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Detroit’s Housing Justice Roadmap

Members of the community created a vision for the future of Detroit’s homelessness response rooted in justice that serves as the foundation of the Housing Justice Roadmap. Each of the four pillars of the vision and the path to achieving them are further defined below, each rooted in racial equity and justice.

To download a pdf of this report, click here.

Kaitie Giza from HAND talks with Donna Price from the Detroit Advisors Group about uniting the community around a vision for a system that can prevent and end homelessness.

Vision

Detroit’s response to homelessness is led by people with lived experiences who reflect the community.
  • The community should co-design and implement system transformation and have community power to hold the system accountable
  • Leadership at the administrative and agency level need to reflect the community served by representing Black, Brown, trans and gender non-conforming (TGNC), lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ) Detroiters and have lived experience of homelessness
  • Providers must be supported in hiring people who have experienced homelessness so they can advise on and lead service provision across the city

Those who are closer to the problem should always be the one driving the solutions – they should have all the power. Not just gift cards or surveys but providing space and opportunity for people to be leaders.

System leader and person with lived expertise
Members of the community experience homelessness rarely, and when they do, it’s for a short time and only once.
  • A system must address the high barriers to accessing crisis housing (shelters) for members of the TGNC community through safe and equitable access, and ensure that support is available to quickly move to long-term housing
  • A system must address barriers to quick, safe, access to long-term housing including issues with coordinated entry, prevention programs to keep people in their homes, and the lack of affordable housing stock in the community
  • A system must coordinate resources, including economic supports, across the community and improve the quality of supportive services within homeless programs

We need more emphasis on housing in our shelters, people are in shelter being warehoused until housing resources are available, even though we don’t have enough resources for anybody. 80% of those who qualify for RRH don’t get in.

System leader
Housing security will be achieved by keeping people in their homes, developing affordable options, and helping to recover generational wealth.
  • The city and county must invest in the revitalization and development of safe and affordable housing prioritized for people experiencing homelessness and housing instability
  • Detroit and Wayne County administrators must coordinate and prioritize homeownership supports for Black, Brown and LGBTQ communities to help build generational wealth
  • Detroit and Wayne County must address policy issues that have led to the historic loss of homes for the Black community in Detroit

For a long time, there was this idea that housing instability, affordability, eviction prevention were a separate thing from homelessness services. They are both inextricably linked.

System leader
Housing and services across the homeless response system are rooted in dignity.
  • A system must provide services that are safe and accessible for all and that respect, empower, and value all individuals, especially Black, Brown, and LGBTQ community members
  • Services should be designed with and provided by people who have experienced homelessness or housing instability
  • Providers must address organizational culture issues that lead to discrimination and lack of accountability to people being served

One of the things we constantly hear is how difficult it is to navigate services for homeless or displaced folks in Detroit.

System leader
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In 2020, the Detroit Continuum of Care (CoC), the Detroit Advisors Group, the Homeless Action Network of Detroit (HAND), the City of Detroit’s Division of Homeless Services (HRD), and the local Veteran’s Administration (VA) partnered to reimagine what it looks like to be ending homelessness in Detroit, focused on the pursuit of housing justice. They engaged with the National Innovation Service (NIS) Center for Housing Justice, through the financial support of the McGregor Fund, to support a community-driven process to define what housing justice means for Detroit and, from there, chart the path to a system rooted in justice. A path forward to transform Detroit’s citywide response to homelessness is outlined here in the seven actions of Detroit’s Housing Justice Roadmap.

The NIS Center for Housing Justice designs equitable public institutions in partnership with impacted communities to drive systems transformation. Learn more about the team here.

In partnership with

Detroit Continuum of Care Executive Committee

Detroit Advisors Group

McGregor Fund

HAND

City of Detroit Housing and Revitalization Department

Local Veteran’s Administration

 

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