Narrator: Charles Boles is 86 years old.
He'd been living in his Detroit apartment for 12 years
until the building was bought by new owners
and he was told his rent would go up by $300.
Major players like Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert
are investing in Detroit with huge development plans.
Business is booming now,
but rents are rising because of it
and it's forcing native Detroiters out of their homes.
The city's getting better, but for who?
Charles Boles has called Detroit home for his entire life.
He learned how to play piano at just five years old,
and from there, a decades-long career in music took off.
He traveled the world and played with a ton of musicians.
Boles: I worked with people like Dinah Washington,
Little Esther,
Etta James,
Etta Jones,
B.B. King,
but I was very blessed, musically.
Narrator: Despite all the traveling,
Charles has always called Detroit home.
Boles: I was here during the bad times,
and I was here during the so-called good times.
I won't call them good times
because Detroit was a very racist place back in the '40s.
Despite all that, I still loved being here
and I still love Detroit even now.
Narrator: For the past 12 years,
Charles lived in the Jeffersonian apartments,
but the building has new owners who plan on
upgrading the units and installing a restaurant
on the ground floor,
and with those renovations comes higher rent.
Boles: The new owners immediately started, you know,
talking about all this revamping and remodeling
and updating
and I could see it coming.
I could see the bad news coming.
Narrator: That bad news is something native Detroiters
have been concerned about for a while.
It's all part of a raging conversation on gentrification.
Boles: It's a relocation of all the older citizens.
I don't want to make it a race thing, but it is.
I don't want to make it a race thing,
but it is.
Narrator: Detroit is one of the
most segregated cities in the country.
The situation could get worse
as low-income housing becomes less available.
The Cass Corridor neighborhood in Detroit
is a strong example of gentrification.
The area is seeing new development
that will surely increase business,
but long-term residents often feel left behind.
In fact, officials have already started
calling the neighborhood Midtown
instead of Cass Corridor,
and Midtown is is what you'll see in Google Maps.
Bretton Hall is a low-income apartment building
in Cass Corridor.
A development company had plans to bulldoze it
and replace it with commercial property.
Narrator: Joe Anderson has been living here
for four years.
If you're wondering why developers
chose his apartment in Cass Corridor,
take a look at how close it is
to the brand new Little Caesars stadium.
Narrator: Detroit City Council members
voted to designate Cass Corridor a historic district,
saving Bretton Hall from demolition.
Raquel Castañeda-López is one of the Council members
who voted to keep the building in tact.
Castañeda-López: So the designation's just one piece of it,
and so even in the whole debate around
giving that neighborhood a designation,
historic designation, people knew and we tried to
be very clear, like, this doesn't mean that
the rent is going to stay affordable,
and so it's not like a solution that's gonna
save that neighborhood but it does
help the buildings from being demolished.
Narrator: The Mayor of Detroit announced a
$250 million fund
dedicated to preserving and building
affordable housing units.
Duggan: Anybody who gets tax support from the city
for new apartment buildings,
20% of those units have to be set aside permanently
for people with lower income.
And that's worked out very well for us.
It's happening in all sections of the city,
we are not going to have one area of the city
that's for wealthy people and another area of the city
for those less wealthy.
We believe people of all incomes should be able to live
in all neighborhoods.
Narrator: Margaret Brown who finished her tenure
at the Fair Housing Center applauds the fund,
but has concerns.
Brown: There have been people who have been in this town
for decades.
They weathered the storm through the '60 riots,
they weathered the storm that was in the '70s
when all the auto plants were laying off left and right,
they weathered that.
The '80s, things started going south again,
so they weathered all of that.
They've been around.
And now to build affordable housing
and not have a preference for Detroiters...
I think that's just wrong.
Where do they go?
Where's the loyalty?
Narrator: Detroit continues to draw outside investment,
leading to the rebirth of many of its neighborhoods.
But some of its natives citizens can't help but wonder
if they'll have to move.
Boles: People like me that's been here for all these years,
it's not important that we are here.
In fact if we just disappeared it would probably be
a great favor for them.