By: Scott Benson
As a member of the Detroit City Council, I have been deeply invested in what we can do to build the Black middle class. Building intergenerational wealth for Black families has always lagged behind that of non-Black families.
In 2023, I created a Wealth Generation Task Force to examine how the city can address the economic inequities facing the Black community. Detroit is one of the largest majority-Black cities in America, with about 80 percent of our residents being of African-American descent.
Traditionally, the means to improve economic mobility has been through job creation, but if we want to improve the economic situation of our community, we need to consider a broader range of policy measures.
My working group included experts from the legal, policy, labor, employment, finance, and philanthropy fields who have a role in solving this problem. We took a holistic view and examined what needs to be done at the policy level to increase Black prosperity, with the goal of developing 10 actionable actions in Detroit.
We have identified six policy areas that are essential to closing the generational wealth gap. These include education, entrepreneurship, employment, banking, home ownership, and healthy neighborhoods. Focusing on these policy areas will help build the middle class by lifting families out of poverty, retaining existing middle-class families, and encouraging middle-class families to return to Detroit.
To close educational gaps, the Task Force supports a fully funded tutoring program for Detroit residents that would complement all educational opportunities in Detroit to ensure students are ready for college, vocational training programs, or entry into the workforce. The Task Force estimates the cost at $750 per year per student for 25 hours of tutoring, totaling $3.75 million for a program that benefits 5,000 students annually.
The administration has implemented the Efficient Transfer of Wealth program to provide legal assistance and assistance with estate planning and property transfer to Detroit residents. In the FY 23-24 budget, I allocated $1 million for this program. With additional support from the Gilbert Family Foundation, we have scheduled 12 workshops for families to receive free assistance with will writing and estate planning, a key to transferring wealth between generations. Many families do not plan for who will be responsible for a property after the owner dies, and many Detroiters die without leaving a will, resulting in the property being transferred to probate court or simply lost because it is not managed.
We have also recommended new City initiatives to prioritize support for small businesses and entrepreneurs, including grants to close the gap in high-risk small business capital. We also want to see greater City encouragement of financial institutions and philanthropic
Municipality to provide high-, medium-, and low-risk capital to small businesses in the form of grants and low- to no-cost loans. The city should also strive to provide high-quality technical assistance and coaching to entrepreneurs and recruit local community development organizations to support small businesses and entrepreneurs.
To meet the need for jobs, we recommended that the City work more closely with Detroit schools to promote and market job training programs for eligible Detroit youth. The Task Force highlighted Detroit at Work, which offers Detroit residents programs to continue their education and obtain a good-paying job through multiple apprenticeship programs, high school completion programs, and repayment services.
The task force noted that banks play a critical role in lifting residents out of poverty, but that 22.8 percent of Detroiters have no or inadequate access to banking services. Not having a bank account can cost $40,000 over a lifetime because of the need to use expensive alternative financial services for routine transactions. The task force recommended that the city continue to advocate for residents to open BankOn accounts.
Healthy neighborhoods were also a focus. We call on the city to develop an open space master plan to guide community investment and encourage strategic civic and private commercial investment to strengthen the city’s neighborhoods and industrial areas. Also needed is an ordinance directing the Detroit Land Bank Authority to develop a mandatory finance and development process workshop for all buyers of its properties. The Land Bank should also require buyers to provide a realistic timeline for purchasing and making a property “habitable” or the property will be remanded to the Land Bank Authority. The report also calls on the city to make enforcement of ordinances on dangerous and vacant buildings a higher priority and to approve a process to expedite foreclosure when properties are not maintained after numerous notices for individuals and businesses that own large amounts of blighted properties.
I will never stop advocating for these measures at the city level, and I encourage Detroiters to join me in this effort. Talk to your city officials about the need for meaningful change to improve the generational wealth of Black families.
Prosperity breeds prosperity. Intergenerational prosperity enables home ownership and business creation. It is linked to better health outcomes, lower infant mortality, and longer life expectancy. Detroit must focus on this issue to build the resilient and vibrant city we all deserve.
About the author
