Public champion Bill Johnson recently penned an article on his blog about how Detroit’s rental registration ordinance will exacerbate blight in Detroit neighborhoods. Financially struggling landlords will be unable to comply with the new regulations, he argues, and this untenable burden will displace countless Detroit renters. Johnson is hardly averse to taking strong positions, having […]
Reporting on low-income communities is different than reporting for low-income communities. So says journalist and researcher Sarah Alvarez. She points out the disconnect represents a huge problem – a large number of citizens are discounted as consumers of quality, relevant media. Alvarez is the one-woman show behind Outlier Media, a project that aims to serve […]
The city of Detroit says it is committed to getting a handle on a rental housing market mess caused by decades of lax oversight, and will step up the use of a 30-year-old law requiring landlords to have their rental homes inspected and registered with the city. If the city follows through, it could produce large-scale […]