This article was produced in partnership with Planet Detroit.

A new community center in Detroit’s Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood is also a key part of the city’s climate strategy. 

The Community Center at A. B. Ford Park is part of the first three networks of resiliency hubs on the eastside of Detroit. In case of climate emergencies like power outages, heat waves or floods, these facilities serve the residents of the community as a central hub for resources, distribution, shelter, internet access and a place to charge devices.

The new facility includes a 70-kilowatt solar array with a backup battery and generator. This system can provide up to 72 hours of power. Ryter Cooperative Industries, a Black-owned company, was the primary solar contractor, and the development project served as a training opportunity for local contractors to learn how to install solar arrays.

The parking lot is equipped with green stormwater infrastructure and lots of native plants. The Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood was hard hit with flooding in 2021. The Lenox Center, an existing building in the park that was a pioneering resource for disabled people in the 1960s, was demolished as part of the renovation project because it was vulnerable to flooding and would have required extensive renovations. 

“This is our first community center in over 15 years in District 4,” Detroit Councilmember Latisha Johnson said during her remarks at a ribbon-cutting event on Oct. 19. “This community knows how important green stormwater infrastructure is to addressing and ensuring that we don’t continue to have problems with our combined sewer overflow system.” 

The new $7.9 million community center — built on higher ground — has a welcome desk, a cozy living room and library with fireplace, a multipurpose classroom, a flexible space for indoor sports, exercise classes or parties, and a large community event and meeting space with lots of big windows to view the future landscaped park and Detroit River. 

“My hope is that this center will serve as a place of empowerment where individuals can access educational programs, engage in recreational activities and build lasting connections with one another,” said Mary Sheffield, president of the Detroit City Council. “Hopefully it will serve as a sanctuary of growth where the potential of our youth and the wisdom of our elders can be nurtured and celebrated.”

In the fall of 2024, with funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, the surrounding green space will be transformed into a new park for residents and visitors with playgrounds for different ages, picnic areas, outdoor fitness equipment, basketball court, pickleball court, walking paths, shelters and fishing area. There will be a meadow, new trees planted and a wetland for wildlife.

Over 200 community members from Jefferson Chalmers and District 4 were engaged during the design process for the park and the building. 

Tammie Black, founder of the Manistique Community Treehouse, has led solar roof projects in Jefferson Chalmers that have helped 25 houses get solar power. And she hasn’t stopped there. She mentioned that plans are underway for a solar training house where people will learn how to implement solar. 

“I am numb,” she said. “All of our dreams and everything that we wanted inside of this space is here,” Black told Planet Detroit. “We’re going to continue this effort throughout.”

William Dawkins IV grew up in Highland Park and is working at the new center as the rec leader. He hopes to be able to create programming for all of the ages who will visit the center. He spent time training at the Patton and Adams Butzel recreation centers. 

At the ribbon-cutting, Dawkins pointed out the classroom area where attendees played bingo. Iconic Detroit dancer and model Fast Freddy — still going strong at 77 years old — led a hustle dance class in the large community room. 

Frank Bach, who has lived a block away for 44 years, said enjoying the park taught him that “recreation is essential to physical health and to mental health.”

“This is a place people can go when the power is out. Not only when the power is out — it’s a place for people to convene just to be amongst other people,” said Jack Akinlosotu, director of the city of Detroit’s Office of Sustainability. “This project is essential to Detroit’s climate strategy.”

New community center provides Detroit neighborhood with a climate refuge is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

This article was produced in partnership with Planet Detroit.

What does it mean to wage love?

The question, inspired by deceased Detroit activist Charity Mahouna Hicks, formed the centerpiece of a recent gathering of Detroit environmental justice advocates. 

Hicks, who died from injuries sustained after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in 2014 in New York City, made the phrase her mantra. For the panelists, answering that question means charting a course toward a better future.

Waging Love: Building an Environmentally Just Detroit featured an intergenerational panel of local activists and residents from Detroit’s environmental and climate justice movements. 

The panel capped off the 2023 Allied Media Projects’ Seeds Series designed to “bring together visionary minds from across the AMP network for dialogue, resource-sharing, and reflection.”

Producer Liz Kennedy moderated the panel, including Ahmina Maxey of Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition; Chrystal Ridgeway, a Core City resident activist; and Norrel Hemphill, an Equal Justice Works Fellow and attorney at the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center who works closely with We The People of Detroit. 

The event was held in the newly renovated Love Building, a new social justice hub in Detroit’s Core City, which houses Allied Media Projects, Detroit Justice Center, Detroit Narrative Agency, Detroit Disability Power, Detroit Community Technology Project, and Paradise Natural Foods.

The event opened with a land acknowledgment and remarks by David Pitawanakwat, the founder of the Detroit Indigenous Peoples Alliance. Before the panel discussion, DanceAbility Detroit, a dance group for people of all abilities, performed. 

Hemphill said she did not know Charity Hicks but knew that Hicks was warning people in the 1990s about what was coming with Detroit’s water issues — massive shutoffs of low-income Detroiters, often Black mothers — for nonpayment. She said Hicks sounded an early alarm about how water is often used to punish the most vulnerable “because if there is no running water, you are at risk of losing your children.” 

Hemphill acknowledged many other forebears to her work, including Detroit activist and former council person JoAnn Watson, who recently passed away, and two co-founders of We The People of Detroit, Monica Lewis-Patrick and Debra Taylor. 

“JoAnn Watson is the reason I do this work,” Hemphill said. “Mama Watson always said to deputize yourself. No one is coming to save poor little Black women in Detroit. You have all the things that you need to save yourselves.”

“We don’t wait for anybody to parachute in, we don’t wait for permission, we don’t wait for a door or somebody to offer us something. We make demands,” Hemphill told the audience.

Maxey remembered Hicks as someone who “exuded love.” Maxey tries to “do work that comes from the heart, leaning on our ancestors to keep us going when the work becomes hard.”

Ridgeway said that it feels like there is a war waged against love. 

“If you wage love on a daily basis, we would have no problems,” she said. She quoted her dad, who often said, “Your job on this planet is that any person you come in contact with is left better off after having met you.” 

The panel worked to define an environmentally just vision for Detroit amid a growing climate crisis, unjust environmental policies, widespread power outages, floods, air pollution from wildfires, and industry.

Ridgeway pointed to the Core City fight against a concrete company that wanted to set up a crushing facility in their neighborhood. For example, residents stood up to fight for the integrity of their community. The company, she said, thought no one lived in the neighborhood.

“An environmentally just Detroit is a place where policies are not left vague,” she said. “As community members, we are responsible for being awake, aware, and walking our neighborhood.”

Maxey introduced the idea of affordable, reliable, clean energy as a crucial part of an environmental justice vision.

“Success to me looks like people who represent us at the city level and at the state level have Detroiters’ best interests at heart and are free from political contributions from these major polluters,” she said, noting that most legislators accept money from DTE Energy. 

“You see what’s happening in the state and the city with outages and shut-offs. You have a climate bill that is being pushed through the legislature that is trying to be carbon neutral instead of being 100% about renewable energy,” she said. “If you have 93% of senators taking money from the same person who’s gonna get affected by this particular policy, we’re never going to get to this vision.”

Success, Maxey said, is about fair representation.”No matter what you look like, no matter where you live, you have access to clean air and clean water. That your vote and your voice are not being co-opted by somebody who may look like you but is not actually representing you. The way to move towards success is to think about cumulative impact. Not the one facility but the 10 that are in the neighborhood.” 

Hemphill highlighted the year-old Detroit Lifeline Fund, a measure adopted by the city to tie water rates to income, as an example of community voice having an impact.

“The good that you see in the Detroit Lifeline Plan is the ‘we’ of the community and the ‘we’ that’s in We The People of Detroit. That dashboard you see is because we demanded transparency,” Hemphill said, referring to the city’s online tracker for the Lifeline program, which displays metrics for participation and dollars spent.

She insisted that residents must demand public officials do what they’re supposed to do and write letters so they go in the public record. 

Hemphill shared with the audience that state Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, has been leading an effort to make water affordable for all Michiganders. She encouraged everyone to go online to Wel Coalition to take the pledge, sign on, and learn more.

“Community is the antidote,” Kennedy said. “Getting organized, knowing your neighbors. Being embodied in our relationships to living here on this land.”

This was the first public event in the Love Building. Allied Media Projects will have an official grand opening event soon.

Environmental justice activists issue a call to ‘wage love,’ work toward building an environmentally just Detroit is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

This story was produced in partnership with Planet Detroit.

Meghan Richards’ career as a community organizer began with a crisis.

Amid historic rainfall in June 2021, Richards’ basement in Detroit’s Morningside neighborhood flooded, destroying clothes, furniture, and her furnace and air conditioner. She was worried about mold in the basement and didn’t know where to turn.

That’s when Angela Brown Wilson, a family friend and chief operating officer at Eastside Community Network, stepped in. Wilson heard about Richards’ plight and urged her to seek help from ECN, a community development organization on Detroit’s east side. 

Staff at ECN helped Richards fill out forms for federal help. As a result, FEMA provided financial and relocation assistance, which was a huge help for Richards, a single mom. Workers removed damaged items that were too heavy for her to discard alone. They cleaned and sanitized the basement so that Richards could return home with her family.

“Being able to get help right down the street was life-saving,” she said. “I didn’t have to drive to the west side. I just had to go down the street and it felt good.”

That experience eventually led Richards to apply for a job at the organization in 2022. Richards is now part of a team organizing a network of community resilience hubs on the east side of Detroit. 

Resilience hubs are designated locations in neighborhoods that support residents of that community. These hubs serve as a center for vital information and assistance during emergency situations, a function that’s becoming more important as climate change brings more intense severe weather events to the region. They can also distribute food, and allow residents to power up their laptops or cell phones when the power goes out. When there isn’t a crisis, residents may hold meetings, attend classes and participate in other community events at the hub.

ECN has announced several resilience hub locations with additional sites being considered. Richards is responsible for assembling roundtables with community leaders on the lower east side under the Resilient Eastside Initiative. One place might be a charging station, another a food distribution or warming station. Residents will be able to know where they can go to get what they need in an interconnected network of hubs. 

“The goal is to form a network so that when an emergency happens, everybody is already connected and knows who does what,” Richards told Planet Detroit.

Richards aims to treat people the way she was treated during her crisis. Having received help from ECN after experiencing a personal crisis gives her a unique perspective. 

“I know what it feels like to need help and to be treated warmly and not like a number,” she said. “That is why this work is so important. I understand how important it is and the difference it makes psychologically. People need that. They deserve it.”

Richards was born and raised in Detroit. She recalls a time when everyone knew each other in neighborhoods and came together to help each other. She’s trying to bring that feeling back through her work.

“When I look back and take stock in the experience I had coming to ECN after the flood, it really is like a core memory for me. It brings me so much comfort,” she said. “Being able to help to put things in place for people, so they can have those same experiences I had, is life-changing.” 

Richards aspires to go back to school and study business management. She enjoys researching and learning about food and wants to teach young people about food and healthy options.

“To help a person who is going through trauma is life-changing,” she said. “What we are doing is going to be life-changing for hundreds, hopefully thousands, of residents,” she said.

For Richards, Detroit’s east side is a very special place. 

“We’re in the climate race and we know that may take years, but in the meantime, we need to build community back,” Richards said. “I want to continue to make a difference, build relationships and help make the community stronger. There is no place like Detroit.”

How a climate-fueled disaster led a native Detroiter to a career helping her neighbors is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

This story was produced in partnership with Planet Detroit.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated a home project used hempcrete as a substitute for fiberglass insulation. That product is called hempwool. The story has been updated.

Seasoned housepainter Kim Croes had a big problem — increasingly, the fumes from the paint she used in her work were making her sick. 

She often experienced headaches, nosebleeds, and coughing during and after a job. Croes, who lives in Detroit and works all over the region, knew that most conventional paints contain harmful chemicals and frequent exposure to paint fumes is a real cause for health concerns. 

So a few years ago, she began researching healthier options for paint, wall surfaces and insulation. That’s when she stumbled on hempcrete — a mix of hemp hurd, lime and water. 

While it can’t replace traditional concrete in load-bearing applications, hempcrete can be used for insulation, walls and flooring. It is biodegradable and non-toxic. 

When she first heard about hempcrete, Croes was skeptical. But she came to believe in it so much that she started her company, FiberFort, in 2021 with a mission of offering healthier building options like hempcrete, other hemp products, and non-toxic mineral-based and limewash paints for her clients. In 2022, developers of Michigan’s first hemp-based house in Chelsea chose FiberFort to install spray hempcrete insulation.

“The whole intention of starting this company is to make a healthier environment for people and myself,” said Croes, who has begun a hempcrete-based bathroom retrofit in her older Detroit home. “Homeowners and builders should consider using eco-friendly materials.”

A nascent but growing movement of builders like Croes across Michigan is starting to experiment with hemp building materials. Backers say it is safer and more sustainable than foam and fiberglass insulation. Skeptics point out its high costs and a lack of access to the product. But proponents hope these challenges will be overcome as the hemp industry grows and matures.

Hope for a better health 

In 2020, Jessie DeDecker of Hastings, Michigan, received a devastating diagnosis: mast cell activation syndrome, sometimes called multiple chemical sensitivities disorder. Those with the condition experience repeated episodes of allergic symptoms like migraine headaches, whole-body inflammation, muscle weakness, low blood pressure, breathing challenges, and stomach ailments.

“It makes me extremely sensitive to the point of being allergic to a whole bunch of chemicals,” DeDecker said. 

The apartment she lived in, over 150 years old, contained mold and triggered her illness, forcing the 29-year-old to move back in with her parents. The ordeal prompted DeDecker and her family to search for a solution to her housing dilemma. 

Jessie’s mom, Laurie DeDecker, told Planet Detroit that it all started with an internet search for alternative building materials. She came across an article about hempcrete, learned that it was mold-resistant, and thought, “What the heck is this?”

“We knew we would have to build something because there was literally nothing in our area that would be safe for her,” Laurie DeDecker said. 

“In Barry County, where I live, it’s old houses or brand new construction,” Jessie DeDecker told Planet Detroit, noting that she is allergic to paint, vinyl flooring, adhesives, and other materials used in new buildings. “Most low-income housing is built from very inexpensive thin materials. You get a lot of off-gassing and it’s not durable,” she said.

DeDecker soon connected with Blain Becktold, one of the founding members of the nonprofit organization iHemp Michigan, and Cody Ley, founder of Hemp 4 Humanity and a regional representative of the U.S. Hemp Building Association. Now they are on a journey to build a safe home for Jessie, with plans to break ground in 2024.

“Our goal is to build her house as our first proof of concept and then look for funding and support to build future homes for others like Jessie,” Laurie DeDecker said. 

Building a modern hemp industry

Ken and Pat Kucab of Beverly Hills, Michigan, used a different hemp-based material – called hempwool – in a home project in Trout Lake. They sought natural, biodegradable insulation and wanted to avoid the hard-to-handle fiberglass batt insulation. 

The hempwool “provided the same R-factor as regular fiberglass insulation, and it was a good DIY contribution to the project,” Ken Kucab said. The R-factor is a measure of insulation performance.

For Kucab, the benefits of using hemp include avoiding exposure to chemicals and the material’s biodegradability. “We were able to install it ourselves. It was relatively easy but more time-consuming than fiberglass or spray-on foam insulation,” he said. “The hemp plant and its usefulness in building, insulating, clothing and a myriad of other products should be one of the sources to assist in cleaning up the environment and reduce our need for oil and the plastics that come with it.”

But he acknowledged the material has its limitations, including availability and cost. “Product distribution was limited when we purchased the hemp batts, so our cost for the hemp was higher,” he said.

In a future project, Kucab plans to use hemp blocks or hempcrete walls to provide added comfort.

“We bought it when it was not cost justifiable, but the price is moving closer to a similarly performing fiberglass batt,” he said. “Hempcrete walls replacing fiberglass insulated walls would be a huge move to provide better interior environments and great insulation.”

One possible factor contributing to the market’s slow growth is the 80-year federal ban on hemp cultivation. It’s only been legal to grow hemp since 2018, when the Farm Bill authorized its production and removed hemp and hemp seeds from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s schedule of controlled substances. It will take some time to build up the industrial hemp supply chain in Michigan since there are no processing facilities in the state. 

Becktold, who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 27 years, would like to see the same incentives for farmers growing hemp as are offered for other crops. Most federal funding for hemp has gone to research, market development, and animal feed.

One bright spot: in 2024, the International Residential Code, which establishes minimum regulations for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses, will include hempcrete and hemp lime.

Advocates point out that places like Detroit could benefit from hempcrete, where unhealthy housing is an environmental justice issue contributing to the city’s high asthma prevalence.

“This could be proof of concept for chemically sensitive housing but also start showing the wider community of builders and government, especially community projects for low-income housing, that this is a really good choice,” Jessie DeDecker said. “The more people who know about this, the more it will help beyond me. There are so many people of all demographics and all walks of life that could really really benefit.”

Hempcrete shows promise for healthy housing rehabilitation is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

This story was produced in partnership with Planet Detroit.

On Belvidere Street on Detroit’s east side, Tammara Howard’s efforts to build a community space show what is possible with limited resources. Her project, What About Us?, provides a place for the community to gather, learn from one another and share resources. 

“I want to let people see that there is hope,” Howard told Planet Detroit. 

Spaces like Howard’s are also an important tactic for historically under-resourced communities to adapt to a warming climate. Local nonprofit Eastside Community Network is working with Howard and others on Detroit’s east side to develop a network of climate resilience hubs — defined by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network as “community-serving facilities augmented to support residents, coordinate communication, distribute resources, and reduce carbon pollution while enhancing the quality of life.”

That could mean a safe place to charge phones or store medicine during power outages or a cooling center to protect people during heat waves. Hubs can also be a point of contact to learn about resources so that residents are better prepared to ride out a crisis.

“The community needs a safe, familiar, welcoming place to come to both on a day-to-day basis and in times of distress,” said Ricky Ackerman, director of climate equity at Eastside Community Network. “Tam has a great sense of community embedded in her, and it shows in all she does.”

But for Howard, the mission is about more than just crisis response.

“What drives me to do what I do is the love I have for the families and my community,” Howard told Planet Detroit. “I always feel like love in the community is the greatest thing so that we can all work together to build and raise our families to live in a nice, healthy, and safe environment.”

‘Leads with love’ 

Howard lives in the same east side neighborhood she grew up in, where she raised her own children and now receives visits from her grandchildren. She lives in the same house that her mother, who volunteered in their community for decades, was raised in. 

Howard started What About Us? in 2014 but was already running the Belvidere Community Youth Block Club since 2000.

The block club launched with youth and families in mind, with Howard aiming to find ways for the community to work together. “I felt how important it was,” she said.

Howard, who has three children, launched the block club to give her kids something constructive to do with their friends; they cleaned up trash around the community, cut grass, and started gardening.

It was her involvement in her kids’ schools, where she was president of the local school community organization, that launched her community activism.

“I formed relationships with the youth and their parents,” she said. “I had a lot of time to do things with the kids. That’s how I originally started all this.”

Word got around, and a lot of families that did not live on Belvidere started asking to be a part of Howard’s active block club. That’s what prompted her to start What About Us? in 2014.

“It don’t matter where you live. You don’t have to live in Detroit. Just come. That’s what the concept is, for everybody to benefit,” she said.

What About Us? receives some financial support from Detroit Residents First Fund and Community Connections and is a partner with Eastside Community Network. 

“They are helping to build our resiliency hub with the support and stuff that we need in order to help make it a great success, and we thank them for that,” Howard told Planet Detroit.

But Howard has bootstrapped much of the project using her own limited resources.

“A lot of people are already running spaces serving the role of a resilience hub even if they’re not calling it that,” Ackerman told Planet Detroit. “We’re trying to identify those spots, connect with them, and see how we can best support them.”

Sabrina Hollis, who has lived on Belvidere Street for about 20 years, recently participated in a community vision board party where the residents clipped images and words out of magazines to represent what they hope to see in their community, and shared those ideas with one another. She was able to meet a lot of different people and discuss things that will be going on in the community.

“I think it’s great to have a resiliency hub right in my neighborhood, on my block,” she said. 

Along with the resiliency hub, Howard is working on a new mobile unit, which she purchased with her own money, cleared out, and plans to use to serve the community beyond Belvidere Street — especially residents who cannot leave their homes easily. 

“This is an example of how committed Tam is,” Ackerman said. “She also shows up for everyone and is so supportive of other community leaders around the east side. She truly leads with love and always looks for ways to build up everyone around her.”

A place for power

Like many neighborhoods in Detroit, residents on Belvidere Street often lose power. The trailer is there for residents to use during emergencies when the power is out. Howard has a gas generator onsite to allow residents to charge their phones and medical devices and put their medicine in the refrigerator until they know what is going to happen with the power. 

The last time the neighborhood lost power was in February, and since it was cold outside, What About Us? gave neighbors insulated bags to keep their refrigerated items on the back porches of their houses. They also gave residents solar-powered lights.

“When it’s a power outage, and it’s dark, people don’t like to leave their house. Nobody wants anyone to go in their house,” Howard said. “We gave out some solar lights so that at night, people could see.”

The solar lights worked so well, Howard plans to get solar lights for emergency kits to hand out to neighbors. Eastside Community Network is also working with the nonprofit organization Elevate to connect resiliency hubs to solar energy and battery storage. 

Photos of activities, events, and field trips over the years cover the walls inside the trailer. At least twice, or sometimes three times a month, Howard holds some kind of event on her block, either for the kids or for the community. And she’ll often invite construction workers in for lemonade or offer refrigerator space for someone who needs it.

The organization has about 10 volunteers, and most of the events take place outside, where residents feel safer due to the covid pandemic. Inside the trailer, there is a small classroom space, kitchen, storage area, and another space where students can do homework after school. Programs regularly serve about 50 families, with larger events reaching more than 200 people.

One of the biggest events is an annual health and safety fair — this year’s event will be the  15th year it’s been held. The event will be held on Wednesday, July 26, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hollis’ son was two years old when they first attended the fair, and he is now 15 going on 16. 

Howard “has consistently ensured that every year there’s a safety fair on Belvidere between East Warren and Moffat. People that live on other blocks are welcomed as well,” Hollis said.

The fire department does demonstrations about how to make sure residents are safe in their homes, local banks provide financial literacy training, and the Secretary of State brings a mobile truck so people can get their IDs renewed. Home repair experts are on hand to advise residents on how to get a new roof or make other home repairs.

The next project What About Us? is working on is designing a playground for kids of all ages and abilities called the “Live, Learn and Love” project, funded through a Community Connections grant to design a space for young people. 

The project includes a music wall with musical instruments at the bottom and the top of the fence walls for kids to make music — including pots, pans, and spoons from resale shops. Howard also plans to add picnic tables with instruments bolted down to them. The lot will soon be fenced in and will have areas for the parents to sit while the children play.

“This is really a passion for her. It comes from the heart. It’s not just something she’s doing to benefit from it,” Hollis said. “Yes, she actually really does care.”

Eastside Community Network staff see Howard’s work as a model for the resilience hubs it’s trying to develop across the east side — and a call to get more resources to community leaders.

“What Tam is able to get done with the limited resources she has had showcases the need and importance of getting more resources to neighborhood-based groups like hers,” Ackerman said.   

“They know what can have the biggest impact for residents in their area, and more resources going directly to neighborhood groups can greatly expand their impact.”

Detroit resident ‘leads with love’ while laying a foundation for neighborhood climate resiliency is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.