District of Columbia

When famed designer Tracy Reese returned in 2019 to her native Detroit from New York, she was on a mission. Since the 1990s, her work had appeared on the cover of every major fashion magazine and worn by celebrities including Michelle Obama, Taylor Swift and Oprah Winfrey. Now she wanted to launch a new sustainability-focused line that would make a broader social impact. Reese established Hope for Flowers fashionwear to empower women and young people through arts programming for public schools and collaboration with local artisans in Detroit. Reese says she wants to help “make Detroit a creative space where people can come and create together.” The designer’s ambitious venture now will be headquartered in a new development created to further strengthen one of the Motor City’s most historic neighborhoods and its residents. The Freelon at Sugar Hill is a $35.1 million, 68-apartment project that includes affordable housing for veterans and others, as well as commercial space for social entrepreneurs like Reese. The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust’s subsidiary Building America CDE provided $14.5 million in New Markets Tax Credits to the project. Built entirely by union workers, the site is across from the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center. Twenty of 68 apartments are reserved for residents earning between 30 percent and 80 percent of the area median income. Twelve units are fully furnished apartments set aside as deeply affordable for veterans who have experienced homelessness. The remaining units will be marketed to artists, teachers and professionals from the surrounding arts community and medical campuses. Developed by Boston-based Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) and Develop Detroit, the project has been hailed by local leaders. “We are creating a city where all Detroiters, no matter their income, no matter their background, have access to quality affordable housing,” said Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. Without NMTC, this project would have struggled to come to fruition and would not have been able to provide this level of community impact.