This article is from Camiros Newsletter #26. The full newsletter (6 pages, color) can be downloaded from the following links as a pdf file: Pg.1  Pg.2  Pg.3  Pg.4  Pg.5  Pg.6

Implementing Hamtramck’s Move Forward

With the issuance of a partial consent judgment in 1981, the hope was that the long-standing urban renewal and civil rights action involving HUD, the City of Hamtramck, Michigan, and the citizens displaced by urban renewal action in 1965 would be resolved. The judgment included a two-pronged corrective action - first, to rebuild the Grand Haven neighborhood, which had been substantially cleared through urban renewal, with new and rehabilitated housing and, second, to provide housing for minorities on scattered sites throughout the city. Yet the next twenty years saw no action to significantly implement the judgment.

In 1999, to help expedite the matter, the Wayne County Department of Jobs and Economic Development created the Hamtramck Housing Concept Plan to revitalize the neighborhood via homeownership and asked HUD to support its implementation. Camiros, Ltd. and ICF Consulting were then retained by HUD for this purpose.

GRAND HAVEN NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION PLAN

Like earlier attempts to address Grand Haven's issues, local residents were suspicious of yet another attempt to rectify the situation.

Richard Wilson, Senior Associate at Camiros, Ltd. and Principal Planner of the project says, "The residents were very frustrated with their situation and with the history of the past 30 years. But they came to the meetings. This was the first time that someone had asked them what they wanted."

"The public shaped this plan. Absolutely."

The plan responds by citing ten actions to guide the reconstruction of Grand Haven. One specific action was the creation of a new street pattern that limits truck traffic in the residential area, improves resident and police/fire access into the neighborhood, and creates shorter, more pedestrian-friendly blocks. Other actions include enlargement of house lots, improvement of sidewalks, streets, alleys, watermains and sewers, designation of play facilities, and steps to secure new commercial development.

HOUSING: AN OVERVIEW OF ACTION

The plan proposes a range of housing types to meet the needs of residents. These choices include rehabilitation of existing homes, construction of new single-family residences, and lease-to-purchase townhomes.

Again, public participation determined the plan's emphasis.

"At first, they knew what they didn't want. They didn't want more rental housing. The residents knew they didn't want more low-income housing. They knew they wanted more than that," says Wilson. "Over the course of the meetings it became clear that they wanted an emphasis on rehab."

As a result, four housing programs were designed: housing counseling, homeownership, housing rehabilitation, and creation of a residential property tax abatement zone.

Residents interested in any of the housing programs must participate in the housing counseling program. They are required to meet with a finance counselor for several sessions that focus on an analysis of household income, the available choices for affordable housing, improving bad credit, and saving for a downpayment. These sessions also provide an opportunity for each household to obtain a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone certificate for tax abatement purposes.

Next is homeownership. Current residents will have the opportunity to receive a housing subsidy to purchase a new home in the neighborhood. Once eligibility criteria are met, first-time homebuyers will be eligible for $3,000 in downpayment assistance from the Wayne County HOME program. All told, the maximum award available from the housing assistance program is approximately $80,000, excluding the HOME assistance of $3,000.

Rehabilitation will be the primary form of home improvement. Grand Haven owner-occupants will be eligible for home rehabilitation grants and owners of renter-occupied property for facade improvement grants. Rental property owners will also be eligible for a no-interest, deferred-payment, rehabilitation loan, but they must agree to maintain rents at an affordable level for at least five years after receiving the loan. Repayment of the loan will be deferred until the property is sold or ownership is transferred. However, if the property is sold or transferred to a low- or moderate-income owner-occupant at any time, the entire loan will be forgiven. If the property is sold to another off-site owner as a rental property within the five-year period, the loan will be reduced by 20% each year the property is rented at an affordable level and maintained in standard condition.

Finally, the residential tax abatement program hinges on the expectation that Hamtramck will apply for a Michigan Neighborhood Enterprise Zone designation. This designation freezes current assessment and tax rates on property for twelve years if property owners agree to one of the two following actions - either rehabilitate existing owner-occupied or rental units, or construct new housing units.

As Wilson points out, "The goal of Enterprise Zone designation comes from the residents' desire to stay in the neighborhood. With new construction and rehab going on, tax relief was necessary so that the residents, whom this plan was to benefit, would not be priced out of the neighborhood."

IMPLEMENTATION

Revitalization activity has to be staged in a way that brings immediate and significant change to the community. It will take approximately three years to complete implementation of the Grand Haven Neighborhood Revitalization Plan; therefore yearly goals have been established.

Year One activities are focused on housing rehabilitation, property acquisition, the demolition of severely dilapidated structures, the initial phase of new construction, and infrastructure repairs and improvements. Most new single-family residential construction will occur in Year Two, as well as the completion of rehabilitation of all existing renter-occupied units. Finally, Year Three will focus on the completion of all new construction efforts in the neighborhood.

In the end, it was the residents who shaped this plan and its strategies in order to achieve the neighborhood that they wanted - one that they had sought for 30 years, after too much legal action, too much inactivity, too much disregard.

"At the last public meeting, the residents stood up and defended the plan. This is what got the plan adopted," says Wilson. "And, at that last meeting, two of the original displaced residents attended - two women now in their nineties. And they stated that it was time for the neighborhood to move on and to move forward."