It’s a struggle to live in a neighborhood that’s dying [Detroit Free Press]

May 20--When Rosetta Newby and her husband moved to their neighborhood near the Davison Freeway and East McNichols 44 years ago, it was racially mixed, and on every lot stood an occupied home.

Newby, 75, and now a widow, recalls the neighborhood had grocery stores, restaurants and other businesses. She could walk to everything.

Four decades later, nine occupied houses remain on her stretch of Charest. The closest grocery store is miles away on 7 Mile Road, and many businesses such as dry cleaners and drug stores are gone.

"We had stores and everything over here," she said.

Newby's neighborhood, and others like it in Detroit, may one day disappear completely, if the city has its way. The city has decided to concentrate its resources in more stable neighborhoods and provide little, if any, services to heavily blighted areas.

Newby said it doesn't surprise her that her block has been labeled distressed by the city. The city, she said, is doing what the private sector already has: divesting in her neighborhood.

In the U.S. census tract where Newby lives, 46% of the households have incomes of less than $15,000, and 17.5% of residents are older than 62, according to the 2010 census.

Newby lives on a monthly $800Social Security check and said she struggles as expenses keep rising, such as her homeowners insurance.

She has Michigan Basic Insurance and pays $1,644 a year to insure her small home, about 17% of her yearly income. She has called other insurers, one of whom told her that if they gave her insurance, they would have to charge her twice what she now pays. She said the agent explained that Newby lives in a high-risk area.

"One reason is that they consider this a red district because it has abandoned houses," Newby said. "I can't help that the city won't tear the houses down."

Newby said she tried to get a bank loan for $8,000 to $10,000 to get a new furnace and windows because her gas bill has been too high -- it was $254 for February, she said.

She said a bank officer told her six years ago not to put any more money into her house because she would never recover it. "And they were telling the truth," she said.

Newby figures her house is worth up to $7,000, but she won't sell it for that.

She says of the city: "Why wouldn't you help the people who are trying to keep the neighborhood up?"

If the city wants people to relocate, she said, it should buy out residents.

"Why would you relocate when you've lived someplace all your life?" Newby said.

As Mayor Dave Bing's Detroit Works Project moves forward, what to do with residents such as Newby will be a question his administration must answer.

"We don't want to put people in a situation where they are financially worse off than they currently are," said Karla Henderson, group executive for Planning and Facilities for the city.

For residents like Newby, the city has been consulting with the Detroit Area Agency on Aging about senior housing options.

"We don't want to be in the business of social work or case management," Henderson said.

Newby said she won't consider moving into senior citizen housing because her 19-year-old grandnephew, a Wayne State University student, lives with her.

"He's got to have a place to live," said Newby, who raised him from infancy.

The neighborhood continues to change for the worse. Next door to Newby, the house is vacant. In December, Newby's neighbor, who had lived in the home for 40 years, moved after three back-to-back break-ins.

A for-sale sign in the front yard advertises it for rent with a number to call Zeke.

"It's mostly like a ghost town over there," said Ezekiel Smith, 43, who works with Rondo Investment, a real estate firm, on a finder's fee basis.

He says a house in good condition in the neighborhood might have fetched $10,000 at one time. But now, the houses are selling for $3,000 to $5,000 at most.

Smith said that despite the decline, there are people who want to live in the area because that's where they grew up or they have family members still there.

The middle class has moved out. "Mostly low-income people are still there," he said.

Smith himself grew up in the neighborhood but hasn't lived there in 23 years, he said. He notes one change for the better -- less crime.

"There was more crime in there because there were more people in there," he said.

As for homeowners who want to leave, Smith has some advice.

"Take what you can get and move on," he said.

Contact Cecil Angel: 313-223-4531 or [email protected]

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