this 2019 profile on House’s work from the Kresge Foundation.
Whitfield-Calloway said she’s looking forward to House “bringing some balance and stability to the reparations task force,” in the wake of recent resignations.
“I will keep hope alive and I know you’re going to add value to the task force,” she said. “They are in need of what you have to offer them. We’re all anticipating great things from the task force.”
Sheffield: Gun buyback a success
Sheffield said more than 700 firearms were purchased from Detroiters during an event she hosted last weekend.
Detroit rapper Skilla Baby donated $50,000 for the gun buyback event, which Sheffield said she intends to host annually.
The weapons were collected “no questions asked” and destroyed by the Detroit Police Department.
Residents were also able to get their criminal records expunged and seek job opportunities at a job fair.
Sheffield said the effectiveness of buybacks in reducing gun violence is debatable, but the event was more about sending a message to young residents.
“You have someone like Skilla Baby, and young people listen to him, saying ‘let’s turn in our guns;’ it’s just one tool in the toolbox of how we create a safe city,” Sheffield said.
“We’re just playing our part in at least providing one opportunity for people to come in a safe environment if they want to turn them in.”
$7M for wrongfully convicted man
The City Council approved a $7 million legal settlement with a wrongfully convinced Detroit man who spent 34 years in prison.
Darrell Siggers was released from prison in 2018 after he was wrongfully convicted of murder at the age of 20 and handed a life sentence. Siggers sued the city a year later.
Now he runs an organization dedicated to helping incarcerated people obtain documents and evidence needed to challenge their convictions.
A firearms expert who pinned the crime on Siggers also testified against another Detroit man who was wrongfully convicted. Desmond Ricks won a $7.5 million lawsuit against Detroit in 2022.
Translation services needed
Two residents who addressed the council in Spanish exposed a language barrier in the council chambers.
An interpreter translates council proceedings into Spanish for those watching the meetings on Zoom. However, there was no one available in person to translate public comments into English for the council to understand.
Santiago-Romero volunteered to paraphrase the comments for her colleagues, but members of the audience said that shouldn’t be her responsibility.
Santiago-Romero said the situation shows why the council should have translators in the auditorium for Spanish and Arabic speakers.
The fundamental problem with the Henry Ford/Pistons development project is not that they aren’t giving “enough” money back to the community, but rather that the city government is subsidizing their project in any way.
If the project can’t pencil put without some sort of government intervention tipping the scales in its favor, then it seems to be clearly the wrong project at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Government intervention in all of these mega-projects is always wasteful and discriminatory. It only benefits people who don’t need the “help” to begin with, but figure (correctly) that they can leverage their influence and connections to avoid paying the full cost of their vanity projects.
The whole “community benefits” charade is an exercise in political posturing which provides lots of good ribbon-cutting photos for promotional literature but little else.
The proper role of government should be a limited one: to level the playing field, adjudicating contractual disputes, and getting out of the way of redevelopment by streamlining or eliminating lots and lots of unnecessary bureaucratic steps that every person or company with a plan or a dream has to go through.
They shouldn’t be picking winners and losers, yet, this current City Council, despite the remarkable amount of hand-wringing and pearl-clutching, spends a majority of its time doing exactly that.