Delta Institute CEO Jean Pogge announced today that Delta has been awarded a contract from Southwest Solutions for the sustainable removal of 9 single-family and multi-family homes in Wayne County, paving the way for new opportunities for economic development in Southeast Michigan.
“Delta Institute is thrilled to have an opportunity to contribute to the revitalization that is well underway in the Greater Detroit region,” Pogge says. “Combining Delta’s capacity and building materials reuse experience with the deconstruction expertise of our local partners, this project will help build the regional building materials reuse market and also demonstrate the power of deconstruction to achieve positive environmental and economic results for local communities.”
“This work builds on the Wayne County EDGE Deconstruction project which removed neighborhood blight in Ecorse and Highland Park with 21 homes deconstructed and demolished,” says Hector Hernandez, Executive Director of Southwest Solutions Housing Opportunity Sector. “We are thrilled to be working with the Delta Institute and another local partner on the next phase of work. Deconstruction is an opportunity to employ local residents to remove blight in an environmentally sound way while recovering and reusing materials in creative and meaningful ways.”
Over the next 2 months, Delta will lead a coalition of partners in the deconstruction of 6 houses and the demolition of 3 houses that have been deemed unfit for salvaging. The project will employ approximately 20 local workers, including training program graduates from Detroit GreenWorks Solutions (DGWS), a collaboration of nonprofit organizations dedicated to fulfilling the training and employment needs in various green industries in the Detroit area. On-the-ground partners include Chris Rutherford, Dan Pratt, the Rebuilding Exchange, Oak Hills Construction, Innovate Renovate, Majestic Contractors, and the Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit. Once completed, this project is expected to help stabilize local neighborhoods and bring additional value to the regional building materials reuse markets.