In 2021, thanks to the support of our funders and partners, we continued our commitment in Detroit to making home and community steppingstones to more.

Home is where life happens and futures begin, and we are working to ensure Detroit residents have high-quality affordable housing options connected to the opportunities we all need to succeed.

Our work this year focused on preserving affordable housing, building the capacity of community development organizations, fostering healthy, sustainable homes and advancing economic and racial equity. Here are some of the highlights of Enterprise’s work in 2021. 

City of Detroit Affordable Housing Preservation Partnership

We continued to lead Detroit’s affordable housing preservation strategy, seeking to preserve long-term affordability, prevent displacement and improve housing quality for 2,000 regulated and naturally occurring affordable homes. In 2021, we: 

• Facilitated preservation strategies and directed resources to 21 multifamily affordable housing owners, representing 28 properties and more than 1,600 affordable multifamily homes. 
• Launched a new, no-cost predevelopment services program that can include capital needs assessments, financial modeling and environmental assessments in order to reduce financial barriers for developers of affordable multifamily properties.

Community Development Organization (CDO) Fund

The fund is a foundation-backed initiative delivering critical operating support, leadership development and technical assistance to more than 30 Detroit nonprofits that serve or are led by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC).

This work has enabled Enterprise to collaborate with local organizations to foster community improvement from the ground up, multiply the impact of local efforts, target community needs and help CDOs meet their goals and scale their solutions. In 2021, we also launched the Elevating CDO Fund, which supports smaller BIPOC-led Detroit nonprofits.

Economic Mobility

We continued working toward our goal of closing the racial wealth gap by ensuring that housing acts as a platform for economic mobility. Our work is advancing affordable homeownership in Detroit and creating wealth-building opportunities for people of color. In 2021, we:

• Launched Phase Two of the “Live Where You Work” program with Sinai Grace in Northwest Detroit, which included bringing in additional employer partners and expanding employee participation. 
• Advanced land contract initiatives to increase homeownership rates for credit-constrained households with low- and moderate-incomes.

Section 4 Grant Program

Enterprise continued our commitment to community development organizations by leveraging our Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 4 grants, which provide support to local organizations working to improve neighborhood sustainability, create or preserve affordable housing and advance inclusive community initiatives. In 2021, we:

• Provided Section 4 grants to 10 community organizations to help build organizational capacity and support affordable housing developments. 
• Awarded a total of $430,000 in Section 4 funding.
• Expanded Section 4 relationships with community organizations outside Detroit, such as Pontiac and Highland Park.

State and Local Policy 

We focused on collaboration with state and local housing partners to maximize resources for affordable homes, homeownership access and tenant-rights protections. Our efforts in 2021 included: 
Leading a two-part series, “Neighborhoods and Resiliency,” which explored the connections between resiliency, racial equity and policy in Detroit neighborhoods.
Assisting the city in aligning strategies and resources in neighborhoods of opportunity, particularly as it related to Covid-19 federal funding. 

We are committed to building on all of these efforts to create more opportunity and to ensure everyone in Detroit has a safe and affordable place to call home.