Mayor Mary Sheffield’s administration is turning up pressure on a group of Detroit apartment owners as the city moves to crack down on landlords accused of allowing unsafe living conditions to persist across hundreds of rental units.
During a Wednesday news conference, Sheffield announced a new multi-department strategy aimed at multifamily properties with repeated health, safety, and code issues. City officials say the effort will start with outreach and opportunities for landlords to bring properties into compliance. When that fails, the city says it is prepared to escalate through legal action, consent agreements, and liens tied to unpaid blight violations and code enforcement penalties.
“For too long, we have seen properties decline with critical health and safety issues going unaddressed,” Sheffield said during the news conference. “Today, we are taking a more aggressive and proactive approach on behalf of our residents.”
City Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett said the first move will be to seek meetings with property owners and work toward formal improvement plans. When owners do not respond or fail to act, the city plans to take cases to court and pursue consent agreements that would allow what Mallett described as “continuous and meticulous enforcement.”
“This is the approach. We want to do this in a methodical, safe manner,” Mallett said during the Wednesday news conference. “We want to be sure that the tenants are aware that the circumstances that they’re in are going to change, and if they don’t, the city of Detroit is going to continue to push for the kind of change that’s required.”
The initiative brings together multiple city departments, including the law department, the Detroit Health Department, and the Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department, known as BSEED. City officials said the goal is to address long-standing maintenance failures and rental compliance issues before conditions deteriorate further.
Mallett pointed to recent struggles involving rental properties linked to blockchain-based real estate company Real Token Inc. and the bankrupt ownership of the Leland House downtown as signs that the city needs to act earlier and more aggressively when warning signs appear.
Although officials said during the news conference that they were targeting 60 multifamily properties, a list later provided by a Sheffield spokesperson to Crain’s included roughly 25 addresses. Those addresses correspond to four apartment complexes across the city totaling 504 units.
The administration has not publicly laid out a full explanation for why each property made the list. Sheffield said the targeted buildings are dealing with “ongoing maintenance and compliance issues.”
A review of city records cited by Crain’s found that each of the listed properties had accumulated multiple blight and code violations. Some had as many as 100 violations. Several of the repeated violations involved failure to secure a certificate of compliance, a city requirement for legally operating rental housing.
That issue has remained a major concern for Detroit officials. Increasing rental compliance rates has been a stated priority for roughly two years, dating back to a time when the citywide compliance rate was below 10%. BSEED Director David Bell said Wednesday that the rate has now reached 14%, though the city says more work remains.
Attempts to reach the owners of the targeted properties for comment were unsuccessful.
Among the buildings now under scrutiny is Russell Woods Apartments, a 156-unit complex. City records list the property as owned by Russell Woods Apartments LLC, though title documents show it was sold in November to Garden on Webb LLC for an undisclosed amount. An office location for the new owner could not be identified.
City records show 20 blight violations connected to Russell Woods Apartments. Those violations include failure to obtain a certificate of compliance, failure to register the property as a rental, and unlawful rental of property without lead clearance.
Imperial Manor Apartments, a 164-unit complex in the Seven Mile-Rouge neighborhood on Detroit’s far northwest side, is also on the city’s list. Public records identify the owner as Imperial Manor House LLC, though it is unclear who is behind the entity.
City records show 11 outstanding blight violations at Imperial Manor. Those include operating without a certificate of compliance and failure to maintain building infrastructure.
Chapel Court and Pierre Manor apartments, both located near Seven Mile and Telegraph on the city’s northwest side, were sold last year to separate entities tied to Saman Abro of Rochester Hills. Together, the two complexes total 184 units and sold for a combined $4.25 million, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service.
Combined, Chapel Court and Pierre Manor have racked up more than 100 blight violations, according to city records. Those violations include conditions described as a “lack of ventilation, illumination, sanitary or heating facilities to render property unfit for human occupancy,” along with defective windows.
For Detroit tenants living inside these buildings, this latest crackdown points to a larger issue that has shaped housing struggles across the city for years. Too many renters continue paying for units where basic safety, maintenance, and legal compliance have not been guaranteed. Sheffield’s administration is now signaling that repeated violations will no longer be treated as routine paperwork problems.
This enforcement push also places fresh attention on whether Detroit can meaningfully raise its rental compliance rate while protecting residents already living in troubled buildings. City officials say they want to avoid abrupt disruption for tenants. At the same time, they say the status quo cannot continue.
That tension is likely to define what happens next. The city says it wants cooperation first. Landlords who refuse to act could soon face a much tougher response.
