Rochelle Riley
Free Press columnist

Last month, the City of Detroit canceled contracts with 1,500 groups and residents for neighborhood improvements or programs -- six months after a federal team discovered that the city didn't have $53 million in Housing and Urban Development money to dole out, but was instead $53 million in the hole.

But from that audit grew a way to make Detroit Works -- Mayor Dave Bing's bold initiative to create denser, viable neighborhoods -- actually work.Over the next two years, the city plans to spend $87 million in federal funding, including community development block grants, to improve neighborhoods. But from now on, the city will spend where it can do the most good.

Rather than distribute small amounts of money to groups or residents all over town, Detroit will fund new or renovated housing only in its strongest and most physically stable neighborhoods -- or areas with such potential.

"No housing has been built in the city of Detroit since the 1980s without city subsidies," said Karla Henderson, the city's group executive in charge of planning and facilities, who is overseeing the effort. "So Detroit can drive housing."

Continued at: http://www.freep.com/article/2012021...-actually-work