The City of Detroit broke ground on a $80 million Brush Park development on Friday, November 14, 2025. Detroit Business The four-building project will deliver 211 affordable units adjacent to the historic Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center, including 52 units of permanent supportive housing for residents exiting chronic homelessness. City of Detroit The supportive housing building is called the Sanctuary at Brewster.
The site is layered. In 1935, Eleanor Roosevelt broke ground on the Brewster Project, the first federally funded public housing development for African Americans in the United States. Michigan Public The complex eventually combined with the Frederick Douglass Apartments and housed between 8,000 and 10,000 residents at peak, including Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, Smokey Robinson, Loni Love, and Etterlene DeBarge during their early years.
The recreation center was where Joe Louis trained and the Globetrotters practiced. Michigan Public Demolition rolled through 2003 to 2014. The land sat largely vacant after.
Three of the new buildings, Brewster I, II, and III, will deliver 53 units each, with rents tied to incomes between 30% and 80% of the area median income. One-bedroom rents start at $368 a month. Two-bedrooms at $438.
The fourth building, the Sanctuary, holds the 52 units of permanent supportive housing. Every Sanctuary unit is project-based vouchered, meaning residents pay no more than 30% of income toward rent. WCSX The City's Continuum of Care Coordinated Assessment Model will refer residents, with priority for households who have experienced long-term homelessness and have a disability.
WCSX MHT Housing, Inc. and Kirsten's Touch, Inc., the latter led by Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, are developing the project. City of Detroit Financing partners include Fifth Third Bank, Comerica Bank, the Community Preservation Corporation, Cinnaire, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, and Lake Trust Credit Union.
The Michigan State Housing Development Authority awarded a 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Service partners on site, including Neighborhood Legal Services Michigan and Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network with Kirsten's Touch, will deliver more than 60 hours of weekly support across education, health, workforce development, life skills, and legal services. WCSX The recreation center is being restored alongside the housing build.
KRONK Gym will return. WCSX Recreation center completion is targeted for 2026. The four apartment buildings finish in 2027.
WCSX Mayor Mike Duggan said the day was about rebuilding a neighborhood and rebuilding lives. Eleanor Roosevelt broke ground here 90 years ago for the same reason.
Location: adjacent to the Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center, Brush Park
