DETROIT (WXYZ) — Take a drive through Detroit, and you’ll be hard-pressed not to hear construction sounds, it’s a sign of change – but not a sign everyone necessarily welcomes.
WXYZ’S Ameera David asked, “How long at this point have you been looking for a new place to live?”
“It’s been a year,” said Shay Hudson.
Detroiter Shay Hudson has moved back into her father’s home after being displaced not once but twice, her apartments left in such disrepair. She showed us cell phone video of what conditions were like in her last apartment.
“That is the water flowing from the sink going into the bucket,” said Hudson as she showed the cell phone video.
Safety was a top concern, Shay could no longer afford to stay. Ironically, she can also no longer afford to move. Shay needs low-income housing but the mom of three is recovering from a recent stroke, applying for disability, and caring for a son who has developmental disability autism, along with pre-pandemic; making ends meet was tough.
“What percentage were you paying out to live?” asked David.
“Basically, the whole check,” said Hudson.
The entirety of her $600 budget was for rent- and today no longer cuts it. Rent prices are still spiking in Detroit, with a 28% increase since last year putting a squeeze on the most vulnerable.
“Where do you channel your frustration?” asked David.
“I feel like number one the city should be doing something,” said Hudson.
A Detroit homeless shelter is at capacity- existing low-income properties are accompanied by waiting lists and folks do not know where else to turn.
The challenge has grown so severe that agencies are using covid relief funds to support families living in actual hotels like this one here, a practice often referred to as hoteling.
This, as criticism grows from housing advocates who tell me they’re over-inundated with pleas for help.
“A lot of this housing that’s going up is not for the working class, and it’s pushing Detroiters, real Detroiters into communities they don’t want to live in,” said Taura Brown.
Taura Brown, from Detroit Eviction Defense, takes me to Detroit's hottest new development – Lafayette West.
“When you look at this development right here, 88 condo units,” explained Brown.
Touted by the city as an alternative for lower-income Detroiters, just 20 % of this $150 million apartment complex has been pegged for affordable housing and the problem is the affordable housing rate - at 30 % of the area’s median income- for most Detroiter's - is still unaffordable.
“These properties are not intended for the lower income person,” said Ted Phillips from Unity Community Housing Coalition. “The only truly affordable housing is section 8 and public housing.”
“And is there enough of that?” asked David.
“There’s not anywhere near enough of that,” said Phillips.
What Ted Phillips says is too much of, evictions and displaced moms like Shay.
“You hear all this talk about the development in the city but what do you see, what do you think about?,” asked David.
“It is, but what about the people? This is where I was born, I was born here,” said Hudson.
For the first time in her life, Shay says she doesn’t feel welcome in her own home, unsure of what her place is in Detroit's so-called comeback tale.
If you are a low-income person barely scraping by, these good things are pricing you out.
