The classes are offered by the Silver Center, a virtual senior center that offers enrichment and educational programs via phone to help adults 60 years old or older stay connected. While the program started before the pandemic, organizers hope it will mitigate some of the negative health and social impacts caused by social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Detroit School was created in 2012 by University of Michigan Professor Margaret Dewar and three PhD students in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, who wanted to view urban planning through the lens of shrinking populations. 

While further research is needed, the U-M experts believe their findings—published in Science of The Total Environment—could provide evidence for the Environmental Protection Agency to ease some of the costly abatement burden for demolitions for cities around the country.

“Perhaps more importantly, health and housing work in Detroit is ultimately racial justice work. I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, and what I do is motivated by the overt and disturbing inequities that exist in the Detroit metropolitan region… I hope that my work can bring some material benefit to the people of Detroit.”
~ Alexa Eisenberg

“A number of people in the area are also reporting that the shaking from rumbling trucks is cracking foundations and plaster. They are literally watching their homes fall apart as a result of the construction where they live,” said Amy Schulz, a professor of health behavior and health education at U-M School of Public Health.

A new University of Michigan and Harvard University study shows an 11% drop in homicides and serious injuries caused by firearms in the areas where more than a few demolitions took place. The study does not find that such incidents went up in nearby neighborhoods.

University of Michigan researchers are monitoring Detroit’s vegetation from space to understand its connection to urban decline — and gaining insights into a public health threat emanating from the city’s vacant lots.

Increasing awareness of a program designed to prevent foreclosure among low-income homeowners in Detroit and making the application process easier are among the recommendations to help residents stay in their homes.

Detroit homeowners in danger of losing their homes to property tax foreclosure are not tapping into a fund that could save them.