Longtime Detroiters have held onto homes for decades. Will they get help for repairs before it’s too late?

This article was published by Briana Rice of Outlier Media. WXYZ is a proud partner of Outlier.

This story is part of Beyond Repair, a series on Detroit’s home repair crisis — and what the city stands to lose if it doesn’t take action.

Regina Hendricks had a hole in her roof for three years. Water leaked down to the first floor, caving in the ceiling and leaving mold and rot. 

Daisy Jackson’s second-floor bathroom leaks to the living room below, leaving a hole where her ceiling used to be. 

Gail Mitchell has a pipe that sprays water from several spots in her basement, filling five buckets that she empties daily. 

Mary Golson is staring down one of the most daunting and critical repairs of all: She needs a new roof. 

“​I think it’s gonna force us to walk away,” Golson, 71, said. “If we had been able to get some assistance, we would have been in a better position. But now if they don’t (provide some help), we will be forced to move. We will be forced to sell.” 

Hendricks, Jackson and Mitchell have lived in Detroit their whole lives — most of them in Islandview, in the houses they live in right now. They’re on fixed incomes. All are savvy, plugged-in residents. Two have managed to secure home improvement loans, and three have taken advantage of various home repair programs the city has offered in the past. 

They still need help to stay in their homes. 

Like much of the city, Islandview — which sits just north of Belle Isle, along either side of East Grand Boulevard — is mainly single-family homes. The houses are big — many built in the early 20th century or earlier. They need plumbing, windows, roofs, insulation. And the question isn’t so much whether homes in this neighborhood get repaired, but who will be able to do it. 

“You have new couples coming in and moving and fixing up houses, staying in them for six months,” Golson said. “Then when the six months is up, you see a ‘for sale’ sign. And they’re selling them for $300,000. There’s a house over on Seyburn (Street) that they bought, and it was in the paper for $325,000.” 

These longtime residents — all Black women — held on to their homes through the turbulent years following the Great Recession as aggressive tax foreclosures displaced their neighbors and more white families moved in. Now, the need for home repair might be what forces these women out of their homes. 

David Bowser, chief of staff for Mayor Mary Sheffield, said home repair is a quality-of-life issue the administration is prioritizing by streamlining resources and seeking philanthropic support. 

“This is an issue that can’t wait,” he said. “Over time, that need greatly ... multiplies in cost the longer we don’t do something about it.” 

But right now, Detroit has no citywide home repair programs available. 

Bikes and dogs 

Daisy Jackson, 70, moved to Islandview at 16 years old. An upstairs pipe leaks water into her living room. Parts of her uninsulated house are cold, and her bathroom needs accessibility upgrades. 

Her house has changed little in half a century — but in recent years, the neighborhood has changed a lot. 

“Used to be all Black, you know? Now it’s becoming gentrification. That’s what I call it,” Jackson said. “It’s becoming gentrification because they putting things in here that nobody can afford.” 

She said you can tell the newcomers to her neighborhood by two things: dogs and bikes. But she appreciates many of her new neighbors, many of whom are active in her block club. 

Census data back up Jackson’s observations. A Data Driven Detroit analysis shows Islandview’s Black population dropped 22 percentage points between 2009 and 2024. During that same period, the neighborhood’s white population climbed 15 percentage points. 

Toyia Watts, 71, grew up in Islandview and now lives in her childhood home. She said it’s easy to spot the new neighbors: Their houses have new windows, siding, porches and roofs — and notably do not have the black metal security doors many in the neighborhood kept for years for safety. 

Watts said she’s seen longtime Black residents get pushed out of the neighborhood by repairs they can’t afford. 

“What’s gonna happen is somebody gonna come in here and rehab every house they can get,” Watts said. “Lady down the street, she had to move out because she couldn’t maintain the house with the needs she needed. And they (the new owners) rehabbed it. He sold it for $375,000.” 

Regina Hendricks, 63, has lived in the same home in Islandview all her life. Last year, she and her husband took out an almost $30,000 loan to put a new roof on the house. But the monthly payments are more than they can afford, and she still needs windows, insulation, siding and a porch. 

Hendricks regrets selling the house next door her family once owned. She sold it for $12,000 about 15 years ago when she needed some extra money. New owners spent $100,000 to fix up the house, she said. 

Hendricks said the house changed hands three more times after she sold it — each time to white buyers. 

“I ain’t trying to be funny,” she said. “They let these white people come down here, move in and better the houses for little to nothing.” 

‘No more bills’ 

Daisy Jackson is adamant about one thing: She doesn’t want a loan to fix up the house she owns outright. 

“I just don’t want to take on no more bills. I don’t feel like we should have to. The city got all that money,” Jackson said. “What are y’all doing with our money that we are paying taxes for?” 

Gail Mitchell, 65, feels the same way. She’s lived in the same house for 33 years, across the street from the house where she grew up. 

She needs siding, a front and back porch, insulation, and extensive plumbing repairs. 

Mitchell said she’s applied to every assistance program available, but either never hears back or is told she makes too much money to qualify. One time, she said, she was told her income was just $47 over the limit. 

She took out a $24,000 loan for a new boiler and roof — the max she could borrow without homeowner’s insurance. Mitchell said she can’t get homeowner’s insurance until she makes more repairs. 

She thinks the city should do more to help lifelong, older Detroiters who have held onto their homes. 

“No loans, OK? I need a grant. Or you give me a gift,” Mitchell said. “I don’t want another loan.” 

Despite her frustration, Mitchell has no intention of leaving Islandview. 

“I don’t plan on moving,” Mitchell said. “If I can stay there, I’ll be there. And when I’m not there, I expect my kids to keep the house until it falls apart.” 

Correction: The story has been updated. An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Mary Golson is a lifelong Detroiter. She moved to the city in her 20s. 

This article first appeared on Outlier Media and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.