Kathy Makino-Leipsitz: Pioneering Affordable Housing Through Historic Preservation in Detroit
Affordable housing ensures that individuals and families can secure a place to live and enhance mobility for lower-income families. Kathy Makino-Leipsitz , the founder of Shelborne Development , believes in this cause and is committed to rebuilding blighted neighborhoods in Detroit through the historic rehabilitation of buildings that have remained vacant for decades. With the implementation of the 1986 tax reform act and the creation of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, Kathy began to use the incredible tool of tax credits to create affordable housing. In 1995 she built her first LIHTC development in Westland on a vacant school site. This created 60 units of beautiful new affordable apartments in a distressed census tract that had not seen new construction in decades. In 2000, she formed Shelborne Development to concentrate on rebuilding neighborhoods in Detroit by purchasing vacant/blighted historic apartment buildings and completing historic reha...