Created Equal: Can collective land ownership help fix affordable housing in Detroit?

Detroit residents are using community-owned land as a strategy to prevent gentrification and lower the costs of home ownership.

Detroit house housing homes

Detroit residents are burdened by the cost of living in the city.

A majority of Detroiters spend 30% of their pre-tax income on housing. And while the city is working to increase affordable housing in Detroit, residents are trying an approach that they say keeps prices low and gives them more say in how their communities develop.

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Neighborhoods across Detroit are starting community land trusts, a nonprofit organization run by community members that owns property in the area. Jerry Hebron is the executive director of Detroit Cultivator Community Land Trust in the North End neighborhood. 

Hebron’s organization is one of five groups partnering with the nonprofit law firm Detroit Justice Center to establish community land trusts. Hebron and Mark Bennett, a staff attorney at the firm, join Created Equal on Thursday to explain how community land trusts work and what they might do for Detroiters. 

Guests: 

  • Jerry Hebron is the executive director of Detroit Cultivator Community Land Trust. 
  • Mark Bennett is a staff attorney at the Detroit Justice Center.

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

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Author

  • David Leins is the senior producer of WDET’s daily news and culture program, The Metro. He has produced several award-winning podcasts and multimedia series at WDET including Tracked and Traced, Science of Grief and COVID Diaries, which earned a National Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Innovation. He previously led WDET’s StoryMakers program. David has an M.A. in Media Arts and Studies from Wayne State University, and a B.A. in anthropology from Grand Valley State University with a minor in Arabic. David teaches podcasting at Wayne State University and is an alumnus of the Transom Audio Storytelling Workshop.