A Detroiter all her life, Turriner Jackson purchased her first home in 2011. Over the years, it grew harder and harder to keep up with the unexpected expenses needed to maintain her home, a bungalow where she and her husband raised their two kids. She would tap friends of friends who assured her they could provide repairs but ultimately only provided temporary fixes to worsening problems.
"Then my husband passed in 2020, and it was something really different with just me. I'm on a fixed income, so there was no doing it myself,” Jackson shared. It wasn't until 2024 when she got connected to the Detroit Home Repair Fund (DHRF), that she finally found a reprieve. DHRF was able to provide Jackson with nearly $40,000 worth of critical health and safety repairs: new windows, gutters, downspouts, and a full roof replacement — just to name a few. “When they got done with repairs, I was so pleased. I was calling people, saying, ‘I need you to drive past my house.’ I am so grateful.”
When the Detroit Home Repair Fund (DHRF) launched in 2022, Enterprise and program partners knew this $20 million initiative was not going to meet the overwhelming need in the city on its own. But it was a major opportunity to provide immediate, tangible help for families like Jackson’s — more than 6,000 repairs in 532 homes so far — and build the capacity of organizations to address home repair needs in their communities.
When funding to seed the program from Gilbert Family Foundation and DTE Energy was announced, DHRF received more than 125,000 calls to the home repair hotline. With technical assistance partner Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, Enterprise mobilized quickly to put together a program responsive to the urgent need on the ground, learning valuable lessons along the way.
Lesson 1: Put Health and Safety First
When you look at the home as a whole, it makes you pause and think about what's going to change residents’ lives the most. How am I going to better serve this client and give them better health? We don’t want to helicopter in and install a new furnace if their main drain is compromised. If it floods in six months, it’s been a disservice.
Tim Bishop, Director of Home Repair Services, United Community Housing Coalition
Most households served by the home repair fund — half of which include a senior or resident with disabilities — are living with serious health and safety hazards in their homes, from exposed wires to unreliable heat or hot water. With training from Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, DHRF’s 13 community partners use a whole-home approach to assess health and safety issues, develop a scope of work, and coordinate with contractors for repairs. To help prioritize the most urgent hazards, DHRF established three tiers of home repair needs, requiring that every home meets a baseline health and safety standard.
Lesson 2: Maximize Impact Through Flexible, Layered Funding
We did an assessment for one family with three kids where the toilet wasn’t working; the kitchen sink wouldn’t drain, and there was a hole in the roof. We brought in the city’s Lateral Sewer Line program to address the drainage issues, and DTE covered the mechanical systems. The Detroit Home Repair Fund is very flexible, so we were able to not only fix the bathroom but also make sure that the roof was secure. That coordination is what makes a safe and hazard-free home.
Mike Walker, Program Associate, Green & Healthy Homes Initiative
Detroit has a variety of home repair resources—from the State’s Neighborhood Program to the City’s Senior Emergency Home Repair initiative—but each comes with different eligibility criteria, scope of work parameters, and requirements. The Detroit Home Repair Fund is designed to work alongside these programs, filling the gaps between existing supports. To date, the Detroit Home Repair Fund has invested $10.3 million in program funds and leveraged an additional $5.3 million from over 10 different sources.
Lesson 3: Invest in Trusted Local Partners
Our track record of success in this program has opened doors for us to receive other grants for home repair. THAW was mostly known for our utilities services, but our program has expanded into doing plumbing repair, housing repair, energy efficiency services—we’re expanding by leaps and bounds!
Rozeta Rox, Program Service Manager, The Heat And Warmth Fund (THAW)
DHRF has sparked growth and momentum for our community partners, a key aspect of the work Enterprise does in Detroit and across the nation. The fund has invested more than $3.5 million to support the staff implementing this program and provide up-front funding for repairs rather than reimbursements in order to reduce burdens on smaller nonprofits and contractors.
The relationships DHRF partners have in the communities they serve are key to the program’s success. From larger organizations with extensive experience in home repair to grassroots groups newly trained in the work, partners combine personal with professional to foster community trust.
Lance Woods, Community Manager for Renaissance of Hope, who guided Turriner Jackson through the program from beginning to end shared, “I came into the program without experience in home repair but a ton of experience in community development. I use that skillset to meet residents where they are, which matters when you’re going into someone’s home. I treat them like my grandparents, my aunties, make sure they feel supported.”
Three years and thousands of repairs in, Enterprise and DHRF partners have built a strong program and incredible team, touching the lives of more than 1,000 residents. Now, the team is accelerating towards a goal of 1,000 homes repaired so more Detroiters can do what Jackson said she did when her repairs were complete, "I would leave the house just so I could walk back in again."
