From Colonization to Crisis: National Chaos, Detroit Action.

A Learning and Dialogue Session with FutureRoot & Building Community Value.

As Detroit continues to navigate the overlapping crises of housing affordability, neighborhood speculation, vacancy, racialized wealth extraction, and corridor disinvestment, this session invites participants to trace today’s housing conditions back to their deeper roots in colonization.

Together, we will examine how dispossession, racial hierarchy, and discriminatory financing systems shaped Detroit’s land, housing stock, and commercial corridors — and how those forces continue to influence who gets to redevelop, who gets displaced, and who builds wealth.

We will move beyond surface policy debates to explore the deeper worldview shaping our housing system: land as commodity vs. land as relationship; profit-driven redevelopment vs. community-rooted stewardship.

Through dialogue and reflection, we will ask:

• Why does Detroit have 18 square miles of vacant land — and what does that vacancy represent?
• Why do so many neighborhoods experience speculative house flipping rather than resident-led redevelopment?
• What incentives exist to help long-term Detroiters reinvest in and rebuild their own communities?
• How has racial discrimination in lending, underwriting, appraisal practices, and federal disinvestment shaped Detroit’s housing ecosystem?
• What would repair look like in a city that has been both extracted from and abandoned?

Facilitators: Jessica A.S. Letaw & Yodit Mesfin Johnson, FutureRoot and Chase L. Cantrell, Building Community Value

When: Thursday, March 19, 2026 | 10 AM – 12 PM

Where: Stoudamire Wellness Hub - Eastside Community Network, 4401 Conner St., Detroit, 48215.

Cost: Free. Donations are welcome.

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Host or Publisher FutureRoot