Ginsberg Center E-Newsletter

October 2009

U-M, Local Groups Finish Detroit Property Survey

By Kemba Mazloomian

For years, city officials and residents had ruminated on the condition of Detroit's urban fabric–the buildings, streets, and general characteristics that make up the city. Urban planners had analyzed a range of datasets, but no one knew the precise number or location of vacant lots and abandoned homes. That will change when the Detroit Area Community Information System (D-ACIS) releases the data from a survey of 349,000 land parcels in the city.

Ginsberg Center staff along with Eric Dueweke, the outreach coordinator and a lecturer at U-M's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, managed the survey. They began the project in response to a request from the Detroit Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Response, and recruited site surveyors through both the Ginsberg Center and community organizations.

"Surveying all the residential properties was a formidable job only made possible by the collaboration of the Detroit Economic Growth Association, the Detroit Vacant Property Campaign, D-ACIS, and the Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Response," Dueweke said. The city and community groups will use the results to make decisions about where to focus demolition and housing rehabilitation activities, how to spend the limited funds available to address and prevent foreclosures, and which neighborhoods need protection from the blighting effects of vacant homes.

The Foreclosure Prevention office hopes the survey will help them better understand the city's current vacancy rates and property conditions, office Director of Community Initiatives Diane McCloskey said.

"When we looked around, we realized that there was no one data set that told the story we needed," McCloskey said. Dueweke and his team recruited 20 University of Michigan students and recent alumni, many of whom had worked in Detroit through the Ginsberg Center and other UM programs, to work as surveyors. The students worked with 19 Detroit residents, divided into 3-person teams. "The mixture provided extensive Detroit experience in each car," said Project Co-Coordinator Rachel Wells, a 2009 master's graduate from U-M's Urban and Regional Planning Program and the School of Social Work. From mid-August through late September, each team assessed an average of 2,000 land parcels per day to determine whether they contained structures or were simply vacant lots. If structures existed, the surveyors determined whether they were occupied, and they assessed the building's condition.

Even these seemingly straightforward questions could be difficult to answer. The residents of East English Village, an upper middle class community on Detroit's east side, had undertaken a neighborhood campaign to disguise vacancies by mowing lawns, opening and closing the curtains, and parking cars in the driveways of vacant homes.

Despite these complicating factors, Dueweke said he believes the final results will be helpful to city agencies and neighborhood groups.

"A solid assessment of residential parcels is vital for planning and resource allocation. Data this comprehensive will be extremely helpful to city agencies and neighborhood groups," he said.

Ginsberg Center E-Newsletter

U-M, Local Groups Finish Detroit Property Survey

October 2009 Table of Contents