Community Engagement Update
Our History
Since its founding in 2008, the DLBA has evolved to meet the challenges posed by vacant and abandoned properties in Detroit.
The DLBA’s role expanded significantly in 2014 when most of Detroit’s publicly owned residential property was consolidated into the DLBA’s inventory.
Ten years later, we are at another pivotal point.
Following years of robust property sales, efforts from partners to reduce the number of properties headed towards property tax foreclosure, growing home values across the city, and increasing for-profit and nonprofit development capacity, our existing and future vacant structure inventory has decreased considerably.
At the same time, our inventory of vacant lots has remained mostly stable.
Our strategic plan allows us to reimagine how we support Detroit, where all neighborhoods are safe, healthy, and thriving places that provide access to a high quality of life for Detroiters.
Our Achievements
The DLBA has made considerable progress in stabilizing Detroit’s neighborhoods over the last decade by removing thousands of unsafe structures and providing thousands of homeownerships and wealth building opportunities for Detroiters. For the last 10 years, we have met the City’s challenges head-on.
Since 2014, the DLBA has sold more property than any land bank in the country.
27,800 vacant lots to Detroit homeowners, totaling 2530 acres
19,400 residential structures approximately 75% of which were purchased by residents
11,864 rehabbed houses through our programs
27,468 demolished structures
600 projects launched with Community Partners
50 urban agriculture projects
291 lot beautification projects
The DLBA has completed
- 49,614 closings
- 5,475 open houses
- 26,247 titles cleared
- 42,798 structure surveys
- 513,260 postcards mailed
- 140,845 phone calls
- 4,353 lobby visits
What is a strategic plan?
A strategic plan is a critical tool to set organizational direction and priorities, drive alignment, simplify decision making, and communicate to partners and stakeholders.
Community Engagement
Frequently Asked Questions
In 2022, DLBA recognized the need for both immediate changes and long-term strategy. With the support of Center for Community Progress, we developed a strategic framework which identified immediate steps from improvement and areas to explore during a strategic planning process. We have been working diligently on implementing the framework recommendations and are using it as a foundation for Next Five.
A strategic plan is a tool to define and share an organization’s direction. It includes vision and mission statements, long-term goals, and the steps needed to achieve those goals. Strategic plans help organizations make informed decisions about policies, programming, and budgets. DLBA’s inventory is changing – both in terms of what we have (less structures, more lots) and what we’re receiving (less properties, less structures). We also know we need to be more transparent and accountable, and this plan will set goals and metrics for us to track and share over the next five years.
Everyone who is interested! A team of DLBA staff are leading this process, along with a consultant team comprised of Center for Community Progress and JFM Consulting The Detroit Land Bank Authority has pulled together an Advisory Panel of fifteen local and regional leaders and six internal working groups and will be conducting dozens of focus groups and interviews, in addition to the 100 community events previously mentioned..
| Name | Title | Department/Organization |
|---|---|---|
| Alexa Busch | Program Officer | The Kresge Foundation |
| Chase Cantrell | Executive Director | Building Community Value |
| Margi Dewar | Professor Emerita | University of Michigan |
| Michael Freeman | Executive Director | Genesee County Land Bank |
| Karen Gage | Design & Development Innovation Director | City of Detroit, Planning & Development Dept. |
| Erinn Harris | Deputy Director | City of Detroit, Department of Neighborhoods |
| Sarah Hayosh | Director of Land Use and Sustainability | Detroit Future City |
| Keegan Mahoney | Program Director | City of Detroit, Housing & Revitalization Department |
| Dara O'Byrne | Deputy Director | City of Detroit, Planning & Development Dept. |
| Madhavi Reddy | Director | Community Development Advocates of Detroit |
| Tepfirah (Tee) Rushdan | Director of Urban Agriculture | City of Detroit |
| Sarida Scott | Professor & Director | University of Detroit Mercy |
| Jai Singletary | Policy Analyst | Office of Council President Pro Tempore |
| Mike Smith | Senior Vice President, Neighborhoods & Development Officer |
Invest Detroit |
The Detroit Land Bank Authority is the largest property owner in Detroit and has properties located throughout the city. The choices DLBA makes about how to sell and reuse those properties will impact your neighborhood.
A land bank is a public entity specially designed to return vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties to a productive use according to community goals. To learn more about land banks, visit Community Progress’s Land Bank Resource Center.