This program is keeping residents safe and sound

By Emma Peterson. 

The Renew Detroit program works to specifically help senior citizens and disabled residents get the help they need to keep their homes. 

Detroit residents like Heloyse Moore have lived in the same place for decades, she’s lived in her home since 1962. She has become a pillar of her community, but a roof leak threatened to uproot her entire life. She explained to The Detroit News, “We noticed the ceiling was cracking in the two back rooms and the roof was leaking through, and I was just wondering what I was going to do.” 

Heloyse didn’t know how she was going to afford the $15,000 roof repair, but she also didn’t want to move. Her home was built in 1948 and is filled with hand-cared for plants and the story of her life in art and memorabilia. Her sons hold fond memories of summers with fruit trees behind the house and their mother working in the community in a nearby school. Heloyse explained, “My husband died about 30 years ago, and I don't want to move into a nursing home or elsewhere.” But she had no idea where she was going to find the money. 

Luckily, the Renew Detroit program was able to provide the financial support that she needed to stay in her beloved home. Funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, Renew Detroit is a program designed specifically for people like Heloyse. Her two sons helped her apply and she couldn’t be more grateful. One of her sons, Wilson Moore, helped her with the process and told Fox2Detroit,“The process went real simple. Any questions we had, they answered them right away, any concerns they took care of. And when they came out to do the work, they were on time they didn’t disrupt her life at all.” 

The Renew Detroit program began in 2021 and the City Council initially expected to be able to aid 1,500 residents with home repairs. In July 2022 they were thrilled to expand the capacity to 2,000 homes. Heloyse is one of the first participants of the program. Then, phase two begins, which allows for window replacements or roof replacements – whatever helps the resident more. Darlene Caro, the program director told The Detroit News, "The City of Detroit was doing home repairs before, but never at the scale of 1,000 repairs per phase.” She went on to emphasize that the program focuses on housing stability and quality, explaining that “putting a new roof on not only increases the value of the home overall but the quality of actually being able to reside in it.” The program partners with Great Lakes Roofing, 1-800 Hanson’s and Presidential Construction to help people like Heloyse.  

Ronald Moore, another of Heloyse’s sons, mentioned that he recently “retired and came home to Detroit in 2016 after being gone for about 40 years, and things like this shows me things are turning around." The value of this program is more than just improving the city’s infrastructure, which is estimated to need $2-$4 billion in repairs, it adds on to people like Heloyse’s life, Ronald explained. “She can continue to live independently among the block of people who all know her.” 

Photo Source: The Detroit News