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COOPERATIVE
Improved Services Attract More Arab Americans
To Detroit, But Challenges Remain
By Ali Harb
Detroit —
mproved city services and better quality of life in the
neighborhoods are prompting Arab Americans to buy
and rent homes in Detroit. These new Arab Detroiters
are benefiting from and contributing to the city's ongoing
I
recovery.
Despite the promise of Detroit's neighborhoods, chal-
lenges and concerns about safety and blight remain, resi-
dents and city officials said.
West Detroit neighborhoods have become a fertile des-
tination for Arab Americans looking for a new residence
or real estate investment, partly due to their proximity to
Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.
Rabih Haidar, a real estate investor who owns 16 homes
on the west side of Detroit, said the neighborhoods have
come a long way over the past two years.
"These neighborhoods have a huge promise," he said.
"We need people not to be scared. Detroit is a beautiful
city with massive potential. Why pay $150,000 for a house
in the suburbs when you can buy the same house for
$50,000 or less in a nice neighborhood in Detroit?"
In the Aviation Subdivision, which stretches across
Tireman Avenue east of Schaefer to the north, Haidar was
proudly showing off all the luxurious homes as if they were
his own. He bought four houses in that area.
"These are historic homes," he said. "You will not find
houses like that in the suburbs. There are barely any
empty homes here. The city is always doing work and
homeowners take care of their lawns."
However, Haidar acknowledged that it is not all rosy.
"We need more police presence," he said. "For the
neighborhoods around Warren [Avenue], the closest police
precinct is farther than a mile away on Joy Road."
The Arab American investor explained that additional
police patrols would solve multiple problems in the com-
munity, including break-ins, illegal bulk dumping and
loitering.
Around Warren Avenue, neighborhood conditions vary
by the block sometimes. A well-kept subdivision with no
vacancies could be a street down from a rundown block
with overgrown grass and several unoccupied properties.
Across from a lawn covered with trash in front of a
partly burned down home in Warrendale, a west Detroit
neighborhood, a resident expressed her frustration.
"This neighborhood is nasty," she said. "Nobody cleans
up. It is a hotbed for crime."
Two blocks down from that home on Auburn St., how-
ever, the neighborhood is almost blight-free.
Haidar explained that vacancies attract more devasta-
tion, while progress brings more improvement. He said
when a neighborhood is mostly populated, the residents
look after each other's properties.
The state of the neighborhoods
Abandoned homes are less numerous throughout west Detroit,
but they are still a hurdle in the progress of the neighborhoods.
Marshall Bullock, the manager of District Seven in the Detroit
Department of Neighborhoods, which covers the Western side
of the city, said his agency is aggressively tackling blight. The
department is acquiring ownership of abandoned houses, then
tearing down those that can't be repaired and selling the ones
in relatively good shape.
The city does not board up homes, he added. Instead, it pro-
vides neighbors with boards and connects them to volunteers
who can help them seal the unoccupied properties.
"When you can find active community groups, that's another
asset," Bullock said.
Bullock explained that as the number of vacancies decreas-
es, additional houses are turned over to the Wayne County
because of overdue taxes.
"Vacancy is fluid," he said. "We can tear down or sell 100
houses in an area and get 40 the following year."
Despite the progress, Bullock acknowledged that there is still
work to be done in terms of services.
"There is a difference between doing good and doing better,"
he said. "We're doing better, but we are not doing a great job."
A row of well-kept homes in Warrendale.
Arab Detroiters weigh in on the progress
Fahman Ali Wasel, 30, has bought two homes near Warren and
Southfield from the Detroit Land Bank. He said there is a robust
Arab American community in the area and more people are
moving in.
"Everything is great," he said. "The neighborhood is safe. We
have no complaints."
Khodor Hamade currently lives with his family in a rental
home near Warren Avenue, west of Greenfield Road. But soon
he will move into his own house, which is undergoing repairs, a
few blocks away.
Hamade bought the new home from the city for about
$14,000 in an auction.
The area is much safer than it was two years ago," he said.
"There has been a 180-degree turnaround. That's why I was
encouraged to buy. We can't afford a home in Dearborn. The
home here was an opportunity."
Hamade added that there is a stigma associated with living
in Detroit, but it doesn't bother him.
"When I told my brother I'm renting a house in Detroit, he
gasped," Hamade said. "Even today, when I tell people I live
here, their facial expressions change. People are scared of
Detroit. But I've been here for years. Nobody has ever harmed
me.
Khader Abu Khader, a Palestinian American handyman who
has been living in the city for eight years, said the neighbor-
hoods are getting better.
"The city is trying," he said. "They are installing new water
meters and gas meters. You can see more police cars around."
Abu Khader said the occupancy level in his neighborhood has
increased drastically over the past few years.
"But there are still a lot of problems," he added. "The farther
you are from the suburbs, things become less safe. I have
friends who own homes, but they are having a hard time find-
ing renters."
Growing diversity
"Metro Detroit suffers hyper segregation," community activist
Dawud Walid told The Arab American News last year. He argued
that ethnic communities in Southeast Michigan are separated
by de facto geographical demarcation lines.
But these lines are blurred in western Detroit, where each
block is home to families of several different backgrounds.
Haidar, the investor, emphasized the growing diversity in the
Garbage strewn across the lawn of another Warrendale home.
neighborhoods.
"A Yemeni family lives here," he said pointing to a house in
Warrendale. "A Black family lives here. A White family here. A
Lebanese family here. A Latino family here."
Mohammad Amri, a recent immigrant from Yemen who
bought a house from the Land Bank last year, said he was
partly drawn to Detroit because of the growing Arab presence.
"This an area with a great future," he said. "I have only
been here for a year and half, so I was happy live among Arab
Americans."
Mona Ali, the deputy manager of District Seven in the
Department of Neighborhoods, said the city is a welcoming
place for everybody.
Ali said the city is distributing multilingual flyers and reaching
out to the mosques and Arab American organizations to encour-
age community members to take advantage of the Land Bank
auctions.
"Everybody seems very interested," she said. "It's a
good opportunity for them to get involved and it's being
received well."
About this series
New Michigan Media (NMM) is a collaboration between the five largest
minority media in SE Michigan (The Arab American News, The Latino
Press, The Michigan Chronicle, The Michigan Korean Weekly, and The
Jewish News) with a combined estimated circulation of 120,000 weekly.
NMM is also a founding partner of The Detroit Journalism Cooperative
(DJC). Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,
Renaissance Journalism's Michigan Reporting Initiative and the Ford
Foundation, the DJC aims to report about and create community
engagement opportunities in Detroit and its post-bankruptcy recovery.
Each article in the series appears in all the NMM member newspapers,
and is posted on the DJC website.
This article is from THE ARAB-AMERICAN NEWS.
The DJC is a unique collaboration between important media outlets
of the region, and includes The Center for Michigan's Bridge Magazine,
Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public Radio, WDET and New
Michigan Media.
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