User:Simskyl1/Mike Duggan

Second term
In the 2017 Detroit mayoral election, Duggan was re-elected in a landslide, taking 72% of the vote to challenger Coleman Young II's 27%.

In the spring of 2018, the city of Detroit was released from state oversight, giving its municipal government full control over its operations for the first time in four decades.

Duggan encountered a controversy after, in December 2019, the Detroit Office of the Inspector found that three top municipal officials, including his chief of staff Alexis Wiley, had ordered public employees to erase emails having to do with the nonprofit organization Make Your Date. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel launched an investigation into this. In September 2020, Investigative Reporters and Editors awarded Duggan and the city the dubious honor of the "Golden Padlock Award", recognizing them as the most secretive United States agency or individual.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Duggan was credited with having implemented efforts such as mass testing. In March 2021, Duggan declined to order 6,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, saying that he believed the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were better options. After backlash, Duggan declared he would no longer decline the vaccine.

Duggan spent much of the last days of his second term managing the city’s rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine. Throughout the early months of 2021, access to the vaccine was expanded. He also addressed concerns about the vaccine from the black population of the city.

Duggan, when questioned about the issues with the vaccine rollout, blamed the failures largely on the federal government. In February 2021, Duggan went to Washington D.C. to meet with other state and local leaders and President Joe Biden to discuss the responses to the pandemic.

Third Term
Duggan was again re-elected to a third term in a landslide in the 2021 election, winning 75.6% of the vote to his opponent’s 24.4%.

In March 2021, Duggan gave his state of the city address. His speech addressed several policy topics that he planned to tackle during his term. The first few months of his term also saw Duggan reveal a new proposed city budget. He also appointed longtime Detroit budget director Tanya Stoudemire as chief deputy CFO.

In December 2021, Duggan led efforts to demolish the abandoned former American Motors Headquarters building. After being demolished, the land is intended to be used for a redevelopment project to boost the local economy.

One of the initiatives Duggan is focusing on is affordable housing. Mayor Duggan and other city Council Members developed a $203 million plan to provide affordable housing for Detroit residents. The money got divided between seven services and programs, including homeowner assistance programs, apartment building rehabs, and a Detroit Housing Services division. The goal is to convert vacant apartment buildings into rental housing, expedite the approval process for affordable housing projects, help landlords bring properties into compliance, and more. Duggan believes this plan is "one of the most comprehensive strategies for providing affordable housing." However, the $203 million is not an annual allocation and is only for 2022.

In addition to this plan, the Detroit Housing for the Future Fund (DHFF) aims to preserve existing affordable housing. In January 2022, the fund received a $10 million donation from KeyBank. The goal is to raise $75 million, and with this contribution, the city has reached $65 million of that goal. Just recently, in October, the DHFF completed its second project in Midtown, which involved renovating a historic apartment building. Renovations included upgrading the electric plumbing and replacing the roof.

To further assist Detroit's residents, Duggan's administration has named April Faith-Slaker as the executive director of the city's Office of Eviction Defense. This office is intended to provide residents facing eviction with legal counsel and is set to open on January 3, 2023.