What’s happening: City officials and project stakeholders joined members of the Osborn community on Thursday, Aug. 3, to celebrate the renovations underway at Mapleridge Housing Project, an innovative approach to redeveloping vacant duplexes while building wealth for moderate-income homebuyers. It’s hoped that renovations of the three long-vacant duplexes – which includes new kitchens, bathrooms, roofs, and more – will be finished by the end of 2023.
What it is (and how it works): The Mapleridge Housing Project will renovate three duplexes and sell them at discounted rates to homebuyers at or below 80 percent of the area median income. The homebuyers will live in one unit and rent out the second in each of their respective homes, providing the opportunity for homebuyers to build wealth while providing rental units at an affordable rate. Rental units will be available at affordable housing rates to those Detroiters with incomes up to 60 percent of the area median income, and who have Section 8 housing vouchers.
How it’s happening: The project is the brainchild of Quincy Jones, director of the Osborn Neighborhood Alliance (ONA) nonprofit. ONA secured $500,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding from the City of Detroit Housing and Revitalization Department, $288,000 in Strategic Neighborhood Fund grants from Invest Detroit, and a construction loan from Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).
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Related: Read “This Detroit nonprofit is taking a novel approach to affordable housing: Landlord-occupied duplexes” on Model D.]
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Quincy Jones, director of the Osborn Neighborhood Alliance. (File photo: Nick Hagen)
What they’re saying: “The Strategic Neighborhood Fund is truly a collaboration between corporations and Detroit neighborhoods to increase the quality of life and so that communities become a place where residents live, work and play,” says Jones. “We sold two of the three Mapleridge duplexes before renovations even began, so I see this as a business model that could be successfully replicated in Osborn and other neighborhoods.”
Where it is: The Mapleridge Housing Project consists of three duplexes on Mapleridge Street, located between Gratiot Avenue and Schoenherr Road in the Osborn neighborhood.
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