Detroit Housing Summit Aims to Bridge Affordable Housing and Economic Mobility Through Actionable Strategies

The Housing Summit's inaugural Detroit Economic Mobility Breakfast has reached capacity as civic leaders, investors, and practitioners prepare to address housing as a fundamental driver of economic opportunity. The November 18, 2025 event at the Shinola Hotel's San Morello Private Room will convene 25 senior leaders from policy, community development, philanthropy, finance, and technology sectors to move from ideas to implementable strategies.

This Detroit edition builds on earlier Housing Summit gatherings in Hong Kong and New York City, continuing the global conversation about housing affordability and innovation. The Hong Kong launch in May 2025, hosted by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Asia Ltd., sparked international dialogue on affordability, innovation, design, AI in housing, and modular design. The series continued in September 2025 with a fully subscribed gathering in Bryant Park, New York City, where developers, policy leaders, housing advocates, family offices, and investors explored affordable housing as both meaningful impact and exceptional opportunity.

Amy Hovey, CEO and Executive Director of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, emphasized the summit's collaborative nature, stating it brings together state and local partners to align tools, capital, and community leadership for equitable housing opportunities across Detroit. The moderated roundtable will focus on three core themes with practical, Detroit-ready solutions.

Economic mobility strategies will examine how targeted housing approaches can improve income stability, build credit, and increase neighborhood spending, supported by clear metrics and post-event follow-through. Community-led delivery models, including community land trusts and adaptive reuse, will explore how community ownership can preserve affordability, activate key corridors, and create durable wealth pathways with lasting governance.

Partnerships, capital, CDFIs, and technology represent the third critical theme. Public-private-philanthropic partnerships will focus on aligning land, policy tools, subsidies, and flexible capital to move projects from pipeline to reality. The discussion will address recent uncertainty around the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and how it affects capital flows to mission lenders, while identifying local, state, philanthropic, and private responses to maintain community finance pipelines. Artificial intelligence's role in reshaping homeownership access, housing finance, and policymaking will be examined with emphasis on guarding against bias and ensuring fairness in historically excluded communities.

Karen L. Gamba, Founder of The Housing Summit and CEO of ExV Agency, emphasized the event's practical orientation, noting that every participant should leave with at least one actionable solution and one follow-up conversation already in motion. The summit brings together policy and civic leaders, developers and impact investors, community land trust and nonprofit practitioners, philanthropic and financial partners including CDFIs, data and AI experts, and cross-industry executives committed to equitable economic mobility.

Rooted in Detroit's innovation with adaptive reuse, community ownership, and targeted investment, the summit focuses on implementation rather than theory, allowing insights to be replicated in other cities. Andrea Benson, Senior Program Manager at the Gilbert Family Foundation, highlighted how stable, affordable housing empowers Detroit families to face uncertainty with confidence and how long-term homeownership tools can build a stronger, more resilient city.

Although the Detroit breakfast is at capacity, interested stakeholders can join the waitlist by emailing globalhousingsummit@gmail.com or learn more about future events at https://www.thehousingsummit.com. The Housing Summit will continue expanding to additional cities following Hong Kong, New York, and Detroit, with Los Angeles targeted as the next location for these curated working sessions that transform relationships into tangible housing and economic outcomes.