Downriver Today

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and LISC Detroit announced a $10 million investment from KeyBank Community Development Lending and Investment (CDLI) to create and preserve affordable housing in the city though the Detroit Housing for the Future Fund (DHFF). 

In a recent release, KeyBank CDLI Vice President Derek Reed said the investment is a key part of the organization’s efforts to create more strategic partnerships with Community Development Financial Institutions across the country and to build on the success of the National Community Benefits Plan. 

“We are proud to help LISC Detroit and the city of Detroit with their shared goal of creating and preserving affordable housing, and to making sure that no one is left behind as Detroit continues its latest renaissance,” Reed said in the release.

The LISC Detroit-managed Detroit Housing for the Future Fund was launched in 2021 and has now raised $65.5 million of its $75 million goal, the release states. Together with a sixth project announced to renovate the Weber Apartments, the deals represent the creation or preservation of a combined 224 units of affordable housing in neighborhoods across the city. 

According to the release, 44 units of affordable housing will come from the Weber Apartments project. 

While the administration has set a goal of preserving 10,000 units of existing affordable housing and the development of 2,000 units of new affordable housing through public and private housing initiatives like DHFF, the release states nearly 1,300 new affordable housing units have opened or are in construction in the city. An additional 5,700 existing affordable housing units have either extended their affordable rents for another 15 to 30 years or are in the pipeline to do so.