FeedsHousing request rejected
Four million dollars in improvements to the five Inkster Public Housing complexes fell apart Monday night after a divided city council voted 4-3 against changing an ordinance that would allow the housing commission to apply for a loan.
Tony Love, the director of Inkster Public Housing, appeared before the council to ask that the wording in Ordinance 99 be changed to allow a local housing authority to apply for funds. Quickly, the request and the following questions brought up a decades-long debate about the amount of public housing in the city.
The $4.4 million – when combined with a $6.7 million loan the housing authority received to make energy-efficient improvements – was part of an overall upgrade plan for public housing, Love said.
Fannie Mae will not accept the application without the language changes in the ordinance, making it nearly impossible for the commission to be approved for funds, said Albert Solecki, an attorney with Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, the firm that represents Inkster Housing.
Love said he was aghast at the council denial. “We needed the $4.4 million for a comprehensive improvement plan to make housing more attractive,” he said. “But we have a $10 million plan, and the denial of our request will mean the changes will be less attractive.”
Aesthetics aside, many council members don’t want to see improvements. They want to see demolition.
“I think it’s irresponsible to use that kind of money to fix units that have been boarded up for years,” said Councilwoman Wanda Harris-Foster. “We have too many units in the city. When we talk about the image of our city, we need to look at public housing. There are people with beautiful homes in that area that have walked away from their homes because they can’t sell them.”
Love said the amount of public housing is in line with demand in Inkster.
“We have mothers who have started a family out of wedlock in the city…those are the kinds of people that are in need of adequate housing,” he said.
Currently, Inkster Public Housing operates 740 units in the city. Love has demolished 37 to make room for a parking lot during his tenure.
Councilman Ron Johnson said that’s insufficient.
“We’ve been told that there’s a drawn out procedure to demolish public housing, and it turns out, you can take five a year down,” he said.
The number of units in Inkster is somewhat higher than other cities.
Information obtained from the City of Dearborn Housing Department indicates they have 684 units – and that city has about 98,000 residents and is 24 square miles in size. Inkster has about 31,000 residents and is 6.2 square miles in size.
Public Housing has been blamed for several city ills during the past 20 years, such as escalating crime and dwindling property values for city residents.
Council members Harris-Foster, Johnson, DeArtriss Coleman-Richardson and Michael Canty voted against amending the ordinance. Mayor Hilliard Hampton and Councilmen Marcus Hendricks and Ernest Hendricks voted for the measure.
