Detroit’s mayoral candidates agree the city needs more affordable housing but have different ideas to solve the problem. 

Retired businessman Joel Haashiim says if he were mayor, he’d create a municipal building company to manufacture housing. 

“It’s a great industry,” he says. “It’s something where we can create 10,000 Detroit resident jobs.”

Haashiim also says it would diversify the city’s economy.

“We basically rely on the auto plants and the small service industries that maintain the local economy,” he says. “This will give us an opportunity to put billions of dollars into our city treasury, as well as in the community.”

Haashiim says he would also work with financial institutions to make buying a home more affordable.

“30- to 50-year mortgages are what we want to introduce into Detroit,” he says. “This will allow us to compensate for the high cost of building.”

If they build it, will people come?

By creating a larger number of affordable homes, Haashiim says he hopes to accelerate Detroit’s population growth. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the city gained about 6,000 residents since the decennial head count in 2020. He says the key is to attract more business.

“We are an international city with no international companies,” Haashiim says. “I’m the only candidate who has done 15 international business delegations around this country, bringing in companies to this metro area.”

Haashiim says he would also invest in public projects and education to lure new residents to Detroit.

“We do want to bring in families,” he says. “We want to make sure we reach out to them as a city that’s interested in making sure that our children can compete in the 21st century.”

Haashiim is one of nine mayoral candidates on the Aug. 5 ballot. Arnold Boyd and Rogelio Landin are running write-in campaigns. The top two finishers in the primary will run against each other in November.

Mayor Mike Duggan is not seeking re-election. He’s waging an independent campaign for governor in 2026.

Learn more about upcoming elections with WDET’s 2025 Detroit Voter Guide »

Wayne State University will field a women’s soccer team in the fall of 2026. It will be the school’s first new varsity sport in over a decade.

WSU’s Director of Athletics, Erika Wallace, says the first order of business is hiring a head coach this year.

“We’re looking at someone who has ties to the area for recruitment purposes,” she says. “We’re also looking at head coaching experience, assistant coaching experience, some club coaching experience as well.”

Expanding opportunities for women

Wallace reviewed the athletic program when she took the job and found a need for more women student-athletes. She says adding soccer will help WSU comply with Title IX, a federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education.

“Proportionality is one of the prongs that you look at,” she says. “We have to make accommodations in order to stay relevant and in compliance with Title IX.”

Wallace says this will attract more students to WSU.

“We’re the only school in our conference that doesn’t have women’s soccer,” she says. “People will want to come here and play.”

The support is there

Wallace says funding for the new women’s soccer team will come from the athletic department’s general fund as well as philanthropic donations.

She also says Detroit’s soccer culture will sustain the program.

“We have some of the best clubs in the country here,” Wallace says.

Wayne State has a partnership with Detroit City Football Club, which fields men’s, women’s and youth sides.

Wallace says WSU will make some upgrades to the soccer pitch behind Tom Adams Field before the women’s team starts play.