Motivating Employees to Live and Work in Dearborn

For some time I have noticed a seemingly growing trend of Dearborn employees choosing to live outside Dearborn.

There are logical reasons why some of them choose to live outside of Dearborn.  They may have already resided elsewhere when hired, they may want a larger home, larger lot, or have other good reasons.  Public safety employees may understandably choose to live elsewhere due to safety concerns for themselves and/or family.

However, I would bet a respectable number of these employees would live in Dearborn if the incentives were enticing enough.

When employees live other than where they work, they usually spend far more income in the community in which they live, rather than in the community where they work, and they also pay city and school taxes in the communities they live in, and all of this comes at high financial loss to the city they work in. 

Municipal employees including Dearborn Police and Fire living in Dearborn says a lot about the fabric of our community, as first responders and city employees living in our neighborhoods directly affects our quality of life.  The trend of city employees living outside Dearborn also can equate to a loss of community safety and pride.

Complicating the issue is the 1999 Michigan Legislative law prohibiting Michigan jurisdictions from imposing residency requirements on employees, although communities can require that employees live within 20 miles of the municipality of where they work.  However, nothing in the law I read prohibits a municipality from offering some incentives to encourage employees to reside in the community where they work.  Some communities offer subsidies or low-interest loans to employees willing to live and work in their community.

Since the City of Dearborn uses grant money to buy distressed properties and foreclosed homes under its Neighborhood Stabilization Program, I am wondering if Dearborn could offer some financial incentives to city and corporate employees to purchase these properties.  Perhaps Dearborn could offer low-interest loans, or a property tax breaks if the employee brings the property up to code.

Alternatively, perhaps the city could sell the employee the home and/or property at what the city has invested in it.  It may also be possible for the city to offer employees some type of incentives if as a last resort the employee decides to lease the property.

Within the last year, I also learned that Dearborn’s biggest employer - Ford Motor Company utilizes two firms to find living quarters for relocated Ford employees and contractors.  I was distressed to find out that these firms place the majority of these employees and contractors in communities outside Dearborn.

This is a major contrast from Ford’s heyday when Henry Ford built and established neighborhoods such as the Ford Historic Homes, Springwells Park, and Aviation Subdivision for employees to live, work, and play in Dearborn.  Henry Ford understood the connection between his company’s success by having a skilled and educated workforce with a good quality of life in the city they worked and lived in.

Since Ford CEO Allan Mulally chose to live in Dearborn when not visiting family out of state, and since the town Ford built – Dearborn is the city where Mulally earns his millions, he is the best person to encourage his employees to do the same, following in Henry Ford’s example.  Certainly Mulally realizes that maintaining a strong live-work environment, not only will help Dearborn thrive, but corporate citizenship will further enhance the education and talent pool contributing to Ford’s future success.

If you look at thriving cities around the U.S. and beyond, one of the critical elements includes a large corporate presence with an educated workforce living close to their employer, which in turn attracts more residents, business, retail, and much needed tax dollars and revenue to the city.

One can only guess how many millions of dollars Dearborn may be losing because so many of these employees work in Dearborn yet live in communities outside of Dearborn.

Since Dearborn has a large number of empty commercial and retail suites, as does Ford Motor Land Development, and we have an abundance of vacant homes, encouraging more city and business employees to live in Dearborn would be a win-win situation for Dearborn and Ford.

I believe the city should be aggressively working with Ford Motor Company, Ford Motor Land Development, Severstal Steel, Oakwood Hospital, HFCC, U of M – Dearborn, AAA, and other mid to large size Dearborn employers to offer financial or other incentives to these employees, giving them more reason to live in Dearborn.

With this increased tax base city leaders could then help save neighborhood pools, reopen the Snow Library, fix the Henry Ford Centennial Library fountain, help fund our Dearborn Historical Museum, and more.  Dearborn Public Schools would also benefit with more school taxes, thus avoiding layoffs and elimination of programs.  This increased revenue would not only help balance the budget, it would help offset repeated withdrawals from our city and DPS rainy day/reserve funds.

It just saddens me to no end to see more services, amenities, and employee positions eliminated, and then on top of that having to pay higher taxes, when solutions such as this may be feasible.

City leaders must realize that growing the community and preserving our amenities must be the focus rather than continued cuts that are beginning to polarize and make Dearborn a less desirable city to live in.

I recommend that Dearborn residents contact city leaders urging them to implement a plan to reverse this unfortunate trend and make Dearborn a highly desirable choice of residency for employees working in Dearborn.

I challenge our Mayor, City Council, and city leaders, to act now and collaborate with our employers, including police, fire, and city employees, to advocate and promote Henry Ford’s vision that building strong neighborhoods starts with a strong local workforce.