The Detroit City Council convened a budget hearing on March 26, 2026, for the Housing and Revitalization Department (HRD). The department presented its proposed $42.5 million budget for fiscal year 2026–2027, focusing on housing development, affordable housing preservation, and infill housing. The hearing included detailed presentations, council member questions, motions, and public comments.
Good afternoon, everyone. We are now back for our PM public hearings, excuse me, budget hearings for today, March 26, 2026. Mr. Clerk, good afternoon. Please call the move here. Councilmember Scott Benton. Scott Bentonai. Councilmember Letitia Johnson. Present. Councilmember Daniel McCampbell. Present. Council Member Renegade Miller. Member Miller did indicate she's dealing with a uh addressing a family issue at this moment and will not be present for today. And our absence is excused. Clerk will so note. Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero. Present. Councilmember Mary Waters. President. Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway. Council President Pro Tem Coman Young II. Council President James Tate. Here. Mr. President, there is a corn. Thank you. And if you can note that we've been joined by Member Callaway. Clark was a note. Thank you. And we are now about to jump into the budget hearing for housing and revitalization department. Will Julie Snyder, the director and team, come on down. Good afternoon. Oh, there it is, everything's working. And once you all do that, you are now free to begin your presentation. Julie Schneider, Director of the City of Detroit's housing and revitalization department. David Bowser, Chief of Staff for the Mayor's Office. Good afternoon to the honorable Detroit City Council. We are pleased to be here today to present the proposed 2026-2027 fiscal year budget for the housing and revitalization department. We'll go through proposed changes, look of the department going forward, what we'll focus on, priorities of this administration, and how the 2627 budget will help us to implement that, as well as greater budget details. I'm joined by my my colleague Chief of Staff Bowser, who's going to provide some brief remarks from the Sheffield Administration. Just to open up, uh Mayor Sheffield has significant um plans and sort of high hopes for the housing and revitalization department moving forward. Housing uh has been a number one need that's been expressed over the years and a number one concern being expressed over the years by Detroit residents. Uh and so one of the things that you'll see, as you all have already seen the EOP is sort of a separation of the housing development functions of the city from more of the uh the service-related functions of the city. And what this is meant to do is to be able is to allow the housing director to have a laser focus on the primary initiatives around housing development that the administration has. One being uh in field housing development, making sure that there are more houses being built so that Detroiters can become homeowners. Um, another is affordable housing development. So for renters, uh ensuring that affordability actually matches incomes and that we are expanding our ability to build affordable housing all throughout the city. Um and improving housing stock as well through coordination with BC, but also working with HRD around best practices. Um, and so the difference between this year's um HRD uh presentation is going to be mostly seen in sort of the org chart and the primary directives of the housing department moving into fiscal year 27. Uh in the past, there would have been information around homelessness, housing services, the helpline, home repair, even.