Past Projects

The Detroit Housing Counseling and Homeownership project is a collaboration between the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being, Southwest Economic Solutions, and David Palmer LLC. To better understand the landscape available to first-time homebuyers in Detroit, the partnership is using data on property sales from the Detroit city assessor’s office. These data track the nature of the property (commercial or residential), the terms of the sale, the sale instrument, as well as the sale price. Our team is aggregating these transactions across Detroit neighborhoods to identify where in the city the housing market is functioning well, and where it can be improved.

The Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) project was a national initiative to introduce and test the effectiveness of child savings accounts (CSA). By focusing on childhood, SEED hoped to demonstrate that given the opportunity, mechanism and encouragement to save, low-income families could provide a valuable nest egg to youth when they finish high school.

Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan awarded the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being one of six Strategic Partnerships to Improve Economic Mobility grants. This $25,000 award is a collaboration with Easter Michigan University’s Family Empowerment Program and the Washtenaw County Racial Equity Office to measure the impact of COVID-19 on low-income, African American residents of Ypsilanti, Michigan.