UCHC and Michigan Legal services operate a joint mortgage foreclosure prevention project. This Grandmont homeowner lost her home to a predatory lender when she lost her job with American Axle. When she came to the UCHC/MLS project she was working as an Americorps volunteer and she and her son were facing eviction in 36th District Court. Through our mortgage foreclosure project she was able to obtain a buy out and not only did not lose her home, but now owns it FREE OF ANY MORTGAGE!
CDBG hearing brings protests
By Diane Bukowski
DETROIT – Advocates for non-profit organizations that serve the homeless, youth, seniors, domestic violence victims and others protested recommendations to cut funds to their programs during a Sept 21 City Council hearing.. Many of the programs have been funded for decades through the Community Development Block Grant/Neighborhood Opportunity Fund (CDBG/NOF), administered by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Such denials usually result in further cuts to organizations, who frequently use them as matches for funding from other sources.
For this fiscal year, the city received over $40 million in CDBG funds alone.
The Council’s City Planning Commission is recommending the cuts despite Mayor Dave Bing’s assertion to HUD that priorities in CDBG/NOF funding “are primarily for housing (homeless shelters/housing and home repair), development, and services for the homeless, youth and elderly. These decisions were based on projects submitted during the City’s CDBG proposal process, department recommendations, on-going or new development activities in the City, as well as priorities developed and considered during the proposal review process.”
The statement is included in the city’s 2011 HUD Consolidated Action Plan.
Marilyn Mullane, Exec. Dir. Michigan Legal Services
Marilyn Mullane, director of Michigan Legal Services (MLS), told the Council that the CPC recommended that MLS receive no funds because a back page was allegedly missing from one of three copies of the MLS application.
MLS has provided free legal services for low-income families, including foreclosure prevention, and assistance in regaining child custody, divorce, bankruptcy, legal issues facing returning prisoners, and other matters, for over 30 years.
“We don’t know what happens to our applications once the city receives them,” Mullane said. “The page could have accidentally been left in the envelope when city staff took it out. This is not a process that applies to for-profit organizations who procure contracts from the city. HUD allows technical defects to be corrected after they receive those applications.”
Mullane said earlier that approximately 75 percent of the denials to all organizations were due to similar technicalities.
Youth from Young Detroit Builders receive job training, education and counseling services
The Council has recommended that the United Community Housing Coalition (UCHC) receive a 50 percent cut in funding.
“This year, we saved 4600 occupied homes from foreclosure,” UCHC director Ted Phillips told Council members. “We do more eviction defense work than any other agency in the city.”
He said that UCHC, in existence for 33 years, sponsors several homeless placement programs and a landlord-tenant clinic that provides free legal services to defendants in 36th District Court. Judges from 36th District Court frequently refer defendants to UCHC for assistance. Contact numbers for the organization are included on court notices.
UCHC has participated in the Foreclosure Prevention Project with MLS and City Council members for eight years, saving nearly every homeowner-occupied home from tax foreclosure during that time. Every year, its staff combs city streets to talk to homeowners, such as seniors and disabled people, who may not respond to city notices and UCHC letters warning of pending foreclosures. They knock on doors, talk to neighbors and assess the homes visually to see if they are occupied.
Council member JoAnn Watson spoke out for both MLS and UCHC.
“It is precedent that as long as two out of three copies of the application are complete, the application is accepted,” Watson said regarding MLS. “UCHC takes assignments from the City Council; this cut could result in a total of $4 million being lost including fund matches.”
LA SED director and seniors protest cuts in funding
Other well-known, long-lived organizations such as LASED (Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development), Young Detroit Builders, the Franklin Wright Settlement, Alternatives for Girls, the only two Detroit-based domestic violence programs, Detroit Health Care for the Homeless, DAPCEP (Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program), and others were also put on the chopping block.
LASED requested $173,000 in funds, but was denied because a “certification page” was allegedly missing from their application.
“Our work is becoming more important as immigrants are increasingly under attack,” said Jane Garcia. “But our summer youth and senior citizens’ programs have been cut as a result of this decision.”
Young Detroit Builders (YDB) received a 50 percent cut in one program and a denial of another $150,000 request. YDB provides construction job training, job search assistance, GED certification, counseling, and other services for Detroit youth, said administrator Roland Watkins.
“One of our class this year was recently shot and paralyzed from the waist down,” Watkins said. “We play a vital role in alleviating the desperate situation that young people in Detroit face.”
Watkins invited the Council to attend the organization’s annual fund-raiser, Showdown in Motown, set for Sept. 26, but City Council President Charles Pugh later refused the offer, claiming it would be a conflict of interest.
The 130-year-old Franklin-Wright Settlements sponsors Teen and Senior Centers, among other projects, in one of Detroit’s poorest east side neighborhoods. It was recommended for denial of nearly $400,000 in funds because its administrators allegedly failed to attend an NOF workshop and paperwork technicalities.
Administrator Monique Marks said they were not invited to any workshop, that the Planning and Development Department told them to go online to submit a Request for Proposal instead.
“This denial is absolutely unheard of in our history,” Marks said.
Laurie Moran of Looking for My Sister said their program had just built new transitional housing for domestic violence victims. Their program was recommended for denial of over $170,000 in funds.
“Where are they going to go now?” she asked. Councilwoman Watson noted that domestic violence is on the rise as a result of the increasingly distressed economy.
The Council is set to further discuss the proposed cuts at a meeting of its Planning and Economic Development standing committee on Thurs. Sept. 23 at 3 p.m.
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The city allocates too large a portion of the CDBG funds to housing demolition and staffing for the Planning and Development Department, when they are meant to service the people of Detroit. People made it clear at the Mayor’s community meetings on his urban removal plans that they do not want demolition of foreclosed homes, but renovation and construction of new housing to bring people back to Detroit.