The city of Detroit is using money from the American Rescue Plan Act to help residents with disabilities make their homes more accessible.

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The Detroit Home Accessibility Program — a joint project of the city of Detroit, CHN Housing Partners and Detroit Disability Power — dedicates more than $6 million in ARPA funds to home modifications for eligible residents to add ramps or lifts, widen entrances, modify handrails, or add alarms to the entries and exits of their home.

“Detroit has more than 129,000 disabled residents. Members of this large, diverse and important constituency deserve the ability to fully engage in all that our City has to offer,” said Ani Grigorian, disability access consulting manager at Detroit Disability Power, in a news release. “This program is an important step towards greater accessibility, and therefore increased well-being.”

Homeowners who live in single-family homes who receive social security disability benefits, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Children’s Healthcare Services benefits or Veterans Administration disability benefits can still apply.

The program is expected to provide accessibility upgrades to at least 250 homes.

Applicants must also have homeowner’s insurance and be current on property taxes or in a payment plan. There are income requirements for participation. For more information, visit chnhousingpartners.org/Detroit/dhap or call 866-313-2520. 

Other headlines for Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024:

• Mason K-8 Academy opened its newly renovated and stocked school library today. The Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) chose Mason to receive 18,000 new books from the Council of Great City Schools and Scholastic.
• Cass Tech students who live in Hamtramck and “Banglatown” – an area close to Hamtramck – are asking DPSCD to provide bus transportation to the school. Education nonprofit 482Forward organized student and adult members to take their appeal to tonight’s school board meeting. 
• The Detroit Food Commons will host a concert series this fall. The Freedom Sounds fall concert series kicks off Sunday, Sept. 22 with jazz percussionist and Jazz at Lincoln Center alum Ali Jackson. Bassist and composer Marion Hayden will perform Oct. 27; and on Nov. 24, multi-genre percussionist and food justice advocate Aisha Ellis will perform. The series is curated by violinist and flutist Michelle May. The events, held in the Mama Imani Humphrey Banquet Hall on the second floor of Detroit Commons, cost $25 to attend with funds going towards Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network’s community programs. 
• The Hamtramck Parks Conservancy has a new director of programming and communications. Alicia Chiaravalli has a background in environmental science, play design and sustainability. She will be responsible for developing recreation programs, coordinating volunteers and community partnerships for the conservancy. 

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

Editor’s note: A previously uploaded version of this episode included incorrect audio from an earlier episode about grief and loss.

A staggering amount of metro Detroit’s polling stations are not accessible for disabled people — 84%, according to a 2022 audit by Detroit Disability Power.

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Another, less visible, barrier to democratic participation is equitable access to information. Yet nearly half of Detroit households don’t have broadband access.

That picture only gets worse when you account for household income. 

Voting sites inaccessible 

There were four criteria Detroit Disability Power used in their audit to define accessibility at a polling location: 

1. An accessible parking area with a clear pathway into the building
2. A fully accessible voter assist terminal (VAT)
3. An accessible entrance into the building
4. An accessible booth for casting paper ballots privately

Dessa Cosma from Detroit Disability Power says that being able to vote in-person without barriers is a democratic issue, but the state of polling location accessibility now is not acceptable. 

“I can tell you as a disabled voter, it is frustrating and demoralizing and dehumanizing to go exercise my right to vote and realize that people weren’t prepared for me to show up,” Cosma said. “When they were thinking about who mattered and people they needed to set up their day for, I wasn’t on their list.”

Detroit Disability Power plans to conduct another audit of metro Detroit’s polling locations for the general election in November. 

Internet access 

Democratic acts such as voting, accessing a city hall website, attending virtual public meetings, or contacting representatives are all reliant on having internet access.  

Detroit is among the worst-connected cities in the nation, with nearly 40% of homes without a broadband connection. 

But access to broadband internet is only one of three pillars of digital equity, says Christopher Ali, telecommunications research at Penn State University. The other two pillars are affordability and skillset. 

“The internet is our window to the world right now. It’s how we get news and information […] it’s how we engage with the many of the governmental services we need to do on a daily basis. It’s how we book the COVID vaccine and apply for benefits and file our taxes,” Ali said.

Cosma and Ali both joined Created Equal on Wednesday to discuss equitable access to voting and information.

Guests:  

• Dessa Cosma is the executive director of Detroit Disability Power

• Christopher Ali is the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and professor of telecommunications in the Bellisario College at Penn State. Ali is the author of “Farm Fresh Broadband: Politics of Rural Connectivity.” 

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.