DETROIT – The Strategic Neighborhood Fund (SNF) has seen success and continued investment of $42 million into three Detroit neighborhood areas since 2016. The fund is now expanding to seven more neighborhood areas.
With help from Invest Detroit, the fund is raising $130 million to build up 10 areas in Detroit, with the new initiative being called the Strategic Neighborhood Fund 2.0. Sixty individual neighborhoods will be impacted over the next five years by the fund. along with streetscapes, park improvements, commercial development and housing stabilization.
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SNF 2.0 will cover Grand River Northwest, Warrendale/Cody-Rouge, Russell Woods/Nardin Park, Campau/Banglatown, Gratiot/7-Mile, East Warren/Cadieux, and Jefferson Chalmers. The first three neighborhoods were Islandview/Greater Villages, Vernor/Southwest, and Livernois-McNichols.
"In the first three neighborhoods, we went in and worked with the residents to support development and we saw incredible results," Duggan said. "We've got new mixed-use apartment buildings with affordable housing, we have more businesses and more parks opening up. We applied the tools that drove the development in downtown and midtown and put them into neighborhoods, and now we're expanding that to seven more areas across the city."
The Kresge Foundation got things started by donating $15 million to SNF 2.0.
"Kresge is proud to join with the city administration in this ambitious step toward the deep and systematic revitalizations of neighborhoods," said Kresge President Rip Rapson. "It is an effort that is as complicated as it is important.
"Now is the time to show we mean it when we say neighborhoods are the heart and soul of the city."
Detroit is also raising $250 million for the Affordable Housing Leveraging Fund to make sure the neighborhoods remain inclusive and affordable. This helps projected investment reach $422 million over the next five years for city neighborhoods.
Some of the success from SNF 1.0 came from community engagement, which will again be utilized in SNF 2.0. Hundreds of residents in each area will be able to engage in dozens of meetings over a year-long period.
"We are going to work closely with the community in every neighborhood to encourage and empower the residents to stay and be a part of this city's comeback," said Director of Planning and Development Maurice Cox. "The people of Detroit who have stayed through the good times and bad must be at the forefront of this effort. We want to make sure that Detroit's recovery includes them, because they are Detroit's future."