Detroit residents are burdened by the cost of living in the city.

A majority of Detroiters spend 30% of their pre-tax income on housing. And while the city is working to increase affordable housing in Detroit, residents are trying an approach that they say keeps prices low and gives them more say in how their communities develop.

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Neighborhoods across Detroit are starting community land trusts, a nonprofit organization run by community members that owns property in the area. Jerry Hebron is the executive director of Detroit Cultivator Community Land Trust in the North End neighborhood. 

Hebron’s organization is one of five groups partnering with the nonprofit law firm Detroit Justice Center to establish community land trusts. Hebron and Mark Bennett, a staff attorney at the firm, join Created Equal on Thursday to explain how community land trusts work and what they might do for Detroiters. 

Guests: 

• Jerry Hebron is the executive director of Detroit Cultivator Community Land Trust. 
• Mark Bennett is a staff attorney at the Detroit Justice Center.

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

One year since the Hamas attack that killed over 1,200 Israelis, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza, countless more displaced and injured. More than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. 

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Arab and Jewish Americans in metro Detroit have been processing grief, frustration and anxiety since the war started.  

For Lebanese Americans in metro Detroit, the expansion of the war into Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah brings back memories of war and occupation of years past. 

“The trauma is unimaginable. It’s affecting people’s lives daily. We’re all in grief and shock and horror,” said Diana Abouali, the director of the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.

“Everyone that I interact with in Dearborn, in the Arab American community in southeast Michigan, I find a deep sense of community.” 

James Zobgy, the co-founder of the Arab American Institute, says that sense of community and collective grieving is difficult to find. 

“For the most part, we walk alone with our pain, and it’s a difficult one to explain,” Zogby said.

Use the media player above to listen to the full conversation with Abouali and Zogby.

Guests: 

• James Zogby is the president and co-founder of the Arab American Institute. 
• Diana Abouali is the director of the Arab American National Museum. 

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

The Council on American-Islamic Relations – Michigan (CAIR-MI) has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, requesting an investigation into the University of Michigan’s handling of Islamophobia on campus.

The complaint comes after leaked audio of U-M President Santa Ono where he seems to cite federal pressure to focus on antisemitism over Islamophobia.

CAIR-MI’s Zaynah Jadallah says the university has not adequately supported Muslim and Arab students.

“We have contacted the University of Michigan multiple times to have better treatment for the students, but the president didn’t show any progress in protecting his students,” Jadallah said.

In response, U-M’s Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs Colleen Mastony told WDET:

“The University of Michigan is steadfastly committed to ensuring our community remains a safe and supportive environment, where all students — regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or other identities — have the opportunity to learn and thrive. President Santa J. Ono has spoken out repeatedly against antisemitism and Islamophobia, and he will continue to do so, as any form of discrimination or hate is an affront to our community.”

Over the past year, students across the U.S. have raised concerns for their safety amid ongoing campus protests about the war in Gaza. The student protesters are calling for universities to separate themselves from companies advancing Israel’s military efforts in the region, as the Israeli military has killed more than 4,000 Palestinians and more than 2,000 people in Lebanon since Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians on Oct. 7.

Police have arrested more than 3,000 pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses nationwide since detainments at Columbia on April 18 — including on the campuses of Wayne State and University of Michigan.

Interactive map: Where protesters on US campuses have been arrested or detained

Michigan Advance reports that at least one person was arrested this week during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in U-M’s Diag, where a memorial event hosted by Jewish students commemorating the Oct. 7 attack was being held. After police arrested the individual, protesters surrounded the police officers and their patrol car, obstructing their movement, said U-M’s Deputy Chief of Police Melissa Overton. She says the individual who was arrested has since been released, and the incident will be submitted to the prosecutor’s office for review.

The Associated Press and WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report. 

Exactly one year ago, more than 1,200 Israelis were killed by forces of the terrorist organization Hamas, and more than 200 were taken hostage into Gaza.

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It was an act of violence that had been unheard of for decades in the Middle East, and it has changed everything in the region’s geopolitics. The war in Gaza that grew out of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack has claimed more than 40,000 Palestinian lives, and now spread to multiple fronts — enflaming tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Metro Detroit is home to a large and flourishing Jewish community that is still trying to make sense of what happened last October and the ongoing violence and growing humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.

Today on Created Equal, host Stephen Henderson was joined by two local leaders within the Detroit Jewish community to talk about what happened, what has happened since, and what struggles the region and the global Jewish community may be facing as a result.

Guests:

• Ariana Silverman has served as the rabbi of Detroit’s Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue since 2016. 
• David Kurzmann is the senior director of community affairs at the Jewish Federation of Detroit

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

On this episode of the Detroit Evening Report, we cover local events commemorating the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel; vandalism at the Jewish Federation of Detroit offices  and more.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Metro Detroiters commemorate Oct. 7

Members of the local Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities are marking the one year anniversary since the Hamas-led attack on Israel – killing 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages. 

Since then more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israel’s military response, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and many more have died as hostilities between Israel and Lebanon have escalated in recent weeks. Communities in metro Detroit have been deeply impacted by these conflicts, and found ways to mark the anniversary today.  

The Michigan Board of Rabbis is hosting a One Year Commemoration today from 7-8 p.m., with location details available upon registration. Several other events took place throughout the day to commemorate the anniversary, according to the Jewish Detroit Community Calendar. A candlelight vigil is also scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in Dearborn at Ford Woods Park hosted by Palestinian and Yemeni organizations. 

Additionally, the organization ISRAEL21c has compiled a list of online memorial events for those unable to attend a commemorative event in person.

Jewish Federation building vandalized

The Jewish Federation of Detroit offices in Bloomfield Township were vandalized early Monday morning. 

David Kurzmann, senior director of Community Affairs for the Federation, called the incident not just an attack on the organization but an attack on the community. 

“This is the organization that that really convenes the community that has the privilege of serving so, so many. And I think for everybody, this feels like a very personal attack on us today,” he said.

The building was tagged with antisemitic insults as well as the words “Free Palestine” and “Intifada,” a reference to the armed uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. 

Bloomfield Township police say they are investigating the incident along with federal authorities.  

Community members throughout metro Detroit have also reported finding antisemitic flyers on driveways in residential neighborhoods, including in West Bloomfield, Farmington Hills, Shelby Township, Northville and Waterford.

In a statement on Monday, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said investigators suspect the hateful, antisemitic flyers were coming from “outsiders.” The incidents remain under investigation.

-Reporting by Bre’Anna Tinsley, WDET. WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed.

Detroit seeks feedback on historic preservation plan

The city of Detroit is hosting two Zoom meetings at 5 p.m. Oct. 17 and 21 to get feedback from residents about the Citywide Historic Preservation Plan. The Planning and Development Department is hiring a consultant to work with the city on this plan to create a historic district designation. For more information, email historicplan@detroitmi.gov.

State celebrates first year of free family planning program

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says over 20,000 people signed up for the Plan First! Program in the program’s first year. The program covers a broad range of services, from office visits and access to contraceptives to natural family planning methods for those who want to prevent pregnancy and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. It works by allowing Michigan residents who do not qualify for traditional Medicaid to apply for a limited Medicaid benefit for family planning services. 

Registration open for Detroit Youth Rugby

Registration is now open for the Detroit Parks and Recreation Athletics Division’s Youth Rugby Program. Held in collaboration with the Detroit Rugby Football Club, he four-week program takes place from 6-7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays beginning Nov. 5 at the Adams Butzel Complex Gym, 10500 Lyndon St., Detroit. There’s a $10 fee to sign up. Visit dprdathletics.com for more information.

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

The presidential election is a few months away, and American Muslim voters are weighing out their options for the next president.

Youssef Chouhoud, an associate professor of political science at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, studies trends involving American Muslim voters. He says this year many American Muslims are concerned about Gaza.

“Certainly one of if not the top, if not for some American Muslims, the only issue that they care about is the crisis in Gaza, and so that holds particularly heavy weight this election cycle,” Chouhoud said.

He says American Muslims are nestled within the American fabric, concerned about the economy, climate change, health care and immigration policies.

After 9/11, Chouhoud says, American Muslims were against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He says after 2010, many focused on domestic issues.

But he says that changed after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel — during which Hamas killed 1,200 people — and the invasion of Gaza that followed, where the latest death toll stands at more than 40,000 Palestinians killed.

Chouhoud says many American Muslims view themselves as part of the extended Muslim nation, or the ummah.

“One of the beliefs in Islam is that anything that affects one part of the Muslim ummah affects you as well,” he said.

Chouhoud says many American Muslims also have close connections to Gaza.

“Everybody in the American Muslim context, is probably only one degree removed from somebody in Gaza,” he said.

Chouhoud says American Muslims are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to voting for the next president.

“They don’t, by and large, support a Trump presidency, for the reason that during the Trump administration, and you know, the explicit policies that Trump wanted to and has enacted have negatively affected American Muslims.”

He says many American Muslims say they do not feel like they belong to either Republican or Democratic parties.

“The sense of homelessness, I think, that American Muslims feel politically, is something that weighs heavy on them, and something that you know is going to probably continue from now until they go into the voting booth,” he said.

Chouhoud says things are likely to remain up in the air until the November elections.

Read more:

• DNC hosts first ever panel on Palestinian human rights
• Uncommitted delegates at DNC aim to put pressure on Harris’ Gaza policy
• ‘Uncommitted’ delegates hold DNC sit-in after refusal to allow Palestinian speaker at convention