Write A House Is Giving Homes to Writers in Detroit

Summary: Qualified and worthy writers can apply to have the opportunity to win a house in Detroit through the Write A House organization.

Being given a house is quite the gift. Write A House, a nonprofit organization, seeks to give gifts to writers that wish to make Detroit their home. So far two writers have been given a renovated home that was once vacant and foreclosed.

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Their mission is to “leverage Detroit’s available housing in creative ways to bolster an emerging literary community to benefit the City of Detroit and its neighborhoods. We enliven the literary arts of Detroit by renovating homes and giving them to authors, journalists, poets, aka writers. It’s like a writer-in-residence program, only in this case, we’re actually giving the writer the residence, forever.”

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The goal of the organization is “to (1) educate the under-employed on carpentry and building skills (2) use those skills to renovate Detroit city homes and (3) award those homes to writers.” You must apply to win the home, which the organization hopes to be able to award at least three each year. The program uses vocational training to teach skills necessary for youth and untrained residents of Detroit to be able to provide for themselves in the future while also bettering the communities around Detroit with more engaged residents.

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To apply you must meet all the requirements: be a U.S. citizen or Permanent Resident with a valid Green card, be 18 years or older, be a working writer with a history of publication, not be related to board members or judges, have a low or moderate-income, and be willing to engage with the literary community of Detroit.

Photo: huffingtonpost.com