Early last year, Dan Gilbert's family foundation and the North Corktown Neighborhood Association announced they would quickly build nine affordable homes on a mostly vacant street near Detroit's Michigan Central Station to help address the city's housing problem.
But the Detroit Free Press reports that all is not going as smoothly as hoped. The houses are being built on two mostly vacant blocks at 16th and Perry streets.
Free Press reporter Violet Ikonomova writes:
The up to $5 million project is behind schedule, leaving the seven homes built so far sitting vacant for months — long after their October public unveiling. Since then, two have been broken into, with doors boarded up and the neighborhood association hiring round-the-clock security to protect the homes.
Building costs, estimated to exceed $500,000 for some houses, have also rendered the project too expensive to replicate without a deep-pocketed backer like Gilbert, the foundation acknowledged.
Gilbert Family Foundation Executive Director Laura Grannemann defends the project, telling the Free Press:
"While this was a delay, we’re still really confident that we’re doing the right thing that will ultimately benefit the homeowners and the community."
