This map shows the Detroit neighborhoods that received targeted infrastructure improvements through the Strategic Neighborhood Fund.
Contact: Lauren Slagter, lslag@umich.edu
DETROIT – Neighborhood satisfaction declined across Detroit as the pandemic spread, but neighborhoods with targeted infrastructure improvements were more resilient, according to a study based on survey data from the past five years.
Survey data reported by University of Michigan researchers reveals that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has altered Detroit residents’ relationships with their neighborhoods, with an overall decline in satisfaction linked to business closures, stay-at-home orders, economic losses due to economic shutdowns, and rising infection and death rates.
The decline in satisfaction was most pronounced in areas that did not receive $262 million in focused infrastructure investments from the City of Detroit, Invest Detroit and their partners as part of the Strategic Neighborhood Fund program.
Lydia Wilden
“The pandemic has clearly shaped how Detroit residents view their neighborhoods and shaken their sense of their neighborhood’s progress. But our findings suggest that people’s perceptions of change in their neighborhoods have largely stagnated rather than fully reversed during the pandemic,” said Lydia Wilden, a research associate at the University of Michigan’s Detroit Metropolitan Community Studies. “This means that investments in the neighborhood, rather than losing momentum, may have helped stabilize the community during that turbulent time.”
Wilden, who is also a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago’s Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, A series of reports on survey data.
Subsequent surveys (2022 and 2023) document the emergence of a “new normal” in which residents’ satisfaction with their neighborhood, changes in quality of life and perceptions of change in their neighborhood have remained roughly stable.
In other areas, namely satisfaction with amenities such as the presence of parks and playgrounds and the condition of roads and sidewalks, resident sentiment recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Resident perceptions showed signs of positive change linked to changes in the population and the perceived attractiveness of the area.
The Strategic Neighborhood Fund program is a community-based investment initiative to develop dense, safe, mixed-income neighborhoods that increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life for residents. The Strategic Neighborhood Fund is administered by Invest Detroit and is comprised of public and philanthropic funds, as well as loans. The program has primarily steered investment to 10 Detroit neighborhoods through funding for infrastructure improvements, including park improvements, street improvements, commercial district development, and affordable single-family housing development.
In 2016, the Strategic Neighborhood Fund began investing in Detroit’s Southwest/Vernor, Livernois/McNichols and Islandview/Greater Villages neighborhoods. In 2018, it began directing funding to seven other neighborhoods: Grand River/Northwest, Warrendale/Cody Rouge, Russell Woods/Nardin Park, Campau/Banglatown, Jefferson Chalmers, East Warren/Cadieux and Gratiot/7 Mile.
The Gilbert Family Foundation announced in May that it would commit $15 million to launch the third phase of Strategic Neighborhood Fund investments in the same 10 neighborhoods.
In 2019, 69% of Detroit residents said they were satisfied with their neighborhoods, falling to 62% by 2023. The decline in satisfaction is most pronounced in areas that have not received targeted infrastructure investments, where satisfaction declined from 69% in 2019 to 60% in 2023.
Over the same time period, the first set of neighborhoods that received Strategic Neighborhood Fund investments (SNF 1.0) saw satisfaction drop from 80% to 71%, the second set of more advantaged neighborhoods that received investments (SNF 2.1) saw satisfaction drop from 74% to 70%, and the second set of less advantaged neighborhoods that received investments (SNF 2.2) saw satisfaction drop from 58% to 51%.
Another notable trend in the survey responses is the difference in resident sentiment across different neighborhoods: on many measures, residents in SNF 1.0 and 2.1 neighborhoods have brighter perceptions and more positive feelings about their neighborhoods, while residents in SNF 2.2 neighborhoods tend to be the most negative when assessing the situation in their neighborhoods.
Jermaine Ruffin
“Knowing what residents think about the changes Strategic Neighborhood Fund investments have brought to their neighborhoods is invaluable, and the University of Michigan’s Metropolitan Detroit Community Survey provides a unique tool to understand neighborhood revitalization efforts through the eyes of residents while the investments are being made and for years afterward,” he said. Germaine Ruffin, regional senior vice president, Invest Detroit.
The Metropolitan Detroit Community Survey began surveying Detroit residents about their neighborhoods in 2019, while early investments in the first set of neighborhoods were coming to fruition and investments in the second set of neighborhoods were still in the planning stages. The survey will continue in 2021, 2022, and 2023, asking the following questions:
- neighborhood satisfaction;
- Quality of life;
- Neighborhood reputation;
- Satisfaction with neighborhood amenities such as affordable housing, shops, road and sidewalk conditions, and public facilities.
- Changes in area attractiveness, population, and business presence over time.
- Changes in rents and house prices over time
- Perceptions of crime and safety.
In total, the study collected nearly 9,000 observations from 4,012 Detroit residents across four time points.
“A time-series survey of local sentiment among residents of SNF areas“, The research team has published four reports outlining: Changes in resident sentiment regarding Strategic Neighbourhood Fund investments over each survey year. These reports can be found below.
2019 Report
2021 Report
2022 Report
2023 Report
