- The United Community Housing Coalition (UCHC) is a nonprofit comprehensive housing assistance organization which has provided a variety of housing-related services to Detroit’s low-income residents since 1973.
- The organization has worked with tenants, homesteaders, homeowners, the homeless, community organizations rebuilding neighborhoods and providing affordable housing, religious, civil rights, labor and housing advocacy organization to improve, preserve and expand affordable housing opportunities for low-income Detroiters.
- Because of its long history and significant expertise as a comprehensive housing services provider in Michigan, the organization is frequently asked to provide advice to other organizations in communities across Southeast Michigan.
- All service are provided to income-eligible families and individuals free of charge … (full text Homepage).
Address: United Community Housing Coalition, 220 Bagley, Suite 224, Detroit, MI 48226, USA;
Contact and map.
Programs – Housing Homeless Families: UCHC housing placement counselors work with homeless families in shelters, on the streets and in substandard or overcrowded housing, to identify decent and affordable housing opportunities and help the families relocate.
The counselors interview the family to determine needs, locate potential affordable housing units, inspect the housing to assure that it meets basic housing quality standards, negotiate rental agreements and move-in costs, and assist the families in identifying and obtaining resources to enable them to move in.
The program is available for persons who are homeless or are in immediate jeopardy of homelessness (facing evictions, utility shut-offs, or living in substandard housing).
Legal Services:
- Attorneys and paralegals work with low-income families facing rental evictions, mortgage foreclosures, or land contract forfeitures in order to help them preserve their housing. They also assist families facing homelessness as a result of lock-outs, illegal utility shut-offs or major repair problems.
- Attorneys represent families in the courts and in administrative hearings with governmental agencies providing housing subsidies, in order to enforce the law and preserve rights to decent and affordable housing.
Improving Neighborhoods Through Community Building:
- Community organizers work with groups of low-income residents to multi-family apartment buildings to obtain repairs and improve housing conditions in these communities.
- Typical issues include threatened or actual utility shut-offs, repairs, building security, rental rates. lease terms, demolition or conversion of affordable housing units and other subsidized housing rights.
- Organizers meet with resident groups and assist with the development of a comprehensive strategy to resolve problems, including negotiating disputes with building owners and governmental agencies as well as providing support for court action to obtain repairs.
Property Tax Foreclosure Prevention Project:
- In partnership with Michigan Legal Services, the Tax Foreclosure Prevention Project is designed to assist low-income homeowners of Wayne County, MI save their homes from foreclosure.