Affordable housing creation announced at Detroit Policy Conference

• Developers offering apartments affordable enough under federal guidelines could get assistance with 20-40% of hard construction costs.

The latest: The first development that could take advantage of these low-interest loans is the $1.5 billion District Detroit proposal from Stephen Ross and the Ilitches (more on them later).

• The Downtown Development Authority, which captures city tax dollars for economic development, first needs to approve guidelines for the loan program during its meeting today.

What they're saying: "That's what a city is about, people have different incomes and different backgrounds living together," Duggan said.

Separately, the future of downtown following the pandemic was the major theme of the conference.

• Average daily workers in downtown Detroit slid from 56,344 in October 2019 to 18,165 in October 2022, the Chamber said — a 68% drop.

• Detroit ranks 59 out of 62 largest cities for returning people to in-person work.

Of note: Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist for the first time publicly hinted at a possible run for U.S. Senate following Sen. Debbie Stabenow's decision not to seek re-election in 2024.

• "This is something my wife and I are thinking about," Gilchrist said in a forum with Detroit Today's Stephen Henderson.