By: Scott Benson
As a Detroit city councilmember, I have taken a deep interest in what we can do to help build the Black middle class. Building generational wealth for Black families has always lagged that of non-Black families.
In 2023, I formed a Wealth Generation Task Force to look at ways the city can address the economic inequities the Black community faces. Detroit is one of the largest majority Black cities in America, with approximately 80 percent of our residents being of African American descent.
Traditionally, the remedy to improve economic mobility has been job creation, but a wider array of policies must be considered if we are going to improve the economic fortunes of our community.
My task force included experts in law, government, workforce, labor, finance and philanthropy who play a role in addressing this issue. We took a holistic view and studied what needed to be done at the policy level to increase Black generational wealth, with the goal of developing 10 implementable policies in Detroit.
We identified six policy areas essential to addressing the generational wealth gap. They include education, entrepreneurship, employment, banking, property ownership, and healthy neighborhoods. Focusing on these policy areas will help build the middle class by moving families out of poverty, maintaining existing middle-class families and encouraging middle class families to move back to Detroit.
To address gaps in education, the task force supports a fully funded tutoring program for Detroit residents that would supplement all educational offerings in Detroit to ensure students are ready for college, job training programs or entry into the workforce. The task force pegs the cost at $750 annually per student for 25 hours of tutoring, totaling $3.75 million for a program serving 5,000 students annually.
The administration has adopted the Efficient Transfer of Wealth Program to assist Detroit residents with legal assistance and assist with estate planning and resolving titles. During the budget for FY 23-24, I allocated $1 million for this program. With additional support from the Gilbert Family Foundation, we have scheduled 12 workshops for families to receive free assistance with will writing and estate planning, a key to wealth transfer between generations. Many families do not plan for who will be responsible for a property after the owner’s death and many Detroiters die without executing a will, which results in property being referred to probate court or simply lost due to being unmanaged.
We also recommended new city initiatives to prioritize support for small businesses and entrepreneurs, including grants to fill the gap for high-risk small business capital. We also want stronger encouragement from the city to financial institutions and the philanthropic
community to provide high-, medium-, and low-risk capital to small businesses via grants and low- to no-cost loans. The city also should work to make high-quality technical assistance and coaching available to entrepreneurs and recruit local community development organizations to provide support for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
To address employment needs, we recommended the city work more closely with Detroit schools to advertise and market career technical education programs to eligible Detroit youth. The task force highlighted Detroit at Work, which offers programs for Detroiters to further their education and obtain a good-paying job through multiple training programs, high school diploma completion programs, and expungement services.
The task force pointed out that banks play a critical role in moving residents out of poverty, but 22.8 percent of Detroiters are unbanked or underbanked. Being unbanked can cost $40,000 over a lifetime due to use of costly alternative financial services for routine transactions. The task force recommended that the city continue to advocate for residents to open BankOn accounts.
Healthy neighborhoods were also a focus. We urge the city to develop an open-space master plan to direct municipal investment and encourage strategic civic and private commercial investment to strengthen the city’s neighborhoods and industrial districts. Also, an ordinance is needed to direct the Detroit Land Bank Authority to develop a mandatory financial and development process workshop for all buyers of their properties. The Land Bank also should require buyers provide a realistic timeline for purchasing and making a property “habitable” or the property will be remanded to the Land Bank Authority. The report also calls on the city to put greater priority on enforcing dangerous and vacant building ordinances and to authorize a procedure to accelerate forfeiture when property is not maintained after numerous citations for individuals and companies that own large amounts of blighted property.
I will never stop advocating for these policies at the city level, and I encourage Detroiters to join me in this effort. Talk to your city officials about the need for meaningful change to improve generational wealth for Black families.
Wealth creates wealth. Generational wealth makes homeownership and starting a business possible. It’s correlated to better health outcomes, lower infant mortality and longer life expectancy. Detroit needs to focus on this issue to build the robust and vibrant city we all deserve.
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