Detroit Choice
Neighborhood
The City of Detroit (City), in partnership with the Detroit Housing Commission (DHC), was awarded a HUD Choice Neighborhoods (CN) Planning Grant for the Greater Forest Park/Eastern Market neighborhood. Detroit is one of 13 communities nationwide to receive the CN grant in 2024. Through the grant, the City and DHC will work with local residents and a variety of community stakeholders to create a forward-looking CN Plan with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.
The Plan will be centered on the redevelopment of DHC’s Forest Park Apartments and Diggs Homes properties, which includes a total of 201 units of low-income housing. The CN Plan will seek to replace 100% of those housing units within the neighborhood, or in other areas of opportunity as part of new mixed-income developments, and identify additional investments to the Forest Park/Eastern Market neighborhood.
What is mixed-income housing?
Mixed-income housing is defined as providing high-quality, affordable housing in an area for people of various income levels. Households, the people living within a house, with low to moderate or higher incomes, live next to one another.
What is the Choice Neighborhood Initiative (CN)?
The HUD Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CN) takes a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation. The program supports the revitalization of distressed public housing while promoting and leveraging investments that improve the quality of life for neighborhood residents.
The CN’s key goals include:
Housing
Explore the redevelopment of the 201 units that are part of the Target Housing Sites within the Forest Park and Diggs Homes developments. The new units would bring high-quality affordable housing as part of new mixed-income developments in the neighborhood.
People
Connect partners in the city and neighborhood to fill gaps in existing programs and services to ensure residents have access to a good education, affordable childcare, healthy food, safe places to play, and quality job opportunities that help increase their quality of life.
Neighborhood
Create a vision for strengthening the neighborhood through new and improved parks, walkability, public transportation, stores, and other amenities that promote future investment.
Planning Process
The planning process for the Forest Park/Diggs Community Plan will take about 2 years to complete (2025-2026).