City officials say $347M HUD grant will boost sewer line repair
Federal officials joined Mayor Mike Duggan, the city's water and housing departments and city council members to announce funds to address severe weather events.
Federal funding granted to Detroit by the Biden-Harris administration will fix alley sewer lines causing basements to flood, city officials announced Wednesday.
The city of Detroit has been granted $346,864,000 in federal funding to repair damaged caused by last summer’s storms and prevent future climate upheaval — a “Christmas gift” officials say will effect Detroiters almost immediately.
The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) funding announced this week to repair damage caused by storms last summer and improve infrastructure across the county and state.
In late-August 2023, areas of southeast Michigan recorded 60-80 MPH wind gusts, including several tornadoes, which lead to extensive tree damage and power outages. At the peak, close to 500,000 customers lost power.
The funds are part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) allocation of nearly $12 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds for communities across 24 states and territories.
Wayne County has been awarded $70,382,000,
The state of Michigan, $43,570,000.
The money comes HUD’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding, the only federal disaster recovery assistance to primarily help low- and moderate-income households and communities replace damaged affordable housing and upgrade infrastructure.
Officials will have to determine how and where to use it. Provided by the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2025, the award can only be used to repair 2023 storm damage and prevent more natural disasters in the future.
“This has to be resiliency and climate change,” Duggan said.
The city says it will stay within HUD guidelines to prepare a plan and host community engagement sessions with the public for feedback.
“The biggest question being ‘where do we start?’” Duggan said.
In the next 30 days, the city’s water and sewage department (DWSD) will have an idea of where they use the money, Duggan said.
Julie Schneider, director of the city’s Department of Housing and Revitalization explained the process which will involve city council approval to ultimately decide where money is allocated will involve assessing federal data to determine locations most impacted by last year’s storm and future rain damage.
Duggan says he expects city council to “move faster than the rest of America,” so that work can begin quickly, adding he believes contracts should get signed and crews are working this year to repair three or four areas across the city. About 1,800 miles of old alley sewer lines built 70-90 years ago for a city of 1.8 million residents required federal support, the mayor’s office wrote in a press release.
“Future rain storms are coming,” Duggan said at Wednesday’s press conference.
The city is already spending $50 million a year replacing sewer mains, according to Sam Smalley, Deputy director at DWSD. Smalley said the funding will make a huge impact on the department’s ability to continue fixing its sewer system.
More climate news
Later Wednesday afternoon at a separate press conference for an announcement about a new solar farm, council member Latisha Johnson, said her district has experienced the effects of climate change first hand.
“We’ve seen rainfall come in our homes just from the insurmountable amount of water falling at one time.”
Johnson represents parts of the east side that in recent years have taken on major flooding. Heavy rainfall overwhelmed drainage systems in Jefferson Chalmers in 2021, and many residents worry about the amount of sewage water residing throughout the neighborhood’s canals.
Read more from Hour: Detroit Underwater: A Closer Look at Flooding in Metro Detroit
Johnson referenced the “urban heat island effect” in the city, which she believes contributes to the region’s poor environmental health.
The second phase of its solar neighborhoods program will be located at the east side’s Houston-Whitter/Hayes neighborhood and the west side of the city’s Greenfield Park, officials announced Wednesday.
Officials hope the “solar neighborhoods” will reduce asthma rates and improve the health of residents and puts the empty land into use. The solar panels are set to be fixed with manicured meadow landscape.
More on what the solar farms will look like from Planet Detroit
Last November, city council approved the placement of solar panels in areas zoned for seperate purposes. Leaders say the energy will be enough to power the city's 127 municipal buildings, which used to be powered by an incinerator that burned trash to generate steam and electricity, a longtime resident at the press conference recalled.
The incinerator, demolished in 2023, was championed by late Mayor Coleman Young, who went ahead with the controversial plan to create the state’s largest trash-to-energy incinerator despite protest from environmental groups.