Detroit developer speaks on high demand for affordable housing in city
The need for affordable housing continues to be a top priority for Detroit residents.
The Ribbon is an affordable housing apartment building along the East Warren Corridor of Detroit, developed by Edward Carrington.
"One of the biggest requests from the communities that I'm developing within is when providing housing, make sure it's affordable," Carrington said.
The Ribbon includes 18 apartments with rent ranging from $900 to $1,700 per month.
"One of the things you don't want to do is piss a community off. If they're demanding something, and you call yourself a neighborhood developer, you have to provide exactly what the community is asking for. Otherwise, you're doing your community that you're developing within a disservice," Carrington said.
Currently, there are 27,000 affordable housing units in Detroit, with 3,000 of those developed in the past 10 years. Another 1,824 units are under construction.
"Housing is generally considered affordable if you are paying no more than 30% of your gross monthly income on housing costs. And for a renter, that includes rent and basic utilities," said Julie Schneider, Director of Detroit's Housing and Revitalization Department.
"We have the existing inventory, as well as new units that are coming online, and when development is about to begin, pre-leasing, we provide that information on that website."
Many of those affordable housing developments were made possible by the city's new pilot program.
"For an $8 million project, which is a lot of money, don't get me wrong, it took a lot of work and a lot of partnerships, from a funding standpoint, to make something like this happen," Carrington said.
The pilot program gives developers an incentive to keep rent affordable for at least 15 years by reducing their property taxes.
It's already inspired two more developers to start projects in East Warren, just down the street from the Ribbon.
"East Warren, the commercial corridor, is one that three years from now, this will be a destination spot. It's close to being one, don't get me wrong. But three years from now, this commercial corridor is going to be where it's at," Carrington said.