They are Black women and children — families in Detroit who are crying out for help. With overtaxation, evictions, gentrification and unsafe living conditions — these residents are at the end of their ropes with the threat of housing insecurities ever present. This two-part series tells some of their stories and the people fighting on the frontlines with them. This is part one.
Black women and their children.
Where can they turn to when they experience unsafe, unlivable housing conditions and also threats of evictions looming?
Who will stand in the gap for them? Who will stand up for them with this housing crisis in Detroit?
It’s other Black women, individuals and organizations stepping up to help fix a problem that’s deadly, multilayered and inequitable.
According to https://poverty.umich.edu/, annually, landlords file nearly 200,000 eviction cases in Michigan and around 40,000 Michigan households lose their homes because of court-ordered evictions.
“People who experience eviction are more likely to lose their jobs, experience increased rates of depression, and rate their health as fair or poor,” according to the University of Michigan study from May 2020. “Households who move as a result of an eviction, instead of through choice, move to poorer, higher-crime neighborhoods, and are more likely to experience problems with their new housing like broken appliances, exposed wires, or lack of heat.”
“Our research shows that even before the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn, Michigan had extremely high eviction filing rates and very few tenants had access to an attorney,” said Robert Goodspeed, an assistant professor of urban and regional planning at U-M and the principal investigator of the Michigan Eviction Project, which was conducted in collaboration with attorney Elizabeth Benton from Legal Services of South Central Michigan.
“As low-income workers lose their jobs and fall behind on rent, we anticipate an increase in eviction case filings statewide, which will stress the resources of already burdened courts and legal and social services agencies and impose great hardship on tenants,” Goodspeed said in the press release.
Crystal Hinkle, 33, doesn’t need the statistics because she lives it every day.
She is a mother to four children and lives on the West Side of Detroit in a four-bedroom home that houses herself, her partner, four other children in the family, and two more adults. The house, built by her grandfather around the late 1960’s, is dilapidated, unsafe, and contains mold, which caused her to get a lung infection, which turned into a blood clot. She took medication for the blood clot and wound up having a stroke in February.
Hinkle is facing a legal battle over the house due to default payments that she said were due to conflicting information from the property owner. She was recently in court and her case was adjourned until April 30.
Hinkle said that she is in court fighting to get her deed back and properly apply for homeowner programs to restore the house and bring it up to code.
Hinkle, who has been living in the home since last February, said that she is not receiving adequate housing for what she’s paying, which she is renting for $1,100 a month.
“The slum landlords, the city — they don’t do anything,” she said, adding that she is like the glue of the family and she wants to keep her house.
Local housing injustice activist Soummer Moore-Crawford is helping Hinkle and said that she has received countless similar stories like Hinkle’s and she said there is “no accountability.”
William McConico, chief judge at 36th District Court, said that the city of Detroit has a disproportionate eviction rate that is three times more than cities of similar makeup.
McConico said that he believes the rates are high because of a lack of counsel. He plans to have more counsel available, along with more resources for the tenants in the city of Detroit so “it is a fair process for the landlord and tenant.”
Moore-Crawford said that she has lived in District One for over 20 years and is a “big community advocate” and said the housing situation is dire, especially with some landlords not in compliance with city regulations.
Julie Schneider, acting director for the Housing and Revitalization Department in the City of Detroit (was unable to discuss certain elements of the housing crisis) but shared how a healthy housing market includes housing options for Detroiters of all income levels.
“Those options need to be available in both regulated housing — meaning your eligibility for housing and/or amount of rent paid is based on income — and non-regulated housing,” she said, adding that there are over 22,000 existing regulated affordable housing units in Detroit. “We are committed to working with developers and funders to improve on that by bringing on another 1,200 units by the end of 2023.”
Schneider also said that rental assistance is available at 9,000 of the above 22,000 units and through the Detroit Housing Commission.
Residents can find out where these housing units are located by detroitmi.gov/hrd and select “Affordable Housing” from the menu.
She added that Detroit is fighting gentrification by working to make sure that Detroiters are able to stay in their homes.
“We are making that happen by preserving regulated affordable housing so that existing residents can stay, but also ensure that affordable housing options are available for decades to come,” she said. “Meanwhile, we also are working to get renters financial help if they are behind on their rent. The pandemic has had broad and deep financial impacts on many Detroiters, and this new assistance can help thousands of households catch up and avoid eviction. We’re urging any Detroiter who needs help with rent or facing eviction to go to www.DetroitEvictionHelp.com or call (866) 313-2520.”
She also said that the city runs programs that get “much-needed funds” to nonprofits and community organizations that serve Detroiters through education programs, food assistance programs, medical care and so more.
Lower-income residents that are behind on their rent and in need of assistance can call the eviction diversion and rental assistance hotline at 866-313-2520. Residents who fear they are at risk of homelessness can call 313-305-0311, too.
Local community activist Joanna Underwood is a member of the Detroit Charter Commission — a board that is set up by the state to revise its charter every 16 years. Underwood joined several years ago to represent Black women and children.
“They are dying in these houses because they don’t have heat and no gas,” she said. “Black women living in deplorable housing conditions. It takes their children to die before anyone cares.”
Underwood said that she has “begged and pleaded” for local officials to turn on the water and heat of residents to, seemingly, no avail.
“(There are) forces that are operating to keep us in these pathetic, poverty-stricken, crime infested neighborhoods … it’s not right,” she said. “By the grace of God I stay fighting.”
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