Million Dollar Grant Awarded to Reduce Violent Crime on Detroit’s Eastside

By Karen Hudson Samuels/Tell Us Detroit

DETROIT (Tell Us Det) - A major grant from the Department of Justice has been awarded to the Detroit Crime Commission (DCC) to tackle violent crime, economic distress and urban blight on Detroit’s eastside.

U.S. Congressman Hansen Clarke presented a check for $1,000,000 dollars to DCC Executive Director Andrew Arena at a Tuesday morning news conference announcing the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation grant. Hansen, who represents Detroit’s eastside, says he is confident the DCC will manage the grant responsibly “to make our streets safer.”

The grant will focus resources on a four square mile area that is plagued by criminal activity and economic hardship. Arena said the area is bounded on the east by State Fair and Moross, on the south by Whittier, on the southeast by 1-94 and by Gratiot on the west.

Using a data driven approach, “hot spots” -- those areas with the most violent crime and defenders -- will be identified and resources brought to bear in tackling violence and their underlying causes.

In addition, “We’ll be looking at violent crime suppression” said Arena, through gang intervention and dealing with the problem of abandoned properties where criminal activity often takes place.

The DCC will administer the grant that will be carried out by the Detroit Eastern District Initiative project. An abstract of the project recaps the history of the grant area once known as “Copper Canyon” because of the large numbers of police officers and firefighters that called in home.

However, when the city rescinded its residency requirement for city employees in 2002 the exodus to the suburb began.

Abandonment of the area was also fueled by predatory lending practices and the 2008 mortgage crisis – the result is a landscape with approximately 5,000 abandoned properties and alarming rates of crime.

From January 2010 to May 2012, the area had 170 homicides and thousands of aggravated assaults and armed robberies in that same time period.

The Detroit Crime Commission will partner with the law enforcement offices of the Detroit and Wayne County, the Department of Corrections, the Children’s Aid Society, Michigan State University, religious organizations and others to prevent and reduce violent crime and its economic impact. Work on the grant begins immediately.