As part of its $100 million commitment to Detroit, JPMorgan Chase has announced more than $1.2 million in grants to further revitalize the city’s neighborhoods.
The latest donation supports six development programs that aid Detroit through housing development, blight removal, new-business creation, parent education, and neighborhood beautification projects. The new grants will support Southwest Solutions, Vanguard Community Development Corp., the Grandmont Rosedale Community Stabilization Program, Eastside Community Network, Michigan Community Resources, and Community Development Advocates of Detroit.
“These targeted efforts provide Detroiters with the local resources they need to invest in the future of their own neighborhoods and create more widely shared prosperity,” said Janis Bowdler, head of community development initiatives, JPMorgan Chase, in a release. “By investing in these programs, the quality of entire neighborhoods can improve as housing prices stabilize, blighted homes are removed or renovated, and education programs offer residents the support they need to own a home.”
The city filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2013—the largest municipal filing ever. It has since exited bankruptcy and is now on better financial footing but still has its problems.
“There is a lot of work yet to do, but Detroit is on the road to recovery,” said Detroit mayor Mike Duggan in the release. “By investing in programs like this that make a real difference to our neighborhoods, we are seeing progress accelerate. Neighborhoods like the North End and Michigan-Livernois are getting better because of the programs JPMorgan Chase is supporting and the great work of our community partners.”
Here’s an excerpt from the release detailing where the grants will go:
Southwest Solutions ($800,000): Southwest Solutions is engaged in a comprehensive effort to improve lives and neighborhoods in Detroit through a broad range of programs in human services, economic development, and resident engagement. Among its programs, Southwest Solutions provides assistance to Detroiters seeking to better their economic future through homeownership and financial coaching. It also aims to stabilize and strengthen neighborhoods through numerous other initiatives, including boarding up abandoned properties targeted for reuse, maintaining and activating vacant lots, and organizing neighborhood beautification activities with residents.
Vanguard Community Development Corp. (CDC) ($150,000): Vanguard CDC collaborates with Detroit's Housing and Real Estate Development Department to acquire and rehabilitate vacant housing through the organization's North End HomeBuild program. The nonprofit works to preserve the North End's historic housing stock, create and maintain additional affordable housing, stabilize the community, leverage previous investment, eliminate blight, produce more affordable homes, rescue historic properties, increase economic equity, prevent displacement, and create a welcoming, safe, attractive community environment.
Grandmont Rosedale Community Stabilization Program ($77,500): This program aims to stabilize housing values, reduce vacancy and blight, encourage affordable home ownership, and attract new businesses to its neighborhood in Detroit. The program acquires, renovates, and sells vacant and foreclosed homes to new homeowners and markets the community to new residents to bolster housing demand.
With an emphasis on foreclosure prevention and blight elimination, the program works to retain current residents and reduce overall vacancy. Specifically, the organization has coordinated an active task force of local residents to mobilize thousands of volunteers each year to clean and maintain vacant properties. By supporting small-business development, the program also works to revitalize the Grand River corridor.
Eastside Community Network ($75,000): Eastside Community Network aims to improve the Mack Avenue Corridor, between Conner and Cadieux, to stabilize existing businesses, improve aesthetics, remove blight, maintain open space, improve green uses, attract new businesses, activate vacant spaces in low market areas, and increase utilization. Partnering with local government, residents, businesses, and technical stakeholders, the network focuses on streetscape design, green development, branding, commercial marketing, and business recruitment.
Michigan Community Resources (MCR) ($75,000): MCR provides targeted neighborhood capacity-building services to community-based organizations (CBOs) in Cody Rouge, North End, and the Lower Eastside that perform economic development activities, expanding upon the work completed by the JPMorgan Chase Service Corps team in 2014. MCR develops neighborhood commercial marketing materials, provides technical assistance for site-specific marketing, creates customized investment strategies that can be used to target development-ready parcels and key neighborhood assets, and provides legal assistance.
Community Development Advocates of Detroit (CDAD) ($50,000): CDAD is a membership organization of community development and neighborhood improvement groups and assists its members through community planning, engagement, and other support. The trade association also works to increase awareness of public policy issues that support inclusive development, such as community benefits, affordable housing, and land acquisition.
