The Jeffries Homes, also called the Jeffries Housing Projects, was a

public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

project located in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, near the

Lodge Freeway M-10 is a state trunkline highway in the Metro Detroit area of Michigan in the United States. Nominally labeled north-south, the route follows a northwest-southeast alignment. The southernmost portion follows Jefferson Avenue in downtown ...

. It included 13 high-rises and hundreds of

row house A terrace, terraced house (British English, UK), or townhouse (American English, US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses party wall, sharing side walls. In the United States ...

units, and was named for Detroit Recorder's Court Judge Edward J. Jeffries, Sr., who was also father of Detroit Mayor Edward J. Jeffries, Jr.

History

The first phase, Jeffries West, opened in 1953 as a complex of eight 14-story

towers A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

. The second phase included five additional towers in Jeffries West and Jeffries East, 415 apartments in a set of low-rise apartment blocks, added in 1955. In total, the project included 2,170 housing units on 47

acres The acre ( ) is a unit of land area used in the British imperial and the United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, ...

. At first, the complex was popular among many Detroit residents who were eager to move into the new buildings. But by the late 1960s, the buildings had become a haven for

drug dealers The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types ...

and an area with a high crime rate.

Redevelopment

Five towers of the complex were demolished in 1997, and four additional towers were imploded in 2001 to make way for the redevelopment of the site. An additional tower was demolished approximately two years later. The remaining tenants of the Jeffries were moved to Freedom Place and Research Park housing complexes, approximately 8 city blocks from the Jeffries, while the redevelopment took place. A development by Scripps Park Associates was built on the site of Jeffries West and named "Woodbridge Estates" at a cost of $92 million. Woodbridge Estates includes 281

mixed-income housing The definition of mixed-income housing is broad and encompasses many types of dwellings and neighborhoods. Following Brophy and Smith, the following will discuss “non-organic” examples of mixed-income housing, meaning “a deliberate effort to ...

rental units, 101

owner-occupancy Owner-occupancy or home-ownership is a form of housing tenure in which a person, called the owner-occupier, owner-occupant, or home owner, owns the home in which they live. The home can be a house, such as a single-family detached home, single-fa ...

attached and detached single-family homes, a 100-unit senior housing apartment building, plus 297 units of senior housing in the three remaining towers of the former Jeffries West. Jeffries East was demolished in 2008 and the site redeveloped as mixed-income complex named "Cornerstone," completed in late 2012 developed in three phases.. It included the development of 180 rental units in 30 buildings of

townhomes A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

and duplexes, consisting of 138

units and 42

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median, as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on ...

rental units. Former residents of Jeffries East in good standing with the Detroit Housing Commission were permitted to return to the new complex.

References

External links

Jeffries towers tumble
— 2001 article in the ''

Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on February ...

'' about the demolition of many of the Jeffries Projects towers. * — Information about the buildings in Jeffries Project. {{coord, 42, 20, 29.5, N, 83, 04, 02.7, W, region:US-MI_type:landmark, display=title Public housing in Detroit Urban decay in the United States Residential buildings completed in 1953 1953 establishments in Michigan Buildings and structures demolished in 1997 Buildings and structures demolished in 2001 Demolished buildings and structures in Detroit Buildings and structures demolished by controlled implosion