She’s a native Detroiter who has been working for the City of Detroit for 26 years. In the last three years she has led the city’s blight removal effort as Detroit’s Demolition Director. LaJuan Counts is leading the department which holds a $500 million budget and actively pursuing the removal of both residential and commercial blight.
Following the election passage of Proposal N by Detroit voters, the City of Detroit was charged with the task of demolishing 8,000 houses and another 6,000 homes to save or stabilize.
“We’re at the midway point on the 8,000,” Counts says. “We’re about a quarter of the way through on the stabilization size, so we’re making good progress.”
Detroit has reached a turning point in its efforts to remove long abandoned homes, a policy shift which recognizes blight removal doesn’t only mean demolition.
“We’ve expanded our thought processes around blighted structures,” she says. “We completely understand that there are some properties we can salvage and they can be renovated and families can move into them.”
The stabilization program requires the demolition department to clear an abandoned home of interior and external debris while installing clear board for window and doors, replacing plywood that would have previously been applied, making for a more aesthetically pleasing for the property and neighborhood.
Counts has served in various roles and has experience in construction management and contractor management. She previously served a director of the city’s General Services Department.
As a native Detroiter, Counts understands the responsibility she holds to erase the abandonment many Detroiters have become accustomed to but also the frustration amongst residents over time as blighted properties is more than just a residential problem. Counts’ demolition department has begun a more aggressive approach to tackling commercial blight by tapping into federal funding.
“Through ARPA funding which the city has received, we now have a campaign to address a lot of commercial structures. In the past, the program for commercial demolition was really isolated to emergency situations only.”
Commercial properties which have long sat vacant and open with demolition orders will now finally have their day of resolution as the Counts’ demo crews have marked 400 building for removal, and are actively targeting the first 100.
Counts says the department is looking toward the end of year 2024 to have completed the removal of a sizable majority of blighted structures across the city.
Counts is leading the charge to tackle blighted structures and doing so as the only Black woman demolition director in the country.
“I wasn’t using that as a basis to take the role,” she says. “I always operate from my skillset. I know what I’m capable of doing and how does that support the city’s efforts and how does that support the need of the community and residents.”
After assuming the director position, she soon became overwhelm and cognizant of the leadership role she would hold but also champion.
“I realized I had become the dream of my ancestors,” Counts says. “I knew this was something my parents would’ve been proud of, my grandparents would have never expected to happen. For me it’s a sense of pride.”
Counts understands she has a family and community who are looking to her a role model for a job that comes with layered expectations.
Another realization Counts had to come to understand so much of her hard work was being lived under the radar. At some she realized she had to come for under the shadows and be a beacon of inspiration to young Black girls.
“I realized I had done the community a disservice. There is a lot of construction work I have completed across the city and people have walked through and they did not know a Black woman had managed those construction projects.”
Its become a focus for Counts to ensure young Black girls and women understand that there is a place in this industry for them. Counts is dedicated on there being a pathway for Black women to learn the construction trade, an opportunity to learn the trade and learn the industry from a mentor capacity which wasn’t available for her, something Counts doesn’t want as an obstacle or barrier for someone else.
As it relates to the demolition department being more equitable, being a Black women in this executive role, she’s working to ensure that opportunity is available to all Detroiters.
“A majority of our contracts ae lending toward Detroit based businesses and we have definitely met our goal for 30 percent for small and micro businesses,” she says. “Yes, we’ve returned that type of business and wealth opportunity to the community, but we’ve also exposed kids on the block to trade opportunities that they might not have otherwise been exposed to.”
Counts explains Detroiters may have seen construction projects for years in the past and seen workers who didn’t always look like them. Under her leadership, that is changing.
About Post Author
