Group faces uphill battle in preserving senior housing amid Detroit redevelopment

Original Article Published in MLive

By David Mueller, the business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit.

DETROIT, MI – In the 1980s a federally subsidized housing trend began moving low-income senior citizens into downtowns that were otherwise bleeding population and in need of residents for vacant buildings.

Detroit's well-documented population hemorrhage was ripe for this, and Esther Harding was among senior citizens who were moved into 1214 Griswold in Capitol Park.

Harding, now 92, unexpectedly moved to a new home this year.

“I had been there so long I guess I thought I would die there,” Harding said of 1214 Griswold.

The federal subsidies that brought Harding and other seniors to the building expired in 2013, clearing the way for developers to turn the Albert Kahn-designed building into 127 luxury apartments amid an apparent downtown Detroit renaissance.

Developers Broder & Sachse Real Estate Services gave the tenants a year notice, and provided financial assistance in addition to hiring Neighborhood Services Organization and United Community Housing Coalition to help with the move.

But senior housing advocates were troubled by the transition, so much so that they formed a coalition to find ways to preserve living spaces for seniors, or to at least facilitate transitions in the face of what they see as a new and imminent trend of subsidized housing for the elderly falling prey to what some would call revitalization, and others would call gentrification.

“We all fell asleep on this,” Tim Winter, executive director of the Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation, said of development at 1214 Griswold. “We weren’t ahead of the curve, so The Griswold just kind of snuck up on us.”

Wintermute and group of professors, nonprofit leaders, housing experts and experts on aging have since been meeting as the Senior Housing Displacement-Preservation Coalition with two goals that carry complex obstacles:

• Preserve senior housing in Midtown and downtown where it can.
• Smooth the transition of seniors to new housing in instance in which preservation is not an option.

Tam Perry, an assistant professor at Wayne State University’s School of Social Work and one of the coalition members, noted that the forced relocation of low-income seniors in the face of development is not just a Detroit issue.

“I would say it goes even beyond the state,” Perry said. “I don’t know that there are necessarily other Michigan cities facing this, but there are other cities that have been in decline in the United States.”

She added, “This is bigger than Detroit, but what’s interesting about Detroit is this is a time that people are excited about Detroit, rightfully so.”

The displacement of low-income senior citizens leads to an array of concerns, Perry said. “When a building disbands and people have to move elsewhere, what happens to their community and their social networks?” Perry said.

Access to healthcare or general necessities is also a concern, especially in a city such as Detroit, where the transportation system leaves much to be desired.

Harding has experienced both of these aspects in the past three months.

“I liked being downtown where you were close to everything,” she said of her former residence at The Griswold. “You can run out to the store, you can run here and there.”

There were social upheavals for Harding, too.

“I liked living there because I lived on the community room floor, and there was always people,” she said. “And the office was on that floor. There was always somebody around. It was just like company being around. People would come down and watch TV, and it wasn’t lonesome.”

Cooperative Services Inc. in Detroit has projected that another 973 units of HUD-supported senior housing will expire in the next 5 years, and another 1,085 units will expire in the 5-10 years after that, and more than 2,000 senior apartments will be lost after 10 years – in Midtown alone.

“So, where are these seniors going to go?” Perry said.

Even more concerning, some of the seniors moved from 1214 Griswold into buildings that will soon see their vouchers expire again. The coalition has identified more than a dozen properties in Midtown and downtown Detroit where subsidies are set to expire in the coming years.

Part of the work of the coalition has been to track the seniors from 1214 Griswold. They hope to merge lists of places they have went with church groups and other services to develop a better link between health and housing.

Going forward, money is an obvious concern, and there is a limited amount for vouchers should seniors be moved from soon-to-be-market-rate housing.

Wintermute said right now, the most the seniors would get is an enhanced voucher, which typically goes up to $700, not including moving expenses or a security deposit. If they live in downtown or Midtown, they would be unlikely to be able to afford to stay in their neighborhood.

“You’re talking about people in their 70s up to 90 years old,” Wintermute said. “Just the specter of that, once it’s drawn out, is kind of mindboggling.”

The coalition has met with Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s office as it seeks political and monetary support. Coalition members said a representative from the senator’s office seemed receptive to their mission.

Wintermute said it is also looking into options around zoning, and there is also “possible actions city council can take.”

Some incentives may also be available. Wintermute noted that foundations and major employers have come together to provide funding for major insitrution to get studfents and employees to come into the downtown and Midtown area (see Live Midtown and Live Downtown).

“You could add to those incentives a preservation incentive,” he said, adding however that foundations would likely the only ones on board with such an idea.

In any case, Wintermute notes, solutions are needed, especially now, as development in downtown and Midtown Detroit heats up. Vacancy rates in those neighborhoods are at near zero, rents are rising, and young, affluent renters are being targeted by eager developers.

“And so the irony of all this, is the people who were at the forefront to bring revitalization are victims of revitalization,” Wintermute said.

[This is the third in a series of posts investigating the transition of senior housing at The Griswold into market-rate apartments in the new Albert apartment building. The series is part Aging Together, an ongoing partnership between MLive, WDET, and Model D examining issues related to the aging population in Detroit, the metro region, Michigan and across the country.]