Strategy and Persistence Pays Off for Detroit People’s Platform

Detroit People’s Platform (DPP), a founding member of Bridge to Power, led a coalition of affordable housing advocates and organizers through persistent long-term organizing that paid off in March when the recently elected Detroit Mayor, Mary Sheffield, signed an executive order to expand the Detroit Affordable Housing Development and Preservation Trust Fund (DAHDTF), effective July 1, 2026. 

The order directs 100% of commercial property sale proceeds to the fund, up from the current level of 40% under the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, which Sheffield championed in 2014 as an incoming City Council member.  This is one of many ways Mayor Sheffield said her administration will increase the city’s capacity to build and preserve more affordable housing.

Under the original housing trust fund ordinance, at least 70% of the expenditures from the housing trust fund in any given three-year period are directed to projects that provide housing units to households making 30% or less of the Area Median Income. The remainder of fund expenditures support projects that provide housing units to households making 50% or less of AMI.

According to Linda Campbell, Director of Detroit People’s Platform, and co-founder of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Coalition, this win is significant because it benefits Detroiters who are most impacted by the housing crisis, families with incomes below $33,000 a year. Linda also emphasized that this win is important because it aligns funding with average renters instead of the millions of public investment spent on development of luxury apartments in the previous administration.

This victory took time.The campaign began 2014 with organizing, advocacy and education of then Councilmember Sheffield and other council members.  Sheffield attended a DPP sponsored learning session on affordable housing trust funds, where organizers from Pittsburgh and Baltimore who had recently won housing trust in their cities shared their insights. Over this time, Sheffield deepened her commitment to make Detroit affordable for all Detroiters by introducing and working to pass the original housing trust fund ordinance in 2017.

Sheffield had opposition for her housing policies and needed to win over the political will of the council. This is where the housing trust fund coalition led by DPP became vital to winning. They organized a base of Detroiters to apply public pressure. They showed up in numbers at every budget hearing, educated the public and kept the issue alive. They built a narrative of the housing trust fund as local funding that Detroiters have control over. Their theme was money generated by Detroiters to meet the needs of Detroiters: “housing for us and by us.”

Because of the continual organizing, advocacy and public education by DPP and the housing trust fund coalition, the now Mayor Sheffield has the political will and power to implement the executive order she signed in March. 

What is next for DPP’s housing justice work?  Linda shared that they have worked with a community partner to establish a land trust that was a major concession from the CBA agreement in 2024. They are serving on council created taskforces on affordable housing and the potential connection with land trust for permanent affordability. 

When asked what she’d share as a learning from this work, Linda said persistence and a long view are necessary. These campaigns take time. “Organizing to make visible the invisible that is what we did by building a base of folks left out of the discussion on housing in Detroit.” Finally, she spoke to the value of identifying and building alignment with a legislative champion.

For more information on Detroit People’s Platform please visit detroitpeoplesplatform.org and subscribe to their email list for updates.